16/11/2018. Heatherlea Scotland Trip Day1 - Four Male Capercaillie's

I travelled up to Cumbria on Wednesday to see my family and pick up Brian for our Heatherlea trip.

• I  only saw 3 Red Kites on the M40.

Brian and I set off for Speyside at first light on Thursday calling off at Montrose Basin on the way up.

• The Hoopoe was showing brilliantly, just a few metres from us, beside the path from the sailing club car park



courtesy of Brian Collis



•  At Nethy Bridge, just before it got dark, we found 2 stunning Dippers at the edge of the stream.

Day 1 with our guides Rob and Mark

We got off to a flying start birding in the car park at our hotel.

• Brambling, Linnets and Chaffinches were showing well in the nearby tree.
• 6 Whooper Swans flew overhead as we were watching the finches.

 

 Next stop was Loch Garten

After Mark put some food down we didn't have to wait long for the Coal Tits to arrive with 20+ in attendance.

• Soon afterwards the first Crested Tit joined in and we observed it from a few metres away.  After that we had regular sightings.  This continued even after we moved to the feeders by the Osprey Centre.

courtesy of Heatherlea



 

Slochd
 

We jumped in the minibus and headed off to the hills just west of Carrgate, to Slochd, looking for Capercaillie.

• After driving around for over an hour Mark spotted one in a tree less than 50 metres away.  

• It soon became apparent that there were at least 3 showing and Eric, in the other bus, was confident of a 4th - all male, in superb plumage, and showing well.

We daren't get out of the vehicles so satisfied ourselves with views from our mobile hide.  Soon the birds sensed our presence and flew downhill.  The picture below was taken by Eric through the closed window of the minibus.





courtesy of Eric Davies

 





 

• On the return leg down the hill we spotted one in the distance and enjoyed good scope views.

                                                    How on earth do you follow that?

Afternoon in the Findhorn Valley
 

We moved on to the Findhorn Valley and stopped for lunch half way down .

• There were Buzzards and at least one Red Kite flying over the hills.

• On the river we saw a Dipper and a Goosander.

Finally we moved to the bottom of the valley and waited for the Eagles to show.

• We didn't have to wait long before our first juvenile Golden Eagle flew by, quickly joined by a second .  A third was seen later as well as an adult bird.

courtesy of Mark Priest



courtesy of Eric Davies



We enjoyed continuous sightings of these 4 birds all afternoon as well as at least a dozen Ravens.

• On the way home at the end of the day we stopped off at  a site on the path used by the eagles on their way to the roost site and we soon spotted our 5th bird another adult Golden Eagle.

What a fitting finale to what had been a most memorable day.