On the Seventh Day......

Sunday May 1

Yes, time for a day of rest - comparatively.

Up late and a late start, it was 9.50 a.m before we set off . Our first attempt at adding Crested Tit started at Loch Garten RSPB, a birder had told us that he'd seen one at a feeder in the car park. Nothing except Coal Tits, Chaffinches, Robin and Great Tit. We gave up and walked to the Centre where a Red Squirrel was performing on the high feeder, to the delight of a crowd. I prefer not to photograph birds and animals on a feeder BUT it's the best chance of getting a decent photo of this exceedingly active little beauty.

Those innocents who enter the hide expecting to see an Osprey on its nest are in for disappointment. The nest is very high, the sitting bird invisible, the best hope is for the mate to return to the nest, which happens infrequently at the egg sitting stage. 

Cropped from a photo taken using a 300mm lens - it's a long way

This photo was taken from the live streaming webcam in the hide - camera on the right above.

A very pleasant young volunteer warden - Sarah - told us that she'd finished uni and was looking for a job in conservation. She also told us that the Crested Tits had come back to the feeders during the snowy days earlier in the week. The female Tit is sitting on eggs now, the male keeping to the treetops. We have this problem every year but usually manage to find one. I tell myself that it doesn't matter if we miss out - I'm not convincing.

Sarah also told us that the Capercaillies at Garten are in decline and we'd be lucky to see one on the early morning watches. A hope dashed. Only a year tick ! 
Sometime during the morning we heard Redstart but couldn't see it as, diving off the path into the forest is a No No.

Another half an hour at the fat cylinder in the car park before driving to Forest Lodge Abernethy, hoping for Crossbills. Another dip - as usual really.

Pam had seen a Dipper from the Garten Bridge this morning, on a small stick in the flooded river, hardly any exposed stones for it. I found Common Sandpiper and Grey Wagtail on my side of the bridge. Mustn't miss out on Dipper, Broomhill Bridge is another of our sites. It's an old wooden sided single track bridge, room to stand well in at the edge. The whole structure shakes when a vehicle crosses, which is not infrequent. Pam was still at the car parked beyond the bridge when a Dipper flew upstream, landing on a small shingle beach before disappearing under the bridge. Nest? It did this twice so I went back for my camera. It didn't do it again.......

A Common Sandpiper landed on the same shingle down below so I took a few, less that riveting, photos.

Via Nethybridge, we drove to Dorback off the Tomintoul road. Another birder had told us that our wanted birds were disappearing from here as the landowner didn't like birders and had put some loony horses out to graze, to deter the birds. 
May Bank Holiday weekend brings car loads of male birders to see the Scottish specialities. They rush around from dawn til dusk trying to see them all. The 'wanteds' are: Black and Red Grouse, Crested Tit, Parrot/Scottish Crossbill, Ptarmigan, Capercaillie, Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, Black-throated and White-billed Diver and Slavonian Grebe in breeding plumage.

Dorback is a dead end, a private hunting lodge at the end has a closed gate where one turns round.. We'd stopped on the single track road to view a small bird perched on the very top of a small Spruce. It was a Tree Pipit. Pam was watching the horses in the distance when she spied a dark blob, which disappeared behind a clump of Sedge. I saw a white tail. Enough to make me fetch my scope, advise Pam to drive off and leave me if a car came, before climbing on to the bank of soft, thick tussocky grass. Yes. Three displaying male Black Grouse - at 4.00 p.m. Usually early morning and late evening are the recommended times. It seems to me that they lek (display site) for most of the year, male testosterone permitting. No point really as the females have made their choice and are already sitting on eggs. The males strut about, red wattle bright and distended, tails spread into a smaller, white, turkey-like fan, uttering a deep, penetrative bubbling sound. We tried to get nearer but the contours of the moor meant that they could only be viewed from a distance. Good for those horses !

After a comfort stop back at the cottage for Pam, Lochindorb siren-called her. A very quiet up and back of the loch apart from a few Red Grouse. Another look for divers on the way back brought views of an osprey flying high and distant over the water . Much too far in poor light for photos......

Would do as a glass silhouette preventing bird crashes !

Reasonable weather to-day, warmish with a few light showers at intervals. I assembled my moth trap when I got in, must now go and switch it on in the hope of trapping something. I did not succeed in catching anything last year.