Zim Girl's 5th Big Year 2022

[Kitsafari]

1 hour ago, Zim Girl said:

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

 

 

 

 

what a cool hairdo!

[Zim Girl]

We saw plenty of Red Deer across the hill side as we climbed up the Glen.  As expected it started raining as we got to the top, we had been watching the clouds come in behind us.  In front of us the River Orrin wound it's way along the Glen.  We climbed down the other side and started walking east parallel, but high above the river.  Felt like the middle of nowhere, fantastic.

 

 

 

Then we got our next surprise.  We spotted a bird flying above the river.  An Osprey!  It made one long pass then seemed to disappear in the distance but then we saw it come back out of the cloud and watch it dive into the river.  It came back up with a very large fish and then flew away over the mountain.  

That was brilliant.  I am posting my rubbish picture because we enjoyed the encounter so much.  However, we did stop off at Loch Insh on the way home to get a close up (def not quite the same thrill).

 

113.  Osprey

 

Loch Insh Osprey

[Zim Girl]

We followed the river for a couple more miles until we reached a bothy which gave us some shelter from the rain while eating lunch.

Then it was back up the hillside to make our way back over into Strathconon.  We walked through a forest on the other side and saw a Barn swallow sitting on a fence.  You can see it's still raining .

 

114.  Barn Swallow

 

Then we drove the couple of miles to Loch Beannacharain at the end of the road, to have a walk around the end of the loch and into the hills for a short way.  I had prepared a long walk that would have taken us up into the mountains at the end of the Glen but it warned about rivers being difficult to cross in spate so we decided against it.  We walked until we hit the first river and then turned back.

 

We had seen a couple of swans in the loch when we parked up assuming they were Mute but when we looked again on the way back to the car it turns out they were Whooper.  It gets a picture because it is the closest we have been to them.

 

No count.  Whooper Swan

 

 

[Zim Girl]

At last, a day with no rain.  This time we drove back past Inverness and down into Strathdearn and the Findhorn valley.

I had a 13 mile circuit planned out from Coignafearn at the end of the valley alongside the River Findhorn, then up into the hills and moors.

 

An easy bird to get by the river.

115.  Common Sandpiper

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

Such a pleasure not to be walking in waterproof trousers, which can be a bit 'boil in the bag' at this time of year.

We were walking on easy shooters tracks into the mountains and then up across the moor.  We expected to see plenty of Red Grouse around here but not a single one.  We happened to be chatting to a guy later in the week who does upland bird surveys in this area and he told us it is a very bad year for grouse.  Looks like the 12th might not be so glorious this year.

 

While crossing the moor Adrian suddenly shouted, 'I think that was a Dotterel', and pointed to a bird flying up the hill.  Mmm, not sure it will be, I said, but chased after it anyway.  I reached the top and saw two birds making a lot of noise on the ground in the distance.  They didn't actually fly away but just kept hopping off as I got any closer.  I got what I could  and turned to go back down.  Adrian had just reached me and I told him his Dotterel was actually a Golden Plover, which I was really pleased about because I have only ever seen them in the distance before.  We walked back onto the track and then from right under our feet there was a starburst of chicks.  Three Golden Plover chicks ran in different directions along the path.  Ahh, that was why the adults were making so much noise, they were trying to lead us away.  So relieved we didn't actually stand on one.  I took a quick picture and we hurried away so the adults could return.

 

116.  European Golden Plover

 

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

We also saw a fleeting glimpse of a Mountain Hare as it ran across the moor.  Sadly later, when we were driving over the high moor road down to Loch Ruthven we saw a dead one on the roadside.

 

The next day we had ear-marked to climb Ben Wyvis, the only Munro in the area, and also a very good place to look for Dotterel and hopefully Ptarmigan.  It's never a good start if you can't see the mountain you are about to climb because it is covered in cloud but we started anyway walking through the lower forest slopes. The rain got harder and harder and now we couldn't even see the mountain in front of it that has to be climbed first.  It is a very steep climb and you have to come down the same way so we

decided to bail and go somewhere else.  It was still only around 8am so we drove to Glen Cannich and then to RSPB Corrimony, an area of Caledonian forest and moorland supposedly good for Crested Tit.  

We had glimpsed a Crested Tit in the Affric forest earlier in the week and decided to have a really good look around.  

 

You pass through a farm before reaching the forest and in the fields were a couple of common gulls.

 

117.  Common Gull

 

We carried on through the forest checking every tree for the elusive tit, well until we got neck ache!  

The track then takes you down to a small lochan which is good for Greenshank (or not).  Then we walked up onto the moor and realised the track had run out.  We contemplated roughing it across the moor and finding another way back but it got too boggy so we turned round and walked back and had another fruitless search in the forest for that tit.

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

Our last full day.  The plan was to walk to the end of Loch Affric and find the Black-throated Diver, (well you know how that panned out), and then hit the forests and find a Crested Tit and a Crossbill.

