April.

April was a bit of a mixed bag with the weather - a bit of sun, a bit of rain and a tremendous day of blizzard conditions. Quite a few of the migrant birds returned too.

Adders were on show all month.

Black-tailed Godwits in the blizzard.

Chaffinch in the garden.

Red Deer outside the house.

Snakes-head Fritillary on Iona.

Great Northern Diver coming into summer plumage.

Golden Plover arrived in good numbers.

Hen Harriers put on a good show.

Female Hen Harrier.

Iceland Gull on the patch.

Lapwings started breeding.

Mountain Hares are still around but the numbers are low this year.

Northern Wheatears were a welcome sight.

Quite a few Otter cubs around.

Puffins arrive in April.

Ring Ouzel was a cracking bird to see.

Short-eared Owl were pairing up.

Starling is a bird often overlooked.

Sundew were starting to emerge.

The Tawny Owls were breeding in the barn.

The views were spectacular!

Whimbrel passage was good.

A Wren was breeding in the brambles.

Quite a few young White-tailed Eagles were hanging around - 11 was my best count.

The adult birds were preparing for a new arrival.

Willow Warbler heralds the start of summer for me.

Lilo

The wild weather is not the best for birding but it has to blow something interesting in! I'll settle for the common stuff to keep me going for now. A Lapwing was a first for the year...

...as was this Meadow Pipit. No wonder they are hard to see!

Any bird that is snorkeling makes you look twice in case it's an Otter. This Red-breasted Merganser...

...just happened to have an Otter fishing just behind it.

Always nice to get on the lilo too.

Most of the birds I saw flying were going backwards in the wind so this Buzzard is just about to join the backward club!

Bright

There has been a bit of a hold up on this post due to the poor internet connection. A two hour attempt got me as far as the log in page and I'm not sure if I will have to retype this post. If you remember dial-up, think that but way more unstable!!
One of the local WT Eagles had a rest stop on a skerry...

...before moving on to finish it's breakfast somewhere else. Just look at the difference in size to the Hooded Crow!!!

A run out to check on the geese was productive in some ways like this obliging Buzzard...

...but there no sign of the Greenland White-fronted Geese. A few of the Barnacle Geese were loafing in one field...

...while the Greylags were in another with a couple of Canada Geese.

There was no sign of the Fieldfare but there were a decent number of Redwing scattered across the area,

The Lapwings can do a good job of staying hidden over the winter so it always brightens your day when you get a good view of them.

Contrast

Not the best of days for this tour as we had poor visibility for the whole day. Seeing a WT Eagle at our first stop settled everyone into the idea that we could have a good day.

It was never going to be easy but 4 Otters, Hen Harrier, Red Deer, Lapwing, Snipe and Gannet all helped. We also found a family party of Whooper Swan that had stopped for a rest on their journey south from Iceland.

The following day the weather had cleared and there was a lot more landscape to see. The Lapwings were a treat to see as they flew around.

Plenty of WT Eagles were seen on the day including this one that was doing a good impression of the caped crusader!

We only managed to see one Otter on this tour but one is better than none.

A Golden Eagle showed off it colours as it flew around at low level. It certainly looks a different bird when the light catches the underside.

When we tried to relocate that bird all we could find were a few Ravens.

End of May

The WT Eagle performed well as usual and we were lucky enough to come across an Otter that was heading for shore. It looked like it was going into a holt until a car drove past and it headed back into the sea.

The small Common Scoter flock hung around until the last day of May before heading off. We watched the Golden Eagles flying around as a Red Deer grazed a bit further down the road. We stopped next to the hind who wasn't bothered by our presence.

I haven't seen an Adder all month so it was nice to come across this one basking in the sun.

There are plenty of Skylark feeding young...

...the Redshanks

...and the Lapwings are busy keeping an eye on their young too.

We got a poor view of a Mountain Hare so we decided to look in a different place and found this poser.

PWC - only six species added this month so the totals are 98 species and 128 points with the year list standing at 128 at the end of May.