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Saturday was a bit of a decision day for Ros & I. Our circumstances are going to change drastically in the near future and long distance birding may become a thing of the past. With that in mind there was one bird I desperately wanted to see before my trips are knocked on the head, the Capercaillie.
We decided to throw caution to the wind and mid-day saw us setting out for the long journey from Birmingham to Loch Garten. Each day, at 05:30, there is a supervised watch over a Lek that takes place from the Osprey hide and for the past few days there have been up to 5 Caper’s seen there. I wanted a bit of the action so the plan was to sleep in the car park at Loch Garten and be ready for the early morning call to the Lek.
I tend to stay away from the Motorway until I get to Jnct 13 of the M6, much preferring to go via Oldbury and Wolverhampton, so cutting out the usual motorway jams that take place from Jnct 8 northwards. Imagine my amazement when Ros pointed out a bird that was drifting over Sainsbury’s store in the middle of Oldbury’s town centre. It was a Spoonbill. What on earth it was doing flying over such an urban area as Oldbury is any body’s guess but it certainly was an excellent start to the long haul.
We arrived at Loch Garten, (448 miles away from Birmingham) just after 8pm and on the way the only sightings worth mentioning were a couple of Oystercatchers, just outside of Carlisle, that were perched on a fence, right by the side of a motorway. It was if they were watching the world pass them by. In fact we saw another couple of Oystercatchers in Scotland doing exactly the same thing. As we passed over the river Eden, near Carlisle we saw a flock of about 20 Sand Martins, but one big surprise was by jnct 14 of the A74 (M). There were 2 Little Egrets on the edge of the River Clyde, my first for Scotland. I didn’t even know they were up there. Buzzards started to become evident as we progressed into Scotland and as we approached Dunkeld my first Osprey of the year flew over our heads. The day in Scotland was looking good.
Views that we saw on the way were, Pitlochry , Blair Castle , near Blair Atholl, and views of the Cairngorms that at the time we were approaching looked lovely in the low sunlight. Loch Garten itself took on a beauty as dusk drew in, and we sat and watched the sun go down to the sound of Common Sandpipers and Goldeneye. Also out on the water were 6 Red breasted Mergansers (4 male and 2 female) plus about 20 Sand martins dipping and swirling over the flat calm waters of the Loch. What a beautiful place to be.
The night didn’t fully arrive until nearly 22:00 as there was still enough light to see the car park we were in. We settled down for the night but I woke up at about 01:30. I looked through the window at an amazing sight. The stars in the sky were so bright that I just had to go for a walk to the waters edge and see the whole vista of sky, stars and water.
Standing there, listening to the vast silence that was punctuated every now and again by the low murmurings of the Goldeneye was sheer poetry on the mind. The dark sky was a mass of twinkling stars, as there is no pollution up here, only pure clean air. If there is anyone that can’t appreciate the sheer quality of what was before me then I have to say that that person has no soul. It was one of those memorable moments that will stay with me forever. Another moment came in the morning when I awoke to the beauty of a low moon reflecting over the same body of water, but that will come in part two of the trip report.
We decided to throw caution to the wind and mid-day saw us setting out for the long journey from Birmingham to Loch Garten. Each day, at 05:30, there is a supervised watch over a Lek that takes place from the Osprey hide and for the past few days there have been up to 5 Caper’s seen there. I wanted a bit of the action so the plan was to sleep in the car park at Loch Garten and be ready for the early morning call to the Lek.
I tend to stay away from the Motorway until I get to Jnct 13 of the M6, much preferring to go via Oldbury and Wolverhampton, so cutting out the usual motorway jams that take place from Jnct 8 northwards. Imagine my amazement when Ros pointed out a bird that was drifting over Sainsbury’s store in the middle of Oldbury’s town centre. It was a Spoonbill. What on earth it was doing flying over such an urban area as Oldbury is any body’s guess but it certainly was an excellent start to the long haul.
We arrived at Loch Garten, (448 miles away from Birmingham) just after 8pm and on the way the only sightings worth mentioning were a couple of Oystercatchers, just outside of Carlisle, that were perched on a fence, right by the side of a motorway. It was if they were watching the world pass them by. In fact we saw another couple of Oystercatchers in Scotland doing exactly the same thing. As we passed over the river Eden, near Carlisle we saw a flock of about 20 Sand Martins, but one big surprise was by jnct 14 of the A74 (M). There were 2 Little Egrets on the edge of the River Clyde, my first for Scotland. I didn’t even know they were up there. Buzzards started to become evident as we progressed into Scotland and as we approached Dunkeld my first Osprey of the year flew over our heads. The day in Scotland was looking good.
Views that we saw on the way were, Pitlochry , Blair Castle , near Blair Atholl, and views of the Cairngorms that at the time we were approaching looked lovely in the low sunlight. Loch Garten itself took on a beauty as dusk drew in, and we sat and watched the sun go down to the sound of Common Sandpipers and Goldeneye. Also out on the water were 6 Red breasted Mergansers (4 male and 2 female) plus about 20 Sand martins dipping and swirling over the flat calm waters of the Loch. What a beautiful place to be.
The night didn’t fully arrive until nearly 22:00 as there was still enough light to see the car park we were in. We settled down for the night but I woke up at about 01:30. I looked through the window at an amazing sight. The stars in the sky were so bright that I just had to go for a walk to the waters edge and see the whole vista of sky, stars and water.
Standing there, listening to the vast silence that was punctuated every now and again by the low murmurings of the Goldeneye was sheer poetry on the mind. The dark sky was a mass of twinkling stars, as there is no pollution up here, only pure clean air. If there is anyone that can’t appreciate the sheer quality of what was before me then I have to say that that person has no soul. It was one of those memorable moments that will stay with me forever. Another moment came in the morning when I awoke to the beauty of a low moon reflecting over the same body of water, but that will come in part two of the trip report.