 

So after the long walk back from Loch Affric where luckily the rain stopped and our first proper sunshine came out, we had dried off nicely.  I found a Mistle Thrush in the car park area.  We had seen a lot of Mistle thrushes during the week but none too close.

 

118.  Mistle Thrush

 

[Zim Girl]

Then after a walk along the Affric Kintail Way for a bit we drove back along the Glen to the Dog Falls car park by the River Affric.  We found our way back through the forest to the tree where we had briefly seen that Crested Tit.  We spent a good while pottering around in that area but nothing.  One day I will find a Crested Tit!

However the Crossbill came out to play and posed very nicely (if a bit high) on the top of a tree.  

 

119.  Scottish Crossbill

 

 

[Zim Girl]

Then we found a Willow Warbler who was seeing how much food he could stuff in his beak at once.

 

120.  Willow Warbler

 

[Zim Girl]

Then something we weren't really expecting.  We could hear crows in the trees above us, and when we looked up we could see they were Hooded.  The only Hooded crows we saw all week.

 

121.  Hooded Crow

 

 

[Zim Girl]

On the Saturday morning we were due to leave the weather forecast was for sun, so we decided to go back to the loch where we had seen the Slavonian Grebe to see if could get better pictures.  The weather was beautiful when we left the cottage but ten minutes later a huge black cloud came over and just as we parked up it threw it down with rain.  Not put off we sat and waited the twenty or so minutes it took to go over and then we hunted for the grebe.  But it was nowhere to be seen.  Instead we walked alongside the loch to get a picture of one of the many little grebes we had seen here previously.   

 

122.  Little Grebe

 

So there we have it.  Despite the weather we had a really good time.  The only thing it stopped us doing was climb the mountain, and a bit more sun could have made my landscape pictures look a bit prettier but we enjoyed ourselves all the same.  

Luckily the week after we got home the weather was fabulous.

[xelas]

Scotland always delivers ... rain and shine! It seems more rain this time yet you got very good photos of some exciting birds. Well done!

[Zim Girl]

Thank you @xelas

[Galana]

Despite the abnormally wet spring weather you did very well indeed. Time wise I was trying to figure out which was your 'last' Saturday to match my whereabouts but as both were horribly wet it was impossible. One of them we spent in Tarbert/Harris and the next an even wetter drive to Lochmaddy for the boat to Skye. Both were unrepeatably bad.

You did well in the circumstances and got two of my minor targets, Crossbill and Whinchat both of which eluded me although I did think I had a Whinchat but later examination proved it was just an off colour Stonechat .

Next year WILL be better for you!

[Zim Girl]

@Galana, we were there from 11th to 18th June.  I saw from your TR that you probably passed close to our cottage on the way up to Ullapool.

I was very pleased with the Whinchat and the Crossbill, however it was a shame we didn't get the chance to try for Dotterel and Ptarmigan.

[Galana]

50 minutes ago, Zim Girl said:

you probably passed close to our cottage on the way up to Ullapool.

Are. It was you that brought the rain. We were at Little Loch Broom in glorious sunshine for the week 4th-11th and met rain in Ullapool on the 11th on the way to Lewis.

[PeterHG]

Some very good birds in spite of the conditions. Those Slavonian Grebes are real beauties in their summer plumage!

[Zim Girl]

Thank you @PeterHG, we were very pleased to find them.

[michael-ibk]

You must have enjoyed all those hikes, even in the rain! Some very cool birds, love the Slavonian Grebe! 

[Zim Girl]

On 7/2/2022 at 5:35 PM, michael-ibk said:

You must have enjoyed all those hikes, even in the rain! Some very cool birds, love the Slavonian Grebe! 

We did.  The walking in the Scottish glens and hills is fabulous.

[Dave Williams]

The weather hasn't been too kind to anyone on their trips to Scotland it seems. I spoke to a friend last night who recently returned and he said the birding was poor at best. He stayed in cottages both on the west and east coasts.He saw very few indeed Even a walk up to look for Ptarmigan and Dotterel at Aviemore produced nothing as the helicopter was ferrying materials to repair the railway and consequently scaring off the birds. There was a bright side though...he got  a commission to photograph the helicopter in action from the company that own it!

[Zim Girl]

Wow, so that's a long time since I last posted!

I will catch up with a batch now, then that will be it for a bit as we are off on our return visit to Kafue NP, Zambia next Friday, postponed from last year.

 

To start there are a few old ones from my EBC folder, (still hoping for better for some of the others), ending up with some more recent ones and a couple of lifers .

 

123.  Goldcrest   

 

Back garden  -  17/02/22

 

[Zim Girl]

124.  Carrion Crow

Back garden  -  14/03/22

 

[Zim Girl]

125.  Common Chiffchaff

Marton Mere nature reserve  -  10/05/22

 

[Zim Girl]

126.  Common House Martin

Lower Brennand, Forest of Bowland  -  27/08/22