Killiecrankie, The Cuilc and Loch of Lowes

I left Oban at about 5.00am and arrived at Killiecrankie at 7.30.  All there is at Killiecrankie is a car park and a National Trust for Scotland visitors centre.  It was closed , so were the toilets and the car was saying I had less than 30 miles of fuel left in the tank.   I then knew I should have gone to Pitlochry for a pit stop.  As it was I had to drive there in some discomfort and carefully to ensure I didn't run out of fuel.  Thankfully I found a garage with all its facilities at my disposal fairly quickly.

About the only good thing about that journey fro m Oban was the spectacular views and the cuckoo that I saw perched on a roadside fence.  Even that flew off before I could get sorted to take a photo.

As I was in Pitlochry, which was scheduled to be my second stop I went on my quest for the Ring-necked Duck that had been living on a 'The Cuilc' a small loch near the golf course for several years.  I think the only time it was not there was on the 27th May when I went to look for it.  I did see Tufted Ducks, a family of Mute Swans, a Little Grebe and nice reflections

Tufted Duck

Mute Swans

Reflections in The Cuilc

Ring-necked Ducks look very much like Tufted Ducks but these were Tufties.  I explored a bit more of Pitlochry.  There is a large Hydro Electric Scheme where a damn has been built across the River Tummel forming a large Loch.  I figured that if the Ring-necked Duck wasn't on The Cuilc then it would be here, the nearest large body of water.  I was wrong,  There was even less on this Loch on the Tummel than there was on The Cuilc.  There was a nice view looking into the morning mist downstream from the dam

River Tummel

And here is a close up of the fisherman.

So back I went to Killiecrankie.  The visitors centre was still shut but it didn't matter now.  I was on a mission to find a Nuthatch.  The car park at Killiecrankie is at the top of a deep wooded gorge.  Steps and steep paths led to the bottom of the gorge.  The number of times I went up and down the gorge must have involved the same amount of climbing as I had dome getting to the top of Cairncorm.  There was a good variety of bird life, but not a nuthatch despite staking out a dell where a couple had seen it just minutes before.

By this time the visitor centre was open so I got a cup of coffee, went out onto the veranda and looked at the bird feeding station which before had no bird feeders.  I didn't have long to wait for the Nuthatch to turn up.  

Nuthatch

 The only task left was to get a picture without the feeder.  Here it is:-

 

Nuthatch

 
Try as I might I could not get a shot without the wire. Ho hum that's the way it goes.

Mission accomplished with a couple of bonus shot I quite like...

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

....I went on my way passing through Pitlochry again.  I had to call in to The Cuilc to see if the duck was there.  It wasn't so I took a picture of a Mallard.

Mallard

The only thing to do now was go home via a decent lunch spot.  I bought lunch at the co-op supermarket in Pitlochry and drove to the Loch of Lowes to eat it.  The Loch of Lowes is famous for its nesting Osprey and did not disappoint.  Not only was it on the nest but while I was watching its mate returned with a fish

Osprey

Also on the Loch was a pair of Great Crested Grebes

Great Crested Grebes

 ...and from the visitor centre window a Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

I got home at tea time!

Total on list 190

An 'X' rated post

This post is 'X' rated.  For younger people it means if it were a film it would carry a British Board of Film Classification '18'.

This is for two reasons.  The first is that some of the images are of a sexual nature.  Like this one

Ospreys Copulating

The other reason is 'X' rated in the sense that information has been censored.  I am not going to give the location of the above action.

On the 18th April I went to buy some bird food (mixed seed with no cereal) and sunflower seen hearts, in Mintlaw an small but growing village eight miles down the road.

There are quite a few bird feeders in the garden.  That attracts quite a few birds so the feeders run out every day.  It is part of my morning routine to fill them up again.  A count of the garden birds is sent of the the British Trust for Ornithology every week as part of 'Garden Bird Watch'  I would encourage you all to be

part of this volunteer survey.  I try to avoid having bird feeders in my photos but I found this one from a month ago.

Four Greenfinches on Sunflower Seed Hearts

Anyway on this visit I went to a nearby 'reserve'.  It is not an official reserve but the land owner has done a lot of work to encourage birds and has laid out paths for visitors. On this brief visit I saw 17 bird species.  My main aim was to see the Ospreys that I knew had returned to the site to get it as a year tick.

Osprey

Osprey

I also to a 'cleaver' photo of the lake.

Reflections

Total on list 150

What Osprey? And local ticks

The last week has been a local week.  The furthest excursion was to Pitfour Lake.  The lake is stocked with trout and is a favourite place for Ospreys to catch a meal.  Ospreys are back in Scotland.  The two famous pairs at the Loch of Lowes in Perthshire and the pair at the RSPB reserve at Loch Garton arrived in the last week or so and I had been told that an Osprey had been seen at Pitfour.  On my visit it had clearly decided it wanted something other than trout as it never put in an appearance. The trout did not get off lightly.  Several cormorants were loafing on the lake shore

Cormorants

Here are a couple more Pitfour photos

Toad

Looking down Pitfour Lake

Two more ticks have come from my morning walks this week.

One was to be expected, a Willow Warbler.  I heard one just past Parkside Farm up the road on 7th April.  I was able to get a photo on the 9th at Invernorth.

Willow Warbler in Full Song

The second was unexpected.  Two Grey Partridges flew up out of the road verge Tullikera Farm on the 6th.  Two quick for a photo though.

That evening I got another unexpected tick.   I am a member of Fraserburgh Photographic Society and their meeting night is Thursday.  This Thursday members went on a 'photo ramble' round Fraserburgh harbour.  It was dusk and the idea was to get low light photos of the harbour activities.  My first two photos were straight forward.  A Shag and a Kittiwake which are always around. 

Shag

Kittiwake

Next came a typical harbour scene with a golden sunset backdrop

Fraserburgh Harbour

It was too dark to take a picture of the Turnstones but there was just about enough light to snap the Black Guillemot - a year tick and I wasn't even birdwatching!

Black Guillemot

And when it got really dark it was back to night time harbour shots.

Fraserburgh Lifeboat returning to port from exercises

Total on list 141