Following an eventful trip in winter 2007 to the Highlands I could not resist the temptation to return North to Speyside alongside James 'Hotspur' Spencer. I was hoping his ESP like skills for finding birds would help in digging out some specialities whilst his, ahem, rapier like wit would pass the long hours in the car.
Day one - the long trip North
James arrives in Leeds as the first siwfts scream overhead just after 5AM. The previous night we have agreed to head to Northumblerand as a stop off point along the route. Ominously the car doesn't start. It doesn't even turn over. James reassures me this 'happens all the time' and 'the car is very reliable'. Five minutes and still there is just a popping sound from the engine as it fails to turn, and then, for no rhyme or reason the car fires into life and we are soon heading North on quiet roads.
We make our first stop at Cresswell Ponds and then head onto Druridge Bay. I tell James I have been twice before and seen otter both times. And what would you know? We make it three out of three. Just as we are about to leave the hide - the only birds being 3 mallard - James locks onto an otter just in front of us. It's James' first otter and he is delighted. We head onto East Chevington to see what else we can find and as we scan through the terns roosting on the island I pick out what I think to be a Roseate Tern. Just as I pass the scope to James the tern takes flight enabling us to confirm all the salient features. The early start has paid off.
We decide to head to Hauxley NR and from the main hide we pick up a showy Little Egret and when we leave I have to get out of the car to stop it bottoming out on the sleeping policeman. Our luck holds and we soon add barn owl and marsh harrier (cream crown) to the list. We also hear news that the Lesser Grey Shirke is still just up the coast so we head North to Long Nanny near High Newton.
We arrive onsite to be informed that the bird has 'just moved' from its regular spot and has not been seen for a while. Any worries were soon allayed when a stunning Lesser Grey Shrike appears at the top of a bush in the dunes. An absolute cracker in spanking plumage the pink wash on the breast sumptious in the early morning light. We stay for an hour watching the bird hunt, sing and build a larder before reminding ousleves we were still four hours from final destination.
It was at this point that we agreed to have a buzzard spreadbet. The basic elements of the game being that for a £5 bet each player has to guess the total number of buzzards for the trip. I go with 150, James picks 225, and we shake on it. Almost immediately we see our first buzzard, and then another 6, and soon we are at 10 and we have only just entered the borders. I am not so confident on my 150 now!
As we continue the journey the scenery starts to change and our ears pop. We focus on other raptors now. James, who should be looking at the road, spots a bird of prey heading up the Tay. I get the bins onto it and it's an Osprey - great spot. It's been an embarrassing bogey bird fro some twenty years so its great to get one so early. We continue our trek and finally arrive at our base in Boat of Garten just before 6. We park the car and decide to stay local and after unpacking (i.e. slinging our bags in a room and getting the beer in the fridge) we wander into the woods.
In the woods we soon pick the trilling call of the Crested Tit, and despite not seeing it I assure James there'll be loads and he has no need to worry. There's plenty of coals tits around and also the odd treecreeper, but it's not long before we are too tired to carry on. Nearer the cottage we get onto three crossbills as they land next to the path. They appear big billed and heavy necked, but they fly off before we can agree an ID. Lets hope we get some more. No sign of any cappercaillie though, obviously! Still we both managed three new UK birds, and we have got one of the targets under the belt.
Total buzzard count after day one - 15
Total time in Capper habitat - 3 hours (excluding the previous 22 at Christmas)
Total Cappers - 0
Great start to Part 1.I look forward to the next instalment.
Day Two, part one - On Top of the World
Having checked the forecast we decide to make the best of 'a long day with clear spells'. However, on arrival it appears the peaks haven't read the script and the cloud base is at about 850M, some 200M below our climb today - Cairn Ban Mor. We decide to continue with the plan, having ticked red deer, roe deer, peregrine, woodcock and osprey en route our spirits are high.
The lower climb is to the song of tree pipit and wiollow warbler yet as we look upwards we can see that some snow has been revealed. It seems a long way away. However, just two hours later and a packet of very Scottish Shortbread demolished we are at the snow line. Unfortunately the cloud base is building and visibility dropping. Still we plod on. We check the fell and the plateau wihtout any luck. We are starting to worry. A quick call to Dan Pointon reassures us and after another 30 minutes James picks up three boulders that all have heads - Ptarmigan. Sweet. We watch them for about an hour and they grow quite accustomed to us. The cloud base lifts and we are afforded crippling views - James complains he is having trouble focussing on them they are so close!
We decide to leave them be and consider our decsent. No sooner have we walked another 100 yards than I pick up on a wader. Yup, it's the mountain specalist the Dotterel. A female singing (a repeated piping sound) to its mate somewhere on another peak. This is immense. We are bathed in sunshine looking down on the world. It was made to feel more special by actually climbing the mountain, getting to the birds altitude made it seem like we were entering their domain, and the lack of people made it seem like such an intimate experince with the ptarmigan. We made the decsent and we're back at the car by 3 PM. That means there is another 8 hours of dayight left up here! A bit like having a second birding day