Contacts

Speyside,Scotland
20th to 23rd May 2005

The drive from Stranraer was hampered by torrential rain in many parts of the journey northward. It was good to see the skies clearing as we approached the southern slopes of the Cairngorms. We based ourselves in Granton on Spey, being central to all the places we wanted to visit. For anyone wanting a place to stay in the Scottish Highlands we can firmly recommend the "Holmhill House" in Granton. All the things you would expect, very friendly and helpful,excellent rooms and the all important hearty breakfast!

We met our guide Roy Dennis at 5.30am on Saturday at the Loch Gartan centre in pursuit of the elusive capercaillie. We viewed Greater spotted woodpecker, osprey, siskin and red squirrel but left without a view of the capercaille.Cuckoo's were heard calling in the distance.We drove around through the forest lanes for possible 'gritting' caper, but without result. We returned to the Gartan centre just in time as a capercaille had been found. The view was not good, Just shoulders upwards in the long grass, but rewarding to see it anyway.Better views of the birds have been recorded earlier in the month.We visited a well known black grouse 'lek' near to Lough Gartan, just north of Tulloch Moor, but it was too late in the morning and we left the area without a sighting.

After breakfast we went to Abernethy Forest in pursuit of crested tit and crossbill. We saw goldcrest, tree creeper, willow warbler and whinchat along with other common woodland birds but even the persistant 'calling' from Roy did nothing to bring the crestie's or crossbills out into the open. We checked out another forest along the Boat of Gartan to Carrbridge road, but with no success. We viewed Slavonian grebe nesting beside a small lake/large puddle in a roadside field. Present were also Canada geese, greylag geese, goldeneye, wigeon, great crested grebe and whooper with other common ducks. After lunch we headed along the B9007 through 'Dava Mor' checking the skyline for golden eagle, perigrine, and the heathland for hen harrier.We viewed a peregrine but no other raptures. We turned off along the 'Lochindorb' road and stopped to view red grouse. At the loch itself there where more red grouse, wheatear, and on the loch, good views of black-throated diver. Along the shoreline where a number of common sandpiper and curlew. We continued along to the end of the road and headed along the A939 towards Nairn a short distance and viewed red-throated divers on a small roadside loch. Heading back towards Granton on Spey we stopped off about a mile along the road and viewed a lone short-eared owl which gave us great views. This ended a full and rewarding days bird watching.

On Sunday morning at first light, in the woodland behind our guesthouse , a woodcock, long-eared owl, grey wagtail and tree creeper were seen by individual members of the group. Also in surrounding gardens, redstart, and spotted flycatcher were seen.

We travelled up to The Black Isle, Inverness to meet up with Colin Crooks, our guide for the day. We travelled westward, bound for Gruinard bay.

A redkite flew accross the road but traffic conditions did not allow us to stop and view it. We stopped at a small loch called Loch Droma where an artifical island of polstyrene had been constructed to allow the sucessful breeding of black throated divers.We also viewed greenshank, peregrine and buzzard at this location. No new birds were seen until we arrived at Gruinard Bay where on Gruinard Island a sea eagle was perched. This bird was being mobbed by a buzzard, which looked like a sparrow in comparison. We also viewed Great northern diver in the bay, and also black guillimot, shag, comorant, drake eider and artic tern. We retraced our steps and drove back to Dundonnell and stopped of at a road side eyrie and viewed a pair of golden eagles with good closeups. We also heard ring-ouzel and cuckoo. Driving back through the Black Isle again we got good views of red kite. Along the A9 close to Carrbridge at an area called Slochd we stopped off at a scree slope where we got good views of around six ring-ouzel. On Sunday night after a personal trip to Forres I encountered a barn owl in the Drumine Forrest area with a rodent in its talons, trying to raise itself above the minibus in front of me. At the Granton end of Dava Mor there was a tawny owl sitting on a wall.

On Monday morning on the journey south we stopped off at Dunkeld, at The Loch of the Lowes. We viewed osprey, great spotted woodpecker and surprisingly on the centre feeders, a tree creeper and a yellow hammer along with siskin and all the usual finches.

The weekend was a great sucess for us with still a few birds to go back for in the future.
The full list of all 106 species was as follows:-

Black Throated Diver,	Red Throated diver,	Pheasant,	Gt Crested Grebe,	Capercaillie,	Coot,
Gt Nortern Diver,	Jackdaw,	Moorhen,	Magpie,	Slavonian Grebe,	Snipe,
Tree Creeper,	Fulmar,	Dipper,	Curlew,	Storm Petrel,	Wren,
Manx Shearwater,	Woodcock,	Gannet,	Green Sandpiper,	Mistle Thrush,	Shag,
Song Thrush,	Cormorant,	Grey heron,	Mallard,	Herring Gull,	Eider,
wheatear,	Common Gull,	Stonechat,	Whinchat,	Oystercatcher,	Redstart,
Black-headed Gull,	Wigeon,	Tufted Duck,	Common Tern,	Goldeneye,	Robin,
Artic Tern,	Whitethroat,	Guillemot,	Black Guillemot,	Shelduck,	Siskin,
Dunnock,	Greylag Goose,	Wood pigeon,	Spotted Flycatcher,	Collared Dove,	Cuckoo,
Willow Warbler,	Canada Goose,	Meadow Pipit,	Barn Owl,	Tawny Owl,	Swift,
Pink-footed Goose,	Long-eared Owl,	Short-eared Owl,	Golden Eagle,	Gt Spotted Woodpecker,	Raven,
Barnacle Goose,	Mute Swan,	Rock Pipit,	Tree Pipit,	Pied Wagtail,	Kestrel,
Yellow Hammer,	Buzzard,	Redkite,	Starling,	Greenfinch,	Osprey,
Red Grouse,	Peregrine,	House Martin,	Sand Martin,	Goldfinch,	Rook,
Great tit,	Blue tit,	Coal tit,	Lapwing,	Little grebe,	Teal,
Common sandpiper,	Redshank,	Ring ouzel,	Black-backed gull,	Black bird,	Swift,
Grey wagtail,	Sea eagle,	Skylark,	Swallow,	Chaffinch,	Raven,
House sparrow,	Carrion crow,	Hooded crow,	Merlin.

'The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076,
Scotland no. SC037654'