Zim Girl's 5th Big Year 2022

[Tdgraves]

Congrats on the century and finally nailing your nemesis bird 

for future BYs you could plan a trip to Cambridgeshire, they seem to be pretty common here….

[Zim Girl]

51 minutes ago, Tdgraves said:

Congrats on the century and finally nailing your nemesis bird 

for future BYs you could plan a trip to Cambridgeshire, they seem to be pretty common here….

Thank you.  I originally come from Suffolk, so maybe I will get back down that way sometime.

[shazdwn]

Congrats on your 💯 

[PeterHG]

Congratulations on your beautiful #100 ! Now you’ve found and photographed it you’ll probably see it frequently and wonder what took you so long

[TonyQ]

Congratulations on 100, and well done on getting the Green Woodpecker!

[Galana]

Cogratulations too on your respectable Century and finally nailing your elusive Yaffle.

[michael-ibk]

Congrats on your #100 Angie, well done! Very cool you finally got your Green Woodpecker, I know how satisfying it is to get a "nemesis bird".

 

Although Peter ...

 

1 hour ago, PeterHG said:

Now you’ve found and photographed it you’ll probably see it frequently and wonder what took you so long

 

... is 100 % right about this one.

[xelas]

Congratulations! After #100 the counting goes faster .

[pedro maia]

Congrats on the century and what a great bird, another nemesis down.

[Zim Girl]

20 hours ago, PeterHG said:

Congratulations on your beautiful #100 ! Now you’ve found and photographed it you’ll probably see it frequently and wonder what took you so long

I hope you are right.  I now need to get a much better picture of it.  We also found a Yellowhammer in the same spot, a bird we have only seen once before, but it flew before I could get a photo, so we will def be back to hunt them both down.

 

16 hours ago, xelas said:

Congratulations! After #100 the counting goes faster .

Thank you Alex.  Although the only thing going fast is the speed at which my EBC folder is filling up! 

 

[Zim Girl]

The last few birds before we head up to Scotland at the weekend.

 

Our local nature reserve is full of these birds and I normally get one quite quickly for BY but it has taken me until now to find one that has been willing to pose!

 

102.  Common Whitethroat

Marton Mere  -  07/06/22

 

[Zim Girl]

A couple from the garden.

 

103.  European Goldfinch

Back garden  -  07/06/22

 

[Zim Girl]

104.  European Greenfinch

Back garden  -  07/06/22

 

[PeterHG]

Lovely pictures and have a good time in Scotland!

[Galana]

Come on up, the weather is currently lovely but may blow a bit at the weekend..

[shazdwn]

Enjoy Scotland 

[Kitsafari]

congrats on nailing that nemesis bird for the 100th!

[Zim Girl]

So we got back from Scotland last weekend.  The weather was 'mixed' to say the least but in it's defence we did get one day when it didn't rain .

On the bright side we still had a great time, did loads of walking and managed to come back with 18 birds for BY including 2 lifers!

 

We stayed in a very nice cottage just north of Muir of Ord in the Highlands for a week.  We were well located for the Moray Firth area and the various Glens and hills around Strathconon and Findhorn.

 

I will post the birds in the order we saw them and a brief description of where we found them.

 

The weather for the Sunday was forecasted to be wet and windy but because the tide times fell right for us we decided to go to Chanonry Point to see if we could find the dolphins.  We parked in Fortrose and walked down to the point.  There were only a handful of people there and within 15 mins we could see a dolphin.  The weather rapidly deteriorated and soon we were stood in pouring rain.  We had full waterproofs on so not a problem but it made it very hard to get decent photos so I will spare you that!  More dolphins arrived and we had a group of four playing quite close to the shore, so pretty cool experience despite the weather.

 

We walked back past the golf course towards Rosemarkie. The rain had stopped and I was able to get my first bird.

 

105.  Eurasian Skylark

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

From Rosemarkie we crossed over to a wooded area called Fairy Glen managed by the RSPB.  It has a lovely trail though the forest by a stream that eventually leads to some waterfalls.  Along the way was a pond with this bird fishing on the edge.

 

106.  Grey Heron

 

[Zim Girl]

In the afternoon we visited Tollie Red Kites near Dingwall.  This is a reserve managed in partnership between the RSPB and the Brahan Estate where it is situated.  Food is put out for the birds at 2pm on Wed to Sunday.  The set up is very similar to Bellymack Red Kites in Dumfries & Galloway, although here they suffer from gulls constantly getting in the way of the Kites and pinching the food.  Luckily the weather had brightened up a lot by now.  

 

107.  Red Kite

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

A bonus from here was a Yellowhammer that perched on a fence post nearby.  We very rarely ever see these birds so we were very happy with this.

 

108.  Yellowhammer

 

[Zim Girl]

And finally for today, our first lifer.  Thanks to @Dave Williamswho confirmed this location for us and to a birder at Tollie who gave us some more info about the bird.

On a small loch quite close to our cottage is a Slavonian Grebe.  According to the birder, there had been a pair of them, but a few weeks ago one had been seen diving under the water but not seen coming back up. They have been closely monitored by the local birders but only one bird has been seen since.  So that is a shame.

We found the bird within minutes although quite a way off and in choppy water.  We also saw 2 pairs of Slavonian Grebes at RSPB Loch Ruthven later in the week.  Both pairs were nest building and as such spent most of the time hidden in the reeds, but also very nice to see.

 

109.  Slavonian Grebe

 

 

[Zim Girl]

The next day we drove down to Glen Affric.  This is a very picturesque area of pinewoods, lochs, rivers and mountains within a National Nature Reserve.  We drove along the public road until it's end at the eastern end of Loch Affric.  We walked the 12 mile circuit of the loch.  Be aware that this is very tricky after prolonged heavy rain as the streams on the north side of the loch do not have bridges and cannot be crossed in spate.  It took us a while to get over one of them which I doubt would have been possible later in the week.  

 

At the far western end of the loch, Adrian spotted a bird in the water.  It was a Black-throated Diver with a youngster, one of our target birds!  Unfortunately it was too far away for a picture and we couldn't easily get any closer as by now the path we were on was a lot higher than the loch and the ground below was very boggy and rough.  I was weighing up whether to try anyway but I think the bird could sense us and was swimming out towards the middle of the loch.  Damn!!

We actually tried again for this bird on the Friday.  We walked the southern side of the loch which was around 9 miles there and back but by the time we got to the end the wind had got up and it was torrential rain.  We gamely stood and battled the elements for a few minutes but couldn't find it and had to admit defeat.  

 

Anyway, as a consolation on our first visit, a Stonechat took pity on us and perched not far away and very kindly waited for me to take it's picture.

 

110.  Eurasian Stonechat

 

 

[TonyQ]

A great start to your Scottish birds. Well done with the Grebe, a beautiful bird.

And well done for starting before me 

[Zim Girl]

The next day's visit was to Strathconon.  Another beautiful Glen, or it would have been had the sun made an appearance.  But at least it wasn't raining - yet!

On the way out of Muir of Ord I spotted a Buzzard sitting on a post.

 

111.  Common Buzzard

 

We parked before the public road road ran out at Inverchoran.  From here we were going to walk up the side of the Glen and over into Glen Orrin which can only be accessed on foot.  Just after leaving the car we got our second lifer.  A pair of Whinchats and a juvenile were flitting around the bushes.

 

112.  Whinchat