Threes

A day of few photos but a collection of birds seen in threes. We had three Whooper Swan, three Great Spotted Woodpecker and three Golden Eagle.

We'd started the day with good views of a WT Eagle and then another flying past us. A single Northern Wheatear was seen by the loch with a number of Meadow Pipits and a couple of Stonechat. Plenty of people say they see Golden Eagles at close quarters but this one took it to another level.

We had initially seen the birds drifting off only to see them fly towards us and circle above us. The big problem was when they disappeared again I left the camera in the motor and one of the birds did a fly past at about 10 yards!

We didn't see an Otter on the day but I gave plenty of advice to the guests and they managed to catch up with them the following day. I managed to get some sighting while out on an errand. A couple of Common Teal were nice to see with the male looking splendid.

A pair of Grey Wagtail were feeding along a burn.

A pair of Slavonian Grebe were dancing on the loch...

...while the Goosander were not going to hang around.

A Whooper Swan was a bit more obliging though.

April begins in style

I had a quick run out on the 1st April. No fool for me as I came across not one Golden Eagle...

...but two together.

While I was taking a few snaps of these two an adult WT Eagle put in an appearance...

...as it was escorting this youngster away from it's nest site - awesome!

Eyeball to eyeball

A bit of a quiet start to this tour - a couple of Crossbills flew over but wouldn't settle, plenty of Lapwing, a few Snipe, Shelduck, 3 Linnet and 20 Fieldfare were the highlights from the first hour. Things started to warm up from then on. My first Slow Worms of the year were seen...

...one of last years young Common Lizard but only one Adder.

Just as we were about to have lunch two Golden Eagle appeared and headed towards us. Closer and closer they came until we were eyeball to eyeball and there is no denying they were coming over to see what we were doing!

A five minute encounter with an Otter was all we could manage but at least it was close enough to get a good view.

WT Eagles put on a bit of a performance too - this one looked impressive sitting at the top of a tree...

...but I missed out on getting a shot of a Buzzard having a go at it. This young WT Eagle came nosing around but it was moved on by the adult bird.

It's not all about the big stuff though as we had to stop a few times to admire some of the commoner birds too. This Reed Bunting was good enough to sit still while I took a couple of snaps.

The end of March PWC species 78 with a total of 100 points.