Scotland day 6: Look out. Look up and look where you’re going!
Oh my days! Is it Friday already? This was our last full day with Heatherlea and it was destined to be a big one. Correction: The big one. Do these birding tour operators plan this? Do they always save the best for last? I don’t know. Some would say the Capercaillie caper would have done it and it did in many ways but this day would match it or in some eyes surpass it. You be the judge.
Another full fat breakfast! My only thoughts during this now routine ceremony was whether I would still fit in the minibus. To be honest, I thought we would be doing a bit more walking on this trip but apart from the odd amble up a hill, we were never far from the transport.
The birding day began with an excursion to Roseisle and initially around some of the farmland minor roads where we picked up a couple of corn buntings just sitting on fence wires. Looking out from a viewpointon the Moray Firth at Burghead Bay there were velvet and common scoters, eider and a few red-breasted merganser.
Telescope out.
This was diver territory. We quickly found great northern diver and James sighted a black throated diver. What we really wanted was the rare white-billed diver. I don’t recall which of the guides located one but they did and that after all is all that matters. It, like all the divers was distant but through a scope, we could clearly make out the 'banana' bill as it appeared and then disappeared on the rolling water. James our 'guide to be' then locked on to a red-throated diver, giving us a full house of divers at one location!
The Heatherlea guides were like kids in a sweet shop. This was a first for them by all accounts and although the rest of us were rubbing our eyes on refocus, the fact was they were all there. You just had to look out.
So to rest the eyes but not the nerves, we then scoured the firs for crested tits. Again, it was James who picked up on the call but I have to say, I think I’m pretty good at picking up on bird song but I couldn’t pinpoint anything that was remotely discernible from the the other bad species giving it there all.
Anyway, we followed him around like puppies and eventually we found a bird flitting about and although the light was difficult, I managed one shot that wasn’t a coal tit! It’s not great but not many of my shots are.
 |
| Crested Tit |
 |
| Common Treecreeper |
When we arrived, there were a few hundred pink-footed geese, feeding up before migrating. There were ringed plovers and curlew too. At Jemimaville, where we stopped for lunch, we had reasonable views of a pair of long-tailed duck, some distant sandwich terns and over 150 scaup with one or two tufted duck among them. A bit of role reversal from my experience. We then headed back to Udale Bay and one of the guides picked up a pair of grey partridge on the fields behind us. The red kite gave us some good flight views too.
 |
| Meadow Pipit |
 |
| Pink-footed Geese |
 |
| Pink-footed Goose |
 |
| Red Kite |
 |
| Red Kite |
 |
| Yellowhammer |
Now that would have gone down as a pretty decent days birdwatching and everyone was happy but something quite extraordinary was about to happen. We left Cromarty Firth and heading back to Nethy Bridge. Now, I need to remind you of the seating situation in our minibus. On this particular day, myself, Brenda and Brian were in the very back and reliant on the middle row to let us out by manoeuvring the seats using levers etc.
As we left the A9 at Carrbridge, someone pointed out a white-tailed eagle over the road and above our minibus. Chris managed to stop although it wasn’t easy. The other minibus had also stopped and people were piling out.
Our middle row of folk included Steve and in his rush to exit the vehicle with camera in hand, he didn’t realise the ditch we had parked up against. Naturally he disappeared into the ditch and his comrades went to his aid.
However, this left the back row unable to exit the minibus. I have to say it was a stressful few seconds that felt like minutes big eventually we were released and we were able to capture some amazing shots of not just a white-tailed eagle but and osprey too that was mobbing it. I have never seen anything quite like it.
 |
| Under attack |
 |
| Talons at the ready |
 |
| White-tailed Eagle making Osprey look small |
 |
| White-tailed Eagle |
We all piled back on board and even Steve had managed to get some great action shots. Not sure if he shot them while lying on his back in a ditch but I wouldn’t be surprised!
Back at the hotel, we all enjoyed our last supper and the guides went through the final list (119 species) and everyone gave their best moments from the trip. It was all very emotional. A bottle of wine was required.
Comments
Post a Comment