Capercaillie & Ptarmigan on Scotland trip.

My grandson Michael kindly gives us a lift to Stanstead airport, picking us up at 5am for the early flight to Glasgow.for a four day birding trip with Brian & Jimmy.
By 10 o'clock we are in the hire car heading up the side of Loch Lomand, last year we drove up to Roy Bridge on the East coast, this time we cut across & head for Oban Harbour as our first port of call.

Black Guillemot

Within a few minutes we pick up the first year tick with five Black Guillemot, also the first of many Hooded Crow. We have all seen one back home so no tick with this bird, but a nice time was had just watching them go about their business.

Hooded Crow

Sitting high up above the town is the great sight of McCaigs tower a gift to the town by a man who made all his money here.

McCaig's Tower

Off up the A9  just past Roy Bridge at Lochaber we stop & Jimmy gets a tick with a Common Sandpiper, we both get Tree Pipit here as well so two year ticks so far.Further up the A9 at Druim an Aird we stop to look over a really pretty water fall & see a nice Grey Wagtail.
We now head on up to Duffin near Keith.to the chalet style holiday home,it's a very nice place to stay very happy with the choice Brian has made to stay here,  so it's been a long day & we will be up very early in the morning so a bite to eat then to bed.



The cabin we stayed in for the trip.



On day two we set out for Loch Garten to try for Capercaillie, we missed this last year by a few minutes, so it's the number one target for this trip.we drive all around the area without any luck, so we park up & wait for the Osprey centre to open at 10 o'clock, to pass the time we watch a few Red Squirrel running up & down the trees.

On the feeders we see Coal Tit, Siskin then we hear a Crested Tit & watch it fly on to the feeder, this is tick number ( 3.) the centre is open now so a quick look at the Osprey on the nest, while we watch the eggs start to hatch, we watch the t v screen looking in on the nest to see this happen..Tick number four for the trip. Now it's off to Tulloch Moor & we see the first of many Red Grouse tick( 5 ), but no sign of any Black ones so far.Now we head to the Cairngorm Mountain range, we decide to walk half way up the Mountain looking for a Dotterel, Jimmy thinks he's got one but it moves before we can confirm it. The climb is killing us so we head back down to cheat & take the train to the summit, it costs £10. 30p & takes 8 minutes. once we get to the top we step out onto the platform, we get lucky as a Ranger already has a female Ptarmigan in his scope, he lets us get a view of it & we get our scopes onto it for a nice long look at the bird, it's another lifer for all of us. Tick number ( 6 ) We now head to the cafe that is at the top of the mountain  . Smoked Haddock in batter with chips looked good but it was not to my taste. We now head for Lochindorb a really lovely place with a castle in the middle of the loch, we see Black throated Diver here, also four Osprey fly very close to us across the loch.

Red Grouse

On the way back we pop back to Tulloch Moor to try for Black Grouse, we find the wicker viewing screen & meet up with a couple that had been here for a couple of hours & seen nothing of the Grouse, luck is with us when the bird starts to display also we get to hear it calling, it's just the one bird but that will do for now,   ( Tick 7 ).

On day 3 the plan is to go to Findhorn Valley for the Golden Eagles, on the way we stop at parking bay 151 on the A9 to look for a Ring Ouzel, we see a pair within five minutes of pulling up here, Jimmy & myself have dipped a couple of times in England looking for an Ouzel, so nice to add this to the year tick at long last, tick 8 ). On now & a quick stop at Findhorn Bridge to pick out a couple of Dippers as soon as we get out of the car, not needed for a tick, but always nice to watch these little birds.
A long drive down a one track road for 11 miles to reach the valley, we park up & walk down the track for a short way, then just wait for something to happen Eagle wise.

After a couple of hours a single Eagle comes into view, this was a welcome sight as we had only seen about seven Buzzards up to that point. Funny how it happens we wait a long time to see an Ouzel then we get another one here, We give it at least another hour then the luck goes our way as two more Golden Eagles fly over the top of the ridge & into view for us to get the scope on them for a nice clear view of them, tick ( 9 )
Also two Peregrines are spotted in the valley
Before we leave a minibus group turn up, we have bumped into them at other places over the last few days,
they take great pleasure in showing us the photo of the Capercaillie that they had all seen in the morning at 10 o'clock would you believe it..so we have to give it another go on the way back, but no sign of it.
A nice consolation comes when we get very good views of Crested Tits along one of the trail paths.

Crested Tit

So to the last day of the break, up at 4 o'clock to give it one more go for the Caper. when we arrive we drive around the Abernethy Forest area very slowly but nothing doing. So we park up behind a car at the side of the road, we start to talk to a couple of people that were there looking for it as well, then the fellow sitting in his car calls out that the Caper has just come into view in the forest not to far away from us, BINGO, we all grab a view in case it runs off into the forest, but as it turns out it hangs about for over three hours just pecking away & taking no notice of us at all.tick number( 10 )

The fellow that spotted the target was Mike Doughty who is in the 500 club, we spend a long time talking to him. Just before we go Lee Evans turns up to see the Caper, as we stand with him a flock of Scottish Crossbill fly over us calling, Lee & his group picked up the Crossbill  for us, so another tick  (11 )

We must go now as we have to get near to the airport for the flight home, as we get nearer to the airport we stop at the Falls of Falloch & pick out a Spotted Flycatcher for another tick (12 ), we walk up to see the falls while we are here, the water was raging over the falls a great sight & sound to end a really wonderful trip. Also seen on the trip at Loch Ruthven some Slavonian Grebe in full summer plumage really nice to see them like this. All sorts of Deer, mountain goats, mountain Hares were all nice to see.as well.