Old faithful.

You couldn't have asked for a worse day - rain and wind - but you can't let it spoil your day. The old faithful Snipe was posing in the rain...

...as we headed to a Golden Eagle site. We managed to get views of a Golden Eagle in flight just before the weather really closed in. Three Otters were watched fishing in the rain and you can see how wet the Hooded Crows were!

The WT Eagle chick was viewed on the nest before heading off to view the Common Seals. A small group of Eider were seen just before lunch.

Wheatear, Whinchat, Woodcock, Gannet and Rock Pipit were all seen before we came across three Tufted Duck on a small body of fresh water.

What else could be better in the rain than some wading birds - Redshank flying around...

...Lapwing in flight and just posing...

...and a Common Snipe displaying.

It even looks good when it's coming in to land!

A superb find was a RB Merg with nine youngsters - They look superb as they scoot across the water to keep up with mum.

Our last sighting of the day was a pair of Red-throated Diver - you gotta love the rainy days.

Flat out.

July started with a full bus of people from the North East so there wasn't any problem with understanding each other;-) It took half an hour for things to get going when Ann picked up 3 Otters fishing in the loch. As they headed off we moved on but it wasn't too long before we found a solitary dog Otter.

A couple of Grey Heron were having a disagreement - you can see this one is still a bit riled.

We viewed the WT Eagle and waited for a while but there was not much going on so we decided to save some time and use it at the Golden Eagle site. The Goldies put on a superb display and as they flew off we broke out the lunch.

The afternoon was taken up by viewing Common Seals, Common Terns, a lone Shag and a splendid view of the Adder.

One of the birds on most peoples wish list was to get a view of Common Crossbill. It's always a possibility but more often than not it will be a flyover or a brief landing before moving on. When I heard the 'chip, chip' call I tried to get the attention of the group and took a few snaps of one bird as it landed. The scope was brought out and we all managed to get get stunning views of the male in a couple of locations...

...and the female too - awesome!!

End of June.

Some photos from the last few tours just to give some of the highlights. The Red Deer stags are starting to look good now and they should get rid of the velvet in July - I wonder if it'll be later with the cold spring.

The Tree Pipits have spent a bit of time being quiet but now they are back displaying again.

The Whinchat are still bouncing around but I haven't seen any young birds yet even though I do know that some are out of the nest.

The WT Eagle and Golden Eagle both have a large chick that should be on the wing by the end of July. Otters are still being seen on most days but we did miss out the day we saw this oiled Puffin.

It was a bit of a wet and windy day but we did find another auk - Guillemot.

The Linnets seem to enjoy the wet grass...

...and the Greater Butterfly Orchids are in flower at last. They don't seem to be lasting very long this year and a whole bunch of this species was munched by...

...Red Deer. Quite a pale looking beast on the right and a spotty youngster in the middle.

This female Adder has showed reasonably well over the last month.

I did say the Whinchats are showing well so here is another shot!

It won't be long before we stop seeing the Snipe on a post so here is, possibly, the last one for this year.