david kelly
Drive-by Birder
I took a short break in Perthshire last week, staying two nights at the very relaxed and informal but really good Murray Park Hotel in Crieff.
We started out on the 28th November by driving from Tranent to RSPB Loch Leven but the lagoons were frozen so most of the birds were distant. A small family of Whooper Swans was very close to the farthest away hide but there were no ducks. From there we went on to Crieff and due to the driver not being interpreting "go straight ahead at the roundabout" as "turn left at the roundabout" we ended up on the wrong road, the A9. This turned out to be lucky as just before we reached the turn off for Auchterarder and Aberuthven the sky was darkened with skeins of Pink-footed Geese flying into flooded fields beside the road, I could also see Whooper Swans in these fields too but it was getting dark.
The next day we headed towards Comrie and Loch Earn. At St Fillans we watched three Buzzards circling and calling and a Dipper was singing where a burn enters Loch Earn near the Four Seasons. We then drove back towards Comrie, intending to head further south in search of Red Kites when I spotted two flying above the road. The lady in the nearby Dalchonzie Fruit Farm Shop explained that they were often seen from the shop and suggested a place where we could park and scan for Kites. Following her suggestion we parked safely and scanned around eventually seeing at least three Red Kites soaring over the nearby wooded hills, as well as Buzzard and Kestrel. A sparrowhawk in the Shop car park was also seen.
We then decided to head north for the afternoon towards the Sma' Glen and Glen Quaich. We didn't see too much in Glen Quaich, mainly pheasants and some Greylags and Canada Geese, but a female Black Grouse flying from roadside birches across the front of the car was nice. On the way back to Crieff we stopped in the Sma' Glen for a scan but didn't see too much until we continued on and I spotted a very large bird flying along the ridgeline. It was an immature Golden Eagle but by the time we had parked safely to scan properly it had disappeared. We ended the day by going back to the A9 to try and see the geese again but the floods were ice rinks and the skeins had obviously moved on.
The final day was a slow return to Tranent and we decided to got to Kinross as I had heard there were good views of Loch Leven from the Kirkgate Park. This is well worth a visit and we took the path north through the woods to the Burleigh Hide. On this walk we were rewarded with two beautiful Jays in the crisp winter sunlight, a very tame Buzzard and then views of the huge flocks of Coot, Tufted Duck, Goldeneye, Goosander and Red-breasted Merganser from the hide. There were also around 70 Cormorants roosting on a sand bank. The fields and woods held good numbers of birds and I would recommend this walk to anyone visiting the area.
We were back in Tranent by 4pm on Friday having had a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days.
David
We started out on the 28th November by driving from Tranent to RSPB Loch Leven but the lagoons were frozen so most of the birds were distant. A small family of Whooper Swans was very close to the farthest away hide but there were no ducks. From there we went on to Crieff and due to the driver not being interpreting "go straight ahead at the roundabout" as "turn left at the roundabout" we ended up on the wrong road, the A9. This turned out to be lucky as just before we reached the turn off for Auchterarder and Aberuthven the sky was darkened with skeins of Pink-footed Geese flying into flooded fields beside the road, I could also see Whooper Swans in these fields too but it was getting dark.
The next day we headed towards Comrie and Loch Earn. At St Fillans we watched three Buzzards circling and calling and a Dipper was singing where a burn enters Loch Earn near the Four Seasons. We then drove back towards Comrie, intending to head further south in search of Red Kites when I spotted two flying above the road. The lady in the nearby Dalchonzie Fruit Farm Shop explained that they were often seen from the shop and suggested a place where we could park and scan for Kites. Following her suggestion we parked safely and scanned around eventually seeing at least three Red Kites soaring over the nearby wooded hills, as well as Buzzard and Kestrel. A sparrowhawk in the Shop car park was also seen.
We then decided to head north for the afternoon towards the Sma' Glen and Glen Quaich. We didn't see too much in Glen Quaich, mainly pheasants and some Greylags and Canada Geese, but a female Black Grouse flying from roadside birches across the front of the car was nice. On the way back to Crieff we stopped in the Sma' Glen for a scan but didn't see too much until we continued on and I spotted a very large bird flying along the ridgeline. It was an immature Golden Eagle but by the time we had parked safely to scan properly it had disappeared. We ended the day by going back to the A9 to try and see the geese again but the floods were ice rinks and the skeins had obviously moved on.
The final day was a slow return to Tranent and we decided to got to Kinross as I had heard there were good views of Loch Leven from the Kirkgate Park. This is well worth a visit and we took the path north through the woods to the Burleigh Hide. On this walk we were rewarded with two beautiful Jays in the crisp winter sunlight, a very tame Buzzard and then views of the huge flocks of Coot, Tufted Duck, Goldeneye, Goosander and Red-breasted Merganser from the hide. There were also around 70 Cormorants roosting on a sand bank. The fields and woods held good numbers of birds and I would recommend this walk to anyone visiting the area.
We were back in Tranent by 4pm on Friday having had a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days.
David
