Full house at the cabin this morning - well, except Sparrowhawk - but we did get Siskin thrown in and a first visit from a Blackbird.
Today, our last proper day, was to be a change of emphasis, with mixed success.
In the morning, we took a trip to Culbin Forest, in the hope of seeing two target species, Crested Tit and a Crossbill.
We made an interim stop at Nairn Harbour, picking up nothing spectacular, although we added another Rock Pipit, and House Sparrow around the caravan site. Over at the very western end of Culbin Sands we saw Redshank and Goosander, and many Skylarks.
Moving on to Culbin Forest, we stopped at the Well Hill car park. Immediately on getting out of the car, we could here birdsong all around, and within seconds we had seen Treecreeper and Great Spotted Woodpecker.
We then went for a two hour walk around the Forest with high hopes. We saw four birds! Bullfinch, Robin, and overflying Long-tailed Tit and a ’crest (almost certainly Gold, but we were unable to tell in the brief seconds we had. Yep… four species, one of each!
The walk we took did take us down to Culbin Sands again, so we had long distance views of the usual selection of water birds, but from the Forest, nothing more.
The Forest is a mixture of Scots and Corsican Pine, with a few broadleaves mixed in, but, as is my experience with conifer tracts, it was VERY quiet.
Now, there was plenty to interest the botanist, (particularly lichens) and the Forest is home (apparently!) to Pine Martens, Roe Deer, Red Squirrel, Badger and Wildcat - but a great deal of time and patience would need to be invested. And unless you are DESPERATE for Cresties and/or Crossbills, the interest for birders is probably only incidental.
Leaving the car park we added Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Treecreeper, Blackbird, Carrion Crow and Magpie in the first garden immediately on the edge of the Forest!
We decided to spend the final afternoon at one of Scotland’s “speciality” locations, Loch Ruthven.
Yellowhammers, amongst other things, en route, and more Pinkfeet. On arrival at the Loch a quick look over the water immediately brought us Goldeneye, with Pied Wagtail on the rocks and Chaffinch in the Trees.
A short walk to the rocks, avoiding the frogs/toads (don’t know which!) on the path ,and we got superb views of two of the speciality – two summer plumage Slavonian Grebes.
We also saw a small raptor flying over the water, before being harassed in the trees at the far bank. I guessed it was a Hobby, but I couldn’t be anything approaching sure.
Even though we had already had excellent views of the grebes, we nevertheless walked to the hide (56 toads in all to be avoided) and got great views of two more Slavs (perhaps the same two?), a Little Grebe, more Goldeneye, a Cormorant and a Grey Heron.
Returning to the car (101 toads this time!) we added Tufted Duck and Mallard, and were just around long enough to see the return of about thirty Black-headed Gulls.
It was many of the familiar sightings on the way back to the cabin, with the final bird being a Buzzard (what else!) perched on a roadsign.
Although this holiday was never planned as a birding holiday, we were quite pleased with our list, which, if I’ve counted correctly, adds up to 77 species in total.
All were seen by both my self and partnyorsha at least once, except the Reed Bunting which I missed out on and the Guillemot that partnyorsha dipped.
Thanks for staying to the end…
B’man
