I spent most of the day in the Findhorn Valley searching for
Golden Eagle. The day started cold and overcast which kept all raptors on their
posts until mid morning. Buzzard was the first raptor to hit the skies followed
by a pair of Peregrine who spent some time harassing a Buzzard that had
obviously strayed where it shouldn’t have ventured.
The valley holds red Grouse which is a life bird for me and
this species was quickly added to this total. Several birds were seen
throughout the day in various parts of the valley.
The temperature increased to 11c in the afternoon with
sunshine and blue skies. I remained in the only car park and scanned the mountains. Sadly the improvement in weather was not enough to tempt my target bird into
action. A Merlin zipping along the lower edge of the mountain was the only
other raptor of note in this period. Mountain hare and Feral Goat were present
on the slopes for most of the day. I saw my first Red Squirrel along this route I'm sure there will be plenty more seen before the week is out.
 |
| (View from the carpark) |
Mid afternoon I took the Farr Road which is a very scenic
but tricky route along a very narrow track. I was glad to see crash barriers at
the highest points but wondered if they would save anyone if they misread the
layout of the road.
My final stop of the day was at RSPB Loch Ruthven where
Slavonian Grebe are known to be present. A scan of the lake located a single
bird in stunning breeding plumage unfortunately it was ¾ of the way across the
loch and well out of camera range. Little Grebe were also present of the loch. A strange leucistic type crow was noted in flight whilst at the loch.
No comments:
Post a Comment