Snakes alive!

Sunday was a pleasant day and shop lady had the day off so we headed out for a walk round Pottie. Not a great deal to report from the walk except spectacular views.

We did get reasonable views of a female Hen Harrier just before we arrived at the standing stone.

The next sighting we had was a Woodcock exploding from the road side ditch - almost bird of the day that. Three Tufted Duck on the loch have been hanging around for a while now but always nice to see. A single Canada Goose was in with the Greylags, the Lapwing flock had increased to about 50 birds but it was disappointing not to see any pipits, larks or finches other than Chaffinch. We paid a visit to a few friends before heading home as the sun was setting. On the trip back I finally got a view of a bird I've heard a few times here but never seen one. It flew in front of the car and dropped into the ditch like a rag doll before giving a classic profile view of......Water Rail! I'm pleased I wasn't driving at the time as I might have ended up in the ditch too.

It was a cracking day today despite the cool Easterly wind. I didn't get out as early as I wanted to but I'll take what I can get. With clear blue skies and the temperature just nudging 5 degrees I thought it might be too cool for any reptiles but it's always worth a look. It must be the fourth time I've tried this year but the first time we've had dry spell before the clear, sunny day. I wasn't disappointed....

...as this Adder was very much alive and kicking. He'd certainly found a nice warm spot and he was pretty twitchy so I kept my distance. The scope helped for the close up.

Despite the Adder being out there was no sign of any Frogs or spawn. It's no surprise really but I usually see the frogs before I get an Adder. No Wrens singing today either. I also covered a tetrad today at Carsaig for the BTO and I thought I was going to draw a complete blank. The views were spectacular...

...and I got my first birds, a pair of Ravens, as I took photographs of the Red Deer.

I heard Chaffinch and Blue Tit before seeing a single Hooded Crow and a Robin. The last bird for the tetrad was a Golden Eagle that was soaring behind me - something just made me turn around and there it was. It'll be interesting to see what sort of damage the cold weather has done to the bird populations up here.

Holy Diver

No birding yesterday as I was busy with other things but you can't fail to see something interesting if you look up. The weather was pretty overcast and dull all day. I was outside for a brief spell and I could hear the Crossbills calling. I spotted a couple of males that showed well but they were pretty mobile in the tree and then I heard another bird calling from behind me. As I turned and looked up there was a WT Eagle just coming into view and the Crossbill was sitting on the chimney! The eagle drifted off as I set the scope up for the Crossbill.....

....result!!

Today was a better day weatherwise but I had a few jobs to do. I didn't bother taking the scope with me and you just know that was a mistake! Most of the things I saw were distant and the scope would have come in handy so the 27 Lapwings, 20 fieldfare and 80 Starling were nice to see. A couple of Kestrels that would have been good shots were just admired. A pair of WT Eagle looked like this...

..but the Blue Tit was just in range.

It was a pleasant run out with some nice encounters and also good not to have the digiscoping kit! I did nip out just before it got dark to count the GN Diver for the first time this year and 38 birds was a good return.

 

Geese

I had a run out yesterday to get fuel. The weather wasn't too bad but the wind was nithering to say the least! The tide was well in and, apparently, the worst time to see Otters so, just to dispel the myth, the first thing I got my eye on were two Otters fishing in a bay. I didn't bother with photographs and just watched them catching fish - cracking! I didn't have any plan in mind of where to go but I had been thinking about the last time I'd seen Pochard on the island so I headed to a freshwater loch to try my luck. I did get Whooper Swan...

 ...two Tufted Duck and two Goldeneye but no sign of any Pochard - I'll keep trying for those! I counted a group of 66 Greylag Geese in a field and that set me thinking again. I thought that the Greylags were fairly sedentary on the island in the winter along with the other geese. The WF Geese....

