Goose step

An earlier start gave us the opportunity to get a good view of a male Hen Harrier - not all of the guests were on board at this point.

The Eider are still hanging around the loch side and I'm sure it won't be too long before we start seeing some ducklings too.

A few of the Curlew have hatched young now so the sight of a bird on sentry duty is becoming a regular sight.

The Ringed Plover managed to hatch 3 of the eggs but this one must have not developed.

A couple of Cuckoo had been seen through the day while the Buzzards played hard to get - it's usually the other way round! A Buzzard did pose for a photo though.

Best sighting of the day had to be the Rock Pipit feeding one of it's young.

We saw an obliging Mountain Hare...

...singing Skylark...

...and a Lapwing chick trying to do the goose step!

A couple of Golden Eagle, Otter, another Hen Harrier sighting and a Dipper to finish the day.

Too much

Lots of photos in this one so I'll not do too much writing! Nice weather again and plenty of close sightings on this tour - Swallows are everywhere now.

There had been rain overnight so it was no surprise to find a Dipper at the mouth of a stream.

This 2 year old WT Eagle gave us a nice fly past...

...and a pair of Golden Eagle were flying around...

...above an adult WT Eagle.

We saw plenty of GN Diver but some of the views were like this!

A Greenshank was a surprise find as I haven't seen any for a couple of weeks.

Finally we have a few waders arriving - Dunlin on the beach.

We also picked up a Sedge Warbler singing on the fence.

A Black-tailed Godwit flew off...

...as this Brent Goose wandered down to the sea. This bird was ringed on 21st March at North Bull Island, Dublin.

Plenty of Rock Pipits to be seen...

...and the Lapwing chicks have hatched.

I've not had Rock Dove on the blog for a while so here it is.

There are not too many Golden Plover around at the moment and this single bird was very confiding.

Skylark - I'll say no more.

May

Plenty of stuff to see now that most of the migrants are in but we still started the day with some of the regulars - Crossbill, Chaffinch, Stonechat etc. A single Golden Plover was displaying over the loch so there must be more birds there somewhere. A Common Whitethroat was singing at the top of a tree while we looked for Otter.

 There are still plenty of GN Diver around the loch but this one has a punky hair-do!

Cracking views of the WT Eagles but I was a bit slow with the camera.

Yet another Northern Wheatear...

...a Blackcap heard singing, 5 Lesser Redpoll and plenty of Rock Pipit.

There are quite a few White Wagtail (Pied Wagtail is a subspecies of this bird) hanging around the beaches at the moment.

At our last stop of the day we had a single Twite, a couple of Mountain Hare and 10 Whimbrel.

Wag

It was nice to catch up with a Willow Warbler again - the song of this bird is always the sound of summer for me. No sooner had I published the last post where I mentioned the Greenshanks had moved on and there were three birds back on the loch! A pair of Grey Wagtails were getting frisky on one of the burns.

It was nice to catch up with the mum and cub Otters while they were reaping the rewards of a few Dogfish. They were seen to bring two ashore in about 20 minutes.

The Highland Cattle are always popular with the guests.

A few more Northern Wheatears are being seen now.

There was a decent breeze blowing while this Rock Pipit was trying to hang on to the fence.

Decent numbers of Linnets can be seen in various locations.

It was a bit of a struggle to get a good view of Golden Eagle until this one flew past the motor!

Similar

A couple of tours had fairly similar sightings so here is a selection of photos. The Red Deer are starting to drop their antlers so this sight will become less frequent over the next couple of weeks.

The WT Eagle sightings are good at the moment but then you can't have a bad sighting of one of these!

Crossbill sightings are a bit hit and miss but you can hear them calling and singing around the forestry.

The Otter is a slippery customer at times so it was nice to have distant views to start with and then a closer one. You have to mark your territory as you move around...

...and a shower is nice too.

There is a smattering of migrants coming through, Sand Martins have arrived from their winter quarters in Africa...

but there is also winter visitors that are back on their way north. The Redwings will probably be heading for Iceland.

Both days had rain at the time we went for Golden Eagle - a bit of patience required and the birds did show.

Along the shore there are quite a few Wheatear, lots of Meadow Pipit, Reed Bunting and Rock Pipit...

...while the wader numbers have dropped - very few Greenshank, small numbers of Ringed Plover and the Turnstones are on the move. Another change has been the reappearance of the Tawny Owl in the barn.