[b]26-03-05
Location : Vane Farm RSPB & Nethybridge. Perth & Highland.
[/b]Yesterday I made a long and troublesome yet worthwhile train journey up to Manchester to join James and Jeannine on a week's trip to Scotland full of promise. Early this morning we boarded the loaded Freelander and before we even left the courtyard I asked "Are we there yet?". The passage through the Lake District was more than pleasing with reassuringly impressive countryside. I was puzzled how they managed to get away with ploughing a motorway right through it with even a cement works. Cheers went up as we passed the 'Welcome to Scotland' sign. A momentary rest at Abington service allowed me to pick up a bottle of the local water, Irn Bru! Chancing twenty pence in a slot machine rewarded me with a pound so I took this as a portent of our good birding fortune to come this week. Just over half way there we paused for lunch at RSPB's Vane Farm reserve on the banks of Loch Leven hoping to see an Osprey or a Smew. The Scottish list was started off with a fury in the car park and the first hide. From the car park a Common Raven soared above the woods. Among the masses of Pink-footed Geese it was slightly satisfactory to tick some genuinely wild Greylag Geese. The first hide offered a few ducks, waders and other birds but the highlight was undoubtedly a majestic Osprey I spotted flying overhead while watching a singing Skylark. That was Osprey sorted as a year tick. I would not need to rush out to Bowling Green Marsh in the autumn to see one but I suspect I will do so anyway as they are fine birds. James spotted a single male Reed Bunting in a bush and it proved to be the only one we saw all week. From the third and final hide the pick of the bunch were a single Little Grebe feeding in a channel in front of us and a shy Common Snipe nipping out of the grass on a distant bank. We had been mindful of a Snipe in all the hides so it was a relief to bag one and not have to worry about it the rest of the week. Sadly there was no sign of the Smew, I suspect it would have been very difficult to find on the immense loch. Loch Leven impressed me with it's numerous Common Goldeneyes. Vane Farm had given us a forty bird start. The birds not already mentioned were Common Blackbird, European Robin, Magpie, European Greenfinch, European Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Pied Wagtail, Tufted Duck, Grey Heron, Black-headed Gull, Common Coot, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Northern Shoveler, Eurasian Teal, Carrion Crow, Mallard, Great Crested Grebe, Common Shelduck, Great Tit, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Cormorant, Eurasian Curlew, Common Moorhen, Meadow Pipit, Eurasian Wigeon, Common Pochard, Northern Lapwing, Gadwall and Common Linnet. The stop had done wonders as we were all refreshed and continued north to Nethybridge. The switch from the lowlands to the highlands of Scotland was a dramatic change of scenery. It was now awe inspiring swathes of brown and green heather with domineering granite hillsides littered with grey rocky screes. It was the immense power of nature's immovability at it's finest. As we approached our base at Nethybridge, James pulled over to afford us fine views of at least two Hooded Crows feeding around some straw or manure. Not even into our accommodation and I had scored a lifer. I hoped all our target birds would fall as easily but suspected that that it would not be so. After unloading our possessions into 'The Bothy' we settled on a bench to watch several bird feeders with the requisite cup of tea in hand. Several birds came to the feeders with the company of an alluring Red Squirrel stealing a few peanuts. Our genial host came out to offer us a plate of hot baked shortbread. Hot shortbread is novel to me but it worked a treat on a cold day. Eight more were added to the list but sadly no Crested Tit. The additions were Yellowhammer, Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Eurasian Siskin, Eurasian Collared Dove, Redwing, Wood Pigeon and Mistle Thrush. The evening was spent in the Heatherbrae Hotel in Nethybridge playing pool and enjoying a local ale, Trade Winds, which easily passed muster. Other local delights were Black Gold, a stout that tasted of honeyed liquorice and Stag Beer which was sadly very flat and soapy. That decided it, Trade Winds was to be our beer for the week. Today was a good start with a quality year tick and a lifer, you could not ask for a better start when most of it was spent driving.