Pitlochry birding (1 Viewer)

Hi,

I'm likely to be moving to pitlochry in the near future and was wondering if there was a local birding page or a thread on here I should keep an eye on?

Thanks,
Sarah

Hi Sarah

You're certainly moving to a lovely part of the country with some of the most spectacular scenery. Birding can be difficult though, as there's no real 'hot spot'. However, Killiecrankie, about 5-10 minutes north and Loch of the Lowes, 10-15 minutes south are well worth visiting on a regular basis.

If you like walking, there's some wonderful trails up in the hills around there.

A drive out to Rannoch Station is well worth doing (especially along the south side of the lochs).

We don't, at the moment, have anyone reporting regularly from that area, so if you could let us know what you see that would be wonderful. The relevant local patch thread is Tayforth Birding; and all things scottish can be found here.

If you want to PM me, I can perhaps give you a bit more detailed information too.

Funnily enough, we just did the Perthshire drive yesterday (taken from "Best Birdwatching sites in the Scottish Highlands" by Gorodn Hamlett (see Amazon)). We started by heading from Dunkeld to Loch Freuchie and passed a field with 9 black grouse. Also loads of common gulls, oystercatchers, lapwings, curlews and jackdaws in the fields.
Heading into Glen Quaich were meadow pipits and red grouse. Stopped halfway along the loch and my wife spotted a large bird in the trees on the island. Turned out to be a white tailed sea eagle. Being harrassed by common gulls, it took off, circled the island and then flew straight over our heads. Also seen from here were red grouse, lapwings, curlew, meadow pipits, canada geese, greylag geese, goosander and tufted ducks. The road was closed near Garrow, so we doubled back to take the road to Aberfeldy (1 loch on this road - completely frozen and snow covered - but plenty of forest to explore).

We rejoined the route and headed for Ben Lawers visitor centre. We got to the Ben Lawers car park (it appears there may not be a visitor centre anymore) and the road was closed here too. Buzzards seen here with deer on the slopes.

With these 2 roads closed we thought we'd give Glen Lyon a miss as it was likely this may be closed too!

LOL winter still hanging on in the hills eh!! I love that run, Richard, one of my favourites.

That climb at Garrow, I understand, is supposed to be the steepest in Scotland.

The Eagles seem to be getting around, don't they. I've seen Red Kites in that area too.

Thanks for the advice. Moving up in three to four weeks so I'll let you know what I see once I'm settled in and keep in touch

I do hope the move goes well Sarah.