...are always in the same place as are the two flocks of Barnacle Geese. The thing was I'd seen a single Barnacle Goose with a flock of Greylags in the SW and also a single PF Goose in another area in the SW with another flock of Greylag. Now, a single Barnacle Goose was seen with a flock of Greylags in the centre of the island and I had a PF Goose with that same flock of Greylags with no sign of the Barnacle. I hope your keeping up! The central area is only about 20 miles away from both of the sites in the SW. Are the Greylags moving about and taking the PF and Barnie with them or is it the PF and Barnie that are flock hopping or even there could be two of each species involved. I had a good look through the geese in the SW and found neither of the odd birds. A puzzler for sure. On with the day....there were 27 WF Geese looking good as you can see from the photo above. A Grey Seal was hauled out on the rocks...

  ...a flock of 10 Golden Plover rushed past, a couple of Lapwings were flushed by a Buzzard and another Buzzard was feasting on the remains of a Mountain Hare.

The only other notable thing was a flock of 10 Rock Doves feeding amongst the sheep - four was the best I could get in the photo.

By the time I got back the clouds had rolled in and then the snow started again - lovely!

Today I had PS for company hopefully to catch up with a few Otters. The weather wasn't looking too grand but there was just enough light to get some early shots. Five Crossbills flew over us just before we set off. We found a GN Diver that was showing well but the optics kept steaming up so it was a bit of a struggle to get this shot.

No sign of any Otter on the first run through but we did pick up a nice juv WT Eagle sitting at the top of a tree. While I was setting up the scope another juv bird flew off from the back of the tree!

Another two adult WT Eagle were sitting together a bit further along the road. We headed back to the shop to pick up some lunch as the sun started to break through. A quick run up the glen produced two adult Golden Eagle but the only decent shot was one of the female.

A Raven 'cronked' it's way past us as we watched the eagles soaring.

Next bird to be picked up was a cracking male Hen Harrier hunting the lochside just before we picked up our first Otter of the day. The Otter was fishing the centre of the loch so we headed off to find a closer one. It wasn't too long before we connected with a mum and two cubs. We watched from a distance as they fished one area before heading away from us. We followed them along the shore knowing we'd get better views eventually.

 They came ashore just below us and travelled along the land for a couple of hundred yards.

You can see in that shot how much smaller the cubs are to the adult. We had a bit of time to wait before we could get into a good position to get some close shots but it was worth the wait as, I'm sure, you'll agree. 

A bit of a roll about with mum for one of the cubs as the other ate a fish and then it time to get back in the water again.

We watched these three for a good while with plenty of opportunities for photos before we left them settling down to sleep. As we looked for somewhere to turn around we picked up another two Otters but as the wind had picked up and the rain was starting we just watched from the motor before calling it a day!

Gruesome!

First of an update on the bird list for January - I ended up with 95 species for the month with 81 of those on Mull, the other 14 were in Speyside.
Sunday was a very pleasant day where I didn't do a great deal bird wise. We had a trip round the loch to visit friends so didn't see a great deal. A Grey Heron posed nicely...

...before we bumped into a cracking juv WT Eagle.

It was too close to get out and digiscope so we just sat and watched until it flew off.
Monday was a bit of a change in the weather with showers pushing through after a clear morning. It was a tough day but we had a cracking start with RB Mergs, Redshank, Greenshank, Teal, GN Diver etc. A bit of excitement at the next stop as we picked up 3 Otters on the shore. We watched then roll around to clean themselves up before they headed back out into the water away from us - we followed them up. When we relocated them there was four Otters in the water! It was certainly three cubs with one adult female. One of the cubs peeled off from the group and hauled out, squeaking away....

....while the other 3 fished together.

We waited patiently until they'd had their fill and headed for land again for a clean up....

...and a bit of rough and tumble for the youngsters.

A tremendous sight to see and they soon moved off. We'd noticed there were a few Herons just behind the Otters and a better look revealed 29 birds sitting around! A few Red Deer stags were nice to see and the usual fantastic views before catching up with a couple of confiding GN Diver. Naturally one decided to dive just as I took the photo.

