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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

The Highlands and Islands Thread (2 Viewers)

Speaking as an ex-Highlander.........ask Santa for Midge repellant!

The wildlife is spectacular... but not when it's crawling in your hair.. and nibbling at you eye lids!

Must say they do seem to be getting even worse! They are hell, nothing works to repel them at all (forget the wives tales and fancy toiletries) THEY DON'T WORK! I've tried and tested the lot. At best they work for a short while, but unless you can carry a few gallon drums of the stuff with you....a waste of money.

Only answer is either stay in or cover up.
 
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Been mainly around Inverness for the last few days, with trip to Chanonry for high tide today. All the usual stuff around. Party of 11 Ringed Plover came quite close mingled with 50 or so Dunlin. Long Tailed Duck, Goosander, Merganser, Goldeneye etc.

Have been checking gulls a lot but nothing of note.

A freshly plucked carcass outside the house this morning was interesting.
 
Spent a few hours in the Findhorn Valley yesterday. Passerines oddly provided the main interest. A couple of Stonechat in the snow, a flock of about 15 Redpoll (all looked like Lesser), and then most impressive a flock of some 50 Snow Bunting near the raptor watch car park. I put some seed down, but they just moved on after a kestrel came over.

Plenty of Ravens and Buzzards, and a very distant Golden Eagle.
 
Knocking about with the chaffinches, greenfinches and goldfinches at our bird table today were several bramblings and a single, male yellowhammer. This was in Muir of Ord.
 
Very severe freeze currently inland around Strathspey. Currently down to -16C in Nethy as I write, with 37cm of lying snow! Has not been above freezing at all for over a week now, pretty severe even for here (interesting media has got bored of the cold snap since it warmed up a bit down south ;))

Already a noticeable impact on birds, with tits and finches very few and far between. Also heard reports from local farmer of pretty desperate looking Buzzards being seen. I even saw Greylag Geese today coming to a local cattle feeder along with corvids. Cannot possibly see anywhere else they could be feeding and most along with all other waterfowl have moved out. Apart from the Spey (which is beginning to ice over), there is no free-standing fresh water at all now in the area.

I imagine the Eagles will be doing well with a few deer carcasses to find no doubt.

Current forecast is for snow again Monday with even colder (!) air moving in from the north by Tuesday, then further snow later in the week. My car is currently stuck fast on the farm track until I dig it out, lucky the shops are closed anyway! That's winter in the Highlands! Nice white Christmas though............15cm of the stuff fell!
 

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Hope you enjoyed your Christmas John.

It's freezing but not quite that cold here. I think it was sometime in the '80s that the temperatures went down that much, isn't it? We had foot long icicles hanging off the eaves!

D
 
Hope you enjoyed your Christmas John.

It's freezing but not quite that cold here. I think it was sometime in the '80s that the temperatures went down that much, isn't it? We had foot long icicles hanging off the eaves!

D

Hope you had a great Christmas too! Its heading for the coldest for several decades at least I think. I would say tonight could easily hit -20C (I am now at -17), unless it clouds over. It is looking like a bad one, certainly no thaw in sight until after New Year at least from what I can see. If the birds have any sense they will have cleared off south, which I suspect many have.
 
Hope you enjoyed your Christmas John.

It's freezing but not quite that cold here. I think it was sometime in the '80s that the temperatures went down that much, isn't it? We had foot long icicles hanging off the eaves!

D

Something like these icicles Delia?

I walked over the hill yesterday to get to the shop and damn hard work it was too lol. Got great views of a fox but very little bird life around. A bullfinch, a bluetit getting the seeds out of the pods on broom, an owl (tawny I think but I only got a fleeting look) being mobbed by a crow and a treecreeper.

Very busy in the garden though, I can always tell when the weather really starts to bite when the yellowhammers arrive in force and I've got at least 4 here at the moment.

Just glad we're not as cold here as in Nethy!

TS
 

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Yes, just like those Fiona!

That was some hard winter we had

I hope you enjoyed the festivities

D
 
Yes, just like those Fiona!

That was some hard winter we had

I hope you enjoyed the festivities

D

Well the weather cocked it all up a bit :-O. I'd planned to do a Tesco shop just before they closed on Christmas Eve to grab some cut price food but decided it wasn't worth the risk. Just glad we've got food in the freezer.

Now I'm getting bored. It's just such an effort walking in deep snow. I might make myself go out later in search of badgers or else I'm going to go stir crazy :eek!:.

Hope you had a good time!

TS
 
Well the weather cocked it all up a bit :-O. I'd planned to do a Tesco shop just before they closed on Christmas Eve to grab some cut price food but decided it wasn't worth the risk. Just glad we've got food in the freezer.

Now I'm getting bored. It's just such an effort walking in deep snow. I might make myself go out later in search of badgers or else I'm going to go stir crazy :eek!:.

Hope you had a good time!

TS

Where do you live Tree Sparrow ? The photo makes Aberdeen look like the Med..! (I wish)
 
Where do you live Tree Sparrow ? The photo makes Aberdeen look like the Med..! (I wish)

Near Dufftown and probably 200 ft higher than Dufftown.

The Med or even Aberdeen sounds quite tempting at the moment. I will admit that this weather caught us a bit on the hop. We don't normally get serious snow until Feb/March.

TS
 
Looks like a picked a good winter to move up

Brrrrr!!

Best to know what it can be like early on. If we'd known how much snow we might get when we first moved here we'd never have got rid of the JCB! Unfortunately for us our first winter didn't have more than 6 inches of snow and we thought the JCB was a waste of space. Ha ha ha ha.....big mistake lol.

TS
 
Had to get a tractor down to dig my car out today, otherwise we may be starving by New Year ! The Ravens have moved down on to the farm since the bad weather began. They'll be very welcome once the lambing starts no doubt. Quite a few Bullfinches about also I noticed, but apart from two very hardy looking Chaffinches this morning there has not been a single bird on my feeder all day. A small group of Whooper Swans seem to be using the river near Broomhill which is still running......Loch Garten has become an ice rink!

Taken this evening:
 

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Took a trip up to Burghead today from Aberdeen in search of the King Eider, and was very happy to find that it was still there, incredibly close in (maybe about 80ft) with 15 or so Common Eiders. Very much worth the trip, its a cracking bird and the viewing conditions couldn't have been better. I wonder how long the bird will stay?
 

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