Scotland Trip Day Two

Black grouse

We woke up at 4:30am and headed to Loch Garten for the Cappercallie watch, as we arrived at the hide one bird was showing we on the monitor, it us about 15 minutes for us to locate the male on screen it was about 50-60 meteres away in thick cover, it was quite hard to pick out at first becuase of the poor light, but it did become more visable as it moved about and as the light conditions got better, we all managed to get good views through the scope a second bird was seen further away in some distance tree's, the Osprey were still there showing well she had even laid an egg.

Golden eagle

We then headed to Tulloch moor for Black grouse, on our way to the site we came across a stunning Red Squirrel, which was a first for me and Dad, when we arrived at the Black Grouse viewing screen, we had two stunning male Black grouse showing really we through the scopes, they were then flushed by a fly over Red kite we also had some displaying Curlew which was really nice to see.

Dipper

We then headed back to the Diggs for breakfast, we then headed to Findorn Valley the drive down was amazing, we also had another Red squirrel which showed nicely beside the road, we then parked the car and scanned the surrounding mountine range, there was about 30 Red deers high up on the ridge there was also a Kestrel flying around and a Peregrine, we then decided to walk further up the valley were I picked out some large Raptors, in the distance which were soon lost over the brow of the mountain, so we pressed on hopefull of relocating them along the path there was a stunning male Wheatear and lots of Common Gulls, we then started to climp up a small track which started to gain some reall height, this turned out to be a really good area and we got stunning views of two Golden eagles as the soared about we gained amazing views, at some staged the Peregrine was seen with the eagles showing you the sheer size difference, we left the site very happy heading for Ptarmigan.

Crested tit

When we arrived at the Cairngorn mountain we had to the tram to the top of the Ski rampwhich to 7 minutes, from hear we headed out to mountain path and Dad soon picked out 3 Ptarmigan what great bird 2 females and 1 male still with about 60% of the're winter plumage, we watched them for about 30 minutes before it started to snow really heavily.

Our last stop of the day was Nethy bridge were we had amazing views of Dipper and we then headed back to Tulloch moor had another Male Black Grouse, happy with how the dat whent we headed back to the diggs.


When we arrived at the Cairngorn mountain we had to the tram to the top of the Ski rampwhich to 7 minutes, from hear we headed out to mountain path and Dad soon picked out 3 Ptarmigan what great bird 2 females and 1 male still with about 60% of the're winter plumage, we watched them for about 30 minutes before it started to snow really heavily.

Golden eagle

Dipper

Red squirrel

Our last stop of the day was Nethy bridge were we had amazing views of Dipper and we then headed back to Tulloch moor had another Male Black Grouse, happy with how the dat went we headed back to the diggs.