The weather really closed in after this and added a bit of drama to the landscape before we got a tip-off from the local farmer as to the location of a couple of WT Eagle. Thanks to him we got cracking views of two adult birds. A group of Fallow Deer stags in a field with 3 Red Deer were nice to see and on the other side of the road a sizable flock of Greylag Goose with a single Pink-footed Goose amongst them. It was another good day in the field with cracking views of Buzzard drying it's wings, Common Seals swimming close - never a dull moment!

This morning the weather cleared away to leave beautiful blue skies so I headed off to see if I could dig out the local Golden Eagles. It was real quiet to start with with a few Raven, Hooded Crow and a couple of Kestrel. I got a tantalising glimpse of a Golden Eagle before it disappeared against the hillside and then it rose again before dropping out of sight again. Another quick glimpse of the bird had me heading off in pursuit and finally getting onto the bird properly - you might wish I hadn't!

Pretty gruesome but it's what these birds do. A couple of attendant Hoodies and Raven kept this young Goldie alert. Just like buses, I'd found this bird and another two birds were soaring not too far away. The youngster finally had his fill and moved off the carcass to let the corvids in.

Not bad for a quick hour away from the chores!

Is it Spring yet?

Friday was a nice clear day with the odd flurry of snow here and there but it was blowing a hoolie. I did make the effort to go out and didn't get any photos. The best of the day was a WT Eagle that was sitting on a point of land but it flew off just as I got into range. I watched it fly across the other side of the loch trying to read the tags but the light was against me. Just as I was about to let it go another WT sailed into the view. I watched them wheel around and they were joined by another two birds! So another 4 birds together but at least one of them was a different bird to the four that were outside the shop. I did try to follow the birds up but as they can cross the loch in about 30 seconds it took me 20 minutes to drive round to where I'd last seen them. I did pick up 9 Goosander, 1 BT Diver and a couple of GN Diver on the trip round though:-)
I was surprised to find there had been a covering of snow overnight when I surfaced this morning but it didn't take too long to melt away. The view was nice though.

I picked up 2 Golden Eagle sitting together on a distant ridge just after taking this photo. The wind had dropped from the previous day but it's still cold to stand in the teeth of it. I headed off to see if I could get better views of the eagles picking up five Goosander and this GBB Gull.

Naturally one of the eagles had flown off before I got anywhere near the right spot and the other bird was just sitting enjoying the view. You can't win 'em all. I turned my attention to the corvids that were bouncing around on the hillside. Most of them were Hoodies just squabbling amongst themselves but the two Ravens sitting side by side were loving it up in the sunshine.

 

A Red Deer was a bit closer and was doing it's best to munch it's way through the landscape.

It was time to move into the sunshine and search for a few things that might be feeling the benefit of the longer days and some heat. The Snowdrops have been about for a couple of weeks now and the Hazel catkins are dangling from the branches but it was nice to find a few that have opened already.

The moss clinging to the trees looked good in the sunlight too.

A large pale billed diver had me all excited for a couple of seconds. I hauled in and jumped out of the motor scrambling for the scope and then watched as the bird turned and the light changed you could see it was just a Great Northern Diver -  a cracking bird all the same.

A male Crossbill was singing it's heart out while I was trying to get a decent shot of the diver so I had to have a look. I couldn't see the male bird but I did find a female bird and they both flew off just as I was setting up for a photo! I had a scan across the water to see if there were any Razorbills or Guillemots. Nothing doing there but RT Diver and BT Diver were nice to see. Another plant that is just starting to break through is Butterwort.

It was time to head for home again so I could get this post done before heading off for the Toon match. I did stumble across another Goosander on the way back but it wasn't really worth the effort!

It was snowing just as I was finishing this off so I've dashed outside to take a couple of photos of the shower heading up the glen and the sunshine following behind. It might not be Spring just yet;-)