My wife and I decided that a bit of UK birding would be nice to spend a holiday on and what better destination than Speyside with the promise of Capers, Blackcock, Crested Tit, Crossbills and Divers.
Many thanks to marcus and Sandra for some invaluable hints on sites and must also acknowledge the detailed information and maps in Gordon Hamlett's book "Best Birdwatching sites in the Scottish Highlands" Anyone venturing to this area would be well advised to get a copy.
We booked a cottage for a very reasonable price at Upper Finlarig which was just back of Dulnain Bridge.
Day 1. We set off very early on the 26th April and made a couple of quick stops on the motorways but the main stop was ar Loch of Lowes to see the Ospreys. We had good views of both adults, and numerous Goldeneye on the loch. The feedind station in front of the centre had masses of Siskins, Chaffinch, Green Finch, Blue, Great and Coal Tit plus a GHS Woodpecker. It also gave us our first sighting of a Red Squirrel.
After a couple of hours here we continued on to our cottage which was very clean and modest. A check of the odometer showed that we had covered 425 miles to get here from home. We arrived about 4.14 pm. We sort of recovered after two drinks of tea and watched birds in the garden. We had four Bullfinches appear which was a pleasant surprise together with Chaffinch, Robin, Song Thrush, Coal, Great and Blue Tit, Siskin and a Willow Warbler. In fact they were numerous and we encountered them every day. Add to that in the adjacent fields there were Black-headed Gulls, Common Gull, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Curlew and Starling. In the barn next to us Swallow were flying in and out and there was a small flock of resident House Sparrow. A pretty good start to our birding week.
Day 2 . We set out for the RSPB Osprey centre on the way stopped at the bridge in Dulnain, which held Grey Wagtail but no Dippers seen however plenty of Bullfinches again and Willow Warblers calling. We were too early at the Osprey Centre; it does not open until 10.00am so we went to Loch Mallachie. We walked the path but only seen Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Common Sandpiper on the shore and on the Loch were Goldeneye. We also had our only Treecreeper of the trip here. We did not find any Crested Tit however. We then returned to the Osprey centre which was now open. The Ospreys have 3 eggs and the female was sitting. The view though was not as good as that at Loch of Lowes. We briefly had poor views of 2 Capercaillies. There was little else about and no Crested Tit.
From here we had a look in at Loch Vaa apart from fishing boats the only birds were a pair of Goldeneye. We looked in at Avielochan but no sign of the Slavonian Grebe said to be here. It was time to return to our cottage for dinner.
For the evening we decided to go to a local woods to do a reccy as we are thinking of an early dawn birding here. It looked ideal habitat for Capers so we are hoping for success tomorrow. We did see several Crossbills high in the tree tops but could not see enough detail so put them down as Common.
Better luck with the Cresties tomorrow.
The track from the other LGRSPB car park is better for Crested Tits than round the Centre, in my experience.
John