I Bag a Monroe and Get a Tick and Elli Gets a Proposal

The last three days have been a bit of an adventure.

On day one I travelled to Oban to see my sister and family.  I went via Aviemore top stop off and do a bit of birding.

I got to Craigeallie Woods NNR at about 7.30 after a two and a half hour drive.  I like to set off early on these trips.  As I went under the A9 to enter the wood I was greeted by the song of a Wood Warblers (tick 1).  I followed the 'Buzzard Trail through the woods and to be honest there was nothing much apart from Chaffinches and Willow Warblers.  The trail did live up to its name however 'cause I saw a Buzzard soaring high over the crags.  If you want to have a look at these woods the best place to start is the Aviemore Youth Hostel car park.  Returning to the car park was much more productive, a Pied Flycatcher (tick 2), Spotted Flycatchers and a Goosander in the first of the pools.

Goosander

Pied Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

 And for the readers of the blog who like cute furry things, and I am sure there are many here is a baby bunny that was in the woods

Rabbit

The next stage of the adventure was to go to the Cairngorm.   This was the true adventure.  My aim was to see what birds lived on the mountain top at over 4000 feet.

The views from the base station were stunning...

Loch Morloch with Aviemore in the distance

 ... even if my photographic skills leave a lot to be desired.  I seem to have missed the edges of the Loch from the frame!.

I suppose at some time I will have to confess to a bit of cheating.  From the base station I did not hike up to the top of the mountain.  I went on the funicular railway that takes you to the Ptarmigan restaurant and within about 600 feet of the summit.  Here I joined a guided walk to the summit.  You see I did do some of it unaided.  There were nine of us in the group ( the maximum they can take is ten).  There is a strict conservation plan that does not allow anyone who has used the railway out on to the mountain top unless they are part of a guided walk.  Her is the party I was in.

 
There was me, of course, two guides, four blokes from Yorkshire who were on a serious birding holiday (I was out lensed and out scoped) another birding couple from Yorkshire, and a couple who were hill walkers, from Darlington. A group with a definite NE England flavour.  The first bird we saw caused a lot of excitement.

Meadow Pipit

Until it was identified as a meadow pipit.  The Pied Wagtail we saw next was a bit of a disappointment to some.

Now a little digression.  The web site for these guided walks said to be prepared for any weather.  The conditions on the summit can be dramatically different from those at the base and at the Ptarmigan restaurant.  The inference was that the condition could be dramatically worse.  So I had a thick pullover and a waterproof coat.  I decided not to take my normal  'birding hat' but to take a woolly one instead that would not get blown off in the wind. On this day the conditions on the top could not have been better and I was very much over dressed.and over heating.  I did not wear the hat but that lead to sunburn on my (small) bald patch.  I think the answer is to take enough to be flexible.  There again if I had done that would I have been able to carry it all?

After a gruelling climb we did eventually see our first target bird, a Ptarmigan.  Admittedly not the best of views to start with.

Ptarmigan - (you can see its head to the left of the ridge)

 But things did improve.

Ptarmigan

 It wasn't until we were coming down that we saw our next two targets.  An we got stunning view of Dotterel and Snow Bunting.

Dotterel

Dotterel

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

So not many birds, but that wasn't the name of the game it was these three particular birds in there natural habitat that people had come to see.

In addition to that we got some facts an information from the guides, we could have wished for better.  We got some stunning scenery

Ben Nevis in the distance

Cairngorm Cairn and Andrew

Loch Morloch and Aviemore

The drama did not stop there.  In the shadow of the cairn Andrew, the lad from Darlington proposed to his partner Elli.  There is going to be a wedding in winter.  Its going to be somewhere outdoors and their favourite walking area is the Yorkshire Dales.  I hope they find a location to match the location of the proposal.  Sammy one of the guides pointed out some semi precious stones on the way back down.  I wonder if the engagement rind will feature some Cairngorm stone?

Andrew and Elli

And yes I refrained from saying to the happy couple as they lift the summit 'Well, its all down hill from here'

While I am on the theme of happy couples and the consequences thereof back at the base camp there was a Ring Ouzels nest with the young waiting to be fed.

