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.