Red-tailed Eagle.

No change in the weather yet so Wednesday was another damp one but full of interest. The rain we had at the start of the day was encouraging a few birds to 'sing' so the Corncrake we heard was a bonus and the Snipe were calling from the Iris beds. We had a bird that caused a bit of confusion too - this plain bellied bird was alongside a few adult plumaged Dunlin.

It looked and acted like a Dunlin but surely it should have some black on the belly. After checking with a few people (cheers folks) the answer was it's a first summer Dunlin - you learn something new every day!

Another good find was this newly fledged Raven. It's not that often that you can get this close.

Our first White-tailed Eagle posed well on the rocks.

The weather seemed to be clearing so we headed for a spot where we might get Golden Eagle. We had lunch while we waited and the rain started again so we finished lunch and moved on. An Otter was more obliging as it hauled out with a crab and then had a wash and brush up.

A crowd was gathering so we moved on and found another Otter not too far away and as I scanned around I noticed there was a young WT Eagle sitting on the rocks watching another Otter fishing!

The weather was starting to look like it might break and we viewed this 'Red-tailed Eagle' in the last of the rain.

Still no sign of Golden Eagle but we headed for a spot for a cuppa and got cracking views of a Common Crossbill...

...a male and female Hen Harrier, an Adder...

...and finally a Golden Eagle! Last but not least we enjoyed good views of a few Lesser Redpoll too. We had a stunning male bird but he didn't want to hang around for photos so we had to make do with this one taken through the windscreen.

Thursday I headed out to check some new areas and managed a few snaps of some of the commoner birds. Whinchat...

Wheatear...

...and Skylark were all numerous.

I also had good views of both types of Eagle but not much else of interest but it was nice to be checking out a different area.