Ring Ouzel Nestlings

Grubs Up

Total on list 188

Five a Day - I Wish...

In wish every day was like today.  Five new ticks for the 2017 year list.

Whitethroat, Ruff, Dotterel, Shore Lark and Brambling.

The first of my 5 a Day
I saw the Whitethroat on my morning walk down the old railway line to Cortes.  There is a campaign to restore the railway which is gathering momentum. If the campaign succeeds I wonder what will happen to the wildlife that has taken over the line

Whitethroat

Rowe Deer by the old railway line

The second of my 5 a day
After my walk and breakfast I went to the Loch of Strathbeg Visitor Centre. After the last few days it was the place to go.  Here was the Ruff.  Not, I was told the same one I did not see the day before. (no picture I'm afraid)

The third
This was a Dotterel.  Just as I got back home I got a call from Alex to say he had found three Dotterel and a flock of summer plumage Golden Plover at Coralhill  just a few miles up the road.  I put the shopping trip on hold ad hot-footed it up to Coralhill.  The first part of the drive is straight forward on public roads, albeit single track with passing places.  The last few hundred metres was along a farm track full of potholes and with a grass strip down the middle.  Fortunately the car managed to get there without grounding.  Alex was still there as was Kenny.  My first sighting of the Dotterel was through Kenny's telescope, after that I was able to pick them out with my 'scope.

Golden Plover hiding in a ploughed field

 

Dotterel behind the Golden Plover

Dotterel (heavily cropped photo)

The above photo is of a female Dotterel.  They are one of only a few bird species where the female is more brightly coloured than the male.  It is the male that does most of the incubation of the eggs and therefore has to be camouflaged.  The female job is just to lay the eggs and to be attractive to the males so they can afford to be more flamboyantly feathered.  They breed on the high mountain tops and are only seen in these lowland places on their way there.
News of their presence soon got out ( I posted it to the NE Scotland Rare birds 'Whatsapps' Group) so I left the site before everyone arrived and made it difficult to get out of the single track road and farm track system.  Anyway I had to get home to do for lunch and to do the shopping.  


The forth of the 5 a day
This was a Shore Lark or Horned Lark.   I got the 'Whatsapp' message about this bird just as I was to leave for my shopping trip.  Getting my priorities right I did the shopping first before heading out to Rattray where the Shore Larks had been seen.  I am not sure which track is in the worst condition the one at Coralhill of the one at Rattray.  Halfway along this track I met a birder coming the other way .  He told me that people had walked all the fields and could not find the birds.  I carried on anyway and met up with Alex and Kenny again.  They told the same story, the birds were not to be found.  I went with Alex to chase up a report of a Lesser Whitethroat seen t the Rattray Lighthouse Cottages.  We did see a Willow Warbler.

Willow Warbler

 And a baby Rabbit

We caught a glimpse of a bird that could have been a Whitethroat but were were that sure it could be counted.

Meanwhile Kenny left for home.  During our futile search around the Lighthouse cottages Kenny phoned, he was looking at the Shore Larks.  We got back to where Kenny was as quickly as the 'road' conditions would allow and looked through his telescope to see a Shore Lark.  After that it just disappeared blending in to its surrounding so perfectly that it could not bee seen.

The fifth of the 5 a Day
Kenny, Alex and me were getting into our cars when I got a message from Jill.  She had seen a Brambling in our garden.  I invited the others home for a drink and a look at the Brambling.  Needless to say when we got there the only sign of the Brambling was the photos Jill had taken.  This was the second time that a Brambling had been in our garden while I was out.  And I needed it for my year list.

Coffees were drunk good byes were said and I set to work cooking the tea.  All of a sudden under the bird feeders just outside the Kitchen window the female Brambling Jill had photographed appeared.  I had got my 'tick'.  It went before I could get my photo.  Twenty minutes later it returned.  Here is my photo

Female Brambling

It is the same bird that Jill saw it had a silver ring on its right leg.

Five 'ticks' in a day.  If ticks came that easily we would have to raise out target for the year to a lot higher than 200.

Total on list 164