Brightside on Tour - Part 1 - Highlands

Saturday 11th April

Arriving in the Highlands late Friday afternoon, there were early reconnaissance missions; firstly looking for Crested Tits in Carrbridge and then elsewhere in the vague hope of a Golden Eagle before the day was out, however all this had come to nothing. So here we were, Saturday morning in the dark, queuing outside Loch Garten's RSPB Osprey Centre for Caper Watch. Capers had showed several mornings the previous week, so my heart was in my mouth, if a Caper showed it would be lifer 250 for me and of all the highland birds, for me, Capercaillie was the big one.

Over the next two hours or so we waited as the Capers failed to materialise. The two Ospreys could be seen on the nest and a few Crossbill were seen although they remained flighty and distant. At one point someone briefly had a Crosser in his Scope and reckoned it was either Parrot or Scottish. A Stonechat was seen and a Red Squirrel was on the nuts.

The most famous Ospreys in the world

Leaving disappointed, we pressed on with a walk through the pine forests around Loch Mallachie, keen to connect with one of the Scottish Specialities on this first full day's birding. Halfway down the trail I spotted two small agile birds - Crested Tits! (lifer 250), they didn't stay long but it was a memorable moment and with the first lifer of the trip bagged we began to relax. Also seen were 2 Treecreeper, Goldcrests, and numerous Siskins. Around 10 Goldeneye were on the small Loch along with Greylag, Teal and Wigeon.

Loch Mallachie

Next an area of Moorland on the A939 towards Tomintoul. Red Grouse, Curlew, Oystercatcher (everywhere up there) and Skylark were seen.

We spent time in a woodland near Grantown-on-Spey looking out for Caper towards the end of the day. Here there were Crossbills, however, again they were too distant to even have a stab at ID-ing. Siskin and Coal Tit were plentiful. Although we didn't see much in the latter part of the day we were putting a lot of effort in and learning that Highlands birding is hard work at times. When you do find something its more than worth it. Not tonight though. We pencilled in another Caper Watch for Monday.

Sunday 12th April

First stop Loch Morlich. A beautiful clear morning and the Loch was so still it resembled a pane of glass reflecting the Cairngorm mountains. Three beautiful summer plumage Red Throated Divers here, we could even hear their melancholy calls. Also c30 Goldeneye and Goosander.

Loch Morlich

Next the Cairngorm Mountains. Some Ring Ouzels had been sighted near the visitor centre and it didn't take us long to track down a pair. Things were looking up. It was a nice day and with the forecast good for "two days" we decided on the walk up to the coire to look for Ptarmigan rather than taking the funicular railway.

Although the peaks were still snow capped, the conditions were hardly Alpine, we soon got very hot in all the layers of clothes we had cocooned ourselves into. In fact by the end of the day we'd caught a nice suntan! A very rewarding walk up to the Coire - 2 Ptarmigan near the snow line (lifer 251) as well as 5 Wheatear, 3 Red Grouse and large numbers of Meadow Pipit and Skylark.

Cairngorms - Ptarmies near where the snow has melted shaped like a 'map' of Britain.

Max rocks the Coire!

On the way back to the rented cottage we decided to pop into the Osprey centre on the off chance of a Capercaillie being on show. On arrival the RSPB staff advised 'you've just missed a Caper by five minutes' and then tried to cheer us with tales of how many times the Ospreys had mated that day.

After a few minutes however, a woman standing near us in the hide (who was more interested in deer than birds) nonchalantly asked "do Capers go in trees?", someone replied "yes" and the lady continued "oh, oh I think I've got one". Cue mass panic! Anyone who's been to the Osprey centre will know that it's very hard to give directions to anything, the window slats are small and everyone has a different view of the landscape of heather and trees. "Where is it?" everyone demanded. "It's in a tree" the woman replied. "Which one?" but by then she'd lost it. A chap had just clocked it in his bins, but when asked for directions he also stated it was in a tree, understandably not daring to shift his bins an inch. The original finder scolded him "It's no use saying it's in a tree - which one?"... Thankfully a sharp eyed lady found it and helped everyone to get their fill with scopes and bins. A spankingly handsome male Capercaillie sitting in a tree, sleeping and waking to preen every so often. This was lifer 252 and we were lucky enough to be able to watch him for the next 45 minutes or so.

Monday 13th April

Early morning Caper watch abandoned, so a change of scenary away from the pines; we headed to Udale Bay on the Cromarty Firth. Although it didn't look good when we arrived with the tide out and fog on the firth, this situation soon turned around for a highly enjoyable morning's birding. There were c60 Scaup and c50 Long Tailed Duck (1000's of LT Ducks winter in this area). Sea ducks like this I've only seen in very small numbers inland in winter so it was great to see them in larger numbers.

Also five Slavonian Grebes in summer plumage, a Red Throated Diver, Eiders, c1000 Pink-footed Goose, c 18 Red Breasted Mergansers, and several Hooded Crows were amongst the highlights.

Udale Bay

Pinkies

It was now a warm clear afternoon, so we headed to the Findhorn Valley for a spot of raptor watching. Findhorn is well known for a variety of raptors, particularly Golden Eagles. However the best we could do was several Buzzards, a Kestrel and 3 Raven. A chap stood in the next valley had briefly had a Golden Eagle.

Common Gull and Oystercatchers are common breeders in the valley and were everywhere. Great Spotted Woodpecker, herds of Red Deer and a few Hare were noted as well as the Feral Goats.

Findhorn Valley

Our final stop of the day was Lochindorb. We saw two summer plumage Black Throated Divers, and the moors here were crawling with Red Grouse, some of them very tame as you can see from these pictures. We saw one Grouse attacked by a Sparrowhawk a few feet away, the Grouse fighting the Sprawk off. Also a Common Sandpiper, 3 Redshank and 2 Red Legged Partridge here. A Short Eared Owl was seen on the way home.

Red Grouse

Another two parts to this trip report are on their way - our last few days in the Highland followed by our trip to Mull.