Scottish Highlands.
Due to the bad weather and also being a family holiday not much in the way of birding done I am afraid but a great trip all the same.It rained for all but two of the nine days.
We were staying in a lodge at Roybridge for the first nine days of the holiday.Next to an ancient birchwood and the river Roy.Birds seen around the lodge and river were-chaffinch,wren,willow warbler,siskin,coal tit,bluetit,great tit,GS woodpecker,treecreeper,hooded crow,dipper,goosander and I am sure I heard a kingfisher flying up the river.A trip to the Landmark theme park in Carrbridge which is sited in the old Caledonian pine forest,Speyside turned up-crested tit,crossbill,red squirrel and an osprey flew across the road in front of us on the way there.Took a drive one evening up to the Glen Roy nature reserve to get some raptors (eagle?).That turned up two peregrine,a male merlin and a buzzard.There were also whinchat,wheater and hundreds of meadow pipit but still no eagles.We also had some great views of a herd of red deer crossing the road and river and my daughter Bethan managed some shots of the stags with her little compact (left my camera back at the lodge,doh!).We took an eagle watching boat trip on Loch Shiel one rainy day but due to the weather the birds were sitting up and not seen.A personal highlight for me that day though was seeing for the first time the former home of one of my childhood heroes.The small hut "Wildernesse" which was where the author Mike Tomkies wrote some of his eagle books including "On wing and wild water".Reading this book in my younger years was one of the reasons I got so interested in raptors.Another highlight of the Scottish leg was a pair of Roe deer browsing in the shrubs outside the lodge early morning.Also tried for eagles in Glen Nevis.Tha chap in the information centre there said he had seen them on a regular basis but again I saw nothing.Still managed a few landscape shots though.On an early morning dog walk at the Craigh Meaghad reserve also saw crossbill and a Pine Marten running across the road on the way there.Then on to Cumbria for the next leg.
Pics from left to right are-Red Sqirrel in Carrbridge,Mike Tomkies home "Wildernesse",Stags in Glen Roy,Glen Nevis and a shot of the river Roy at Glen Roy.
Silloth,Cumbria.
Stayed in a holiday home here for the last week of the holiday.The weather wasnt as bad as Scotland and had some great views of waders on the Solway Firth.These included oystercatchers in thier hundreds,lapwing,turnstone,redshank,greenshank,curlew,pied and grey wagtail,wheatear and gulls a plenty.In the shoreline greenery there were stonechat,greenfinch,goldfinch and all the other common species you would expect.Took a trip to Keswick and on the way back had a look at the Osprey viewpoint at Dodd Wood.Saw all three chicks in the air and the male perched high in a tree near the nest.I must admit though I was a bit dissapointed at how far away the viewpoint was from the birds.In the pines I also saw siskin,goldcrest,great and coal tit,chaffinch and greenfinch.On the holiday park itself there were collared dove,gulls everywhere,goldfinch,blackbird,blackcap,wren,oystercatcher,swallows and a female sparrowhawk terrorising everything.Didnt get many pics as the waders were too far out on the mudflats to get close enough to.On the way home yesterday I managed sightings of both a Goshawk and what I am sure was a Honey buzzard above the Killington lake services.My binos were in the boot so didnt have enough time to grab them.
All in all a decent trip despite what the weather threw at us.I will just have to try again for the eagles but in a few years time.The driving was hard going!2236 miles in two weeks with only me driving.
Super pics Mike. Re Wilderness - I spent hours some years ago poring over an OS map and reading MT's earlier books when he moved from Eilen Donan (?) island to Wilderness. I was a real MT groupie and he was the one person in the world I would have liked to meet. I sent him books as I bought them and he kindly signed them and wrote notes back to me. My detective work did pay off and I found his cottage on the map so when we went to stay at Acharacle we hired a boat and went down the loch - it was like a pilgrimage.
Thanks for the report
Sandra