A bit of patience.

There is a bit of catching up to do but I'll get there soon! A day off in decent weather saw me photographing some common birds and finding a decent one. For all the people that struggle with pipits here is a Meadow Pipit...

...and a Rock Pipit to compare it with.

The decent find was a small black speck on the sea in bad light. I could see it was a diver of some sorts but it wasn't staying up for long so I had to wait before picking up the grey head and neck of a cracking Black-throated Diver - shame it didn't come close.

My plan to mix things up on the tour almost seemed the wrong thing to do after a good start. We picked up Mountain Hare, Curlew...

,,,and Linnet amongst other things.

We then struggled to find any of the big hitters for about an hour. You just have to keep plugging away and something will put on a show. A juvenile WT Eagle performed well.

An Otter performed very well just before we had lunch. We watched it fishing for a while before it brought a fish ashore - we left when it headed off fishing again.

Absolutely stunning views of two Golden Eagles circling over our heads was the highlight of the day.

A Common Buzzard carried on hunting as we pulled up beside it...

...and a female Hen Harrier gave us a tremendous fly past too. It all turns out right in the end.