Saturday 25 April 2015

Scotland Day 8 - Preying for a Crossbill!

I concentrated my efforts on finding Crossbills today. I started early on at Loch Garten in the Abernethy Forest. It had rained overnight and the air was fresh. But I had walked this area in far better conditions and had not even heard any call!

After breakfast I moved on to Loch an Eilein and resumed the search there. The wind was picking up by now and there were showers / sleet in the air. The route around the Loch was a very pleasant walk but the Crossbills had obviously gone away on their holidays!

I was deciding where to go next when I noticed a pair of Osprey gliding into view over the Loch. I guess I couldn’t leave Scotland without at least mentioning this magnificent bird!

My last walk was around a pine forest just down from the Adventure theme Park in Carr Bridge. Brief sleet showers had me ducking into the pines a couple of times but again I drew a blank on my target bird.

I was now completely walked out and although the odd bird has been reported since I arrived there has definitely a shortage of this species in the area! The pine forests I have visited are vast but there did seem to be a shortage of cones on a lot of the trees. I have also noticed a fair amount of logging in some areas.


Tomorrow I will head back to Aberdeen for my short flight home. I am keeping an eye on RBA to see if the King Eider is still at Newburgh hopefully so!

No comments:

Post a Comment