esmondb
The fool that MrT doesn't pity
Just back from a hair-raising trip around the Highlands.
The highlight was not only a lifer but a real close encounter.
The trip up to Scotland from London did not start auspiciously. Getting up at 5am is never the best way for me to start a day and it didn't get better when the taxi to the airport failed to arrive at 6am for the 8.20 flight to Aberdeen.
A call to the taxi office at 6.15 revealed that they had no record of any booking :eek!: and they could guarantee getting a cab out within the hour.
Mad cap ringing of other companies to no avail and much panic.
Luckily the internet and Google came to the rescue - I could book parking for the week at less cost than the cab journey if I used one of the outlying parking companies.
Did I say I was suffering from a hangover? Mad dash to Gatwick, throwing up in the car park (such style), running to the check-in desk two mins before closing. The flight was full so they'd have to kick two standby passengers off to make way for me and my missus, I threw up again in the departure lounge, explaining (lying) that I was afraid of flying, hence the nerves o
and spending the next hour bent over double with a sick bag in my hand.
The drive to Inverness from Aberdeen was serene in comparison, the birding highlight being a peregrine being harassed by a couple of crows near Inverurie, before I returned to my head-in-hands position, clutching the same thankfully unused airline sickbag.
The rest of the day was wasted sleeping off the night before. Never again.
Saturday morning and a refreshed, rejuvenated and severely admonished character headed down the A9 to Loch Garten and the RSPB reserve.
No Crested tits to be seen at the feeders or in the nearby trees was a disappointment, but plenty of coal tits (a bird which I haven't seen in London for a few years) were very welcome sights along with the usual menagerie of chaffinches, greenfinches and siskins.
On to the hide, which in previous years has been another disappointment for me, normal views consisting of the top of an osprey's head distorted by heat haze.
This time, however, the resident male had two females competing for the nest, meaning lots of aerial action as they tussled for dominance and lots of displaying and calling by the male. Coupled with less haze, good views were had by all. Even the loudmouth with the constantly ringing mobile couldn't upset me.
Easter Sunday was pretty much a lazy day but late on I headed out with the high tide to Chanonry Point to see if the Moray Firth dolphins were about.
No dolphins and even more surprisingly, for the weather was good, no red kites on the drive through the Black Isle.
Monday's birding was a trip up the Findhorn valley. This is an area that has normally been good for me with good sightings of ring ouzels, wheatears, mountain hares, peregrines, merlins and ravens, although I'd never seen the elusive golden eagle.
On arriving at the car park I spoke to a couple of other birders, one of whom, up from Matlock, proved to have the sharpest eyes I've ever encountered, picking out raptors and ravens on distant horizons and setting his scope on them, where I could see nothing at all.
We all walked up the valley, whereupon "sharp eyes" pointed to a ridge where he'd seen the distant silhouette of a large raptor. A look through my binoculars was not good enough or long enough to positively ID the bird.
We parted company as I travelled further up the valley and he stayed put to set up his scope.
On meeting up again "sharp eyes" told me how when I'd gone he'd had the scope on three golden eagles soaring together in the distance, me, all I'd had was a kestrel and a peregrine. Missing out on a lifer was disappointing but it was tempered by the fact that he'd only had distant views, I wanted a much better sighting if I was going to claim my first aquila.
We decided to head back to Inverness via Farr and Loch Ness after loudmouth from Loch Garten turned up (was he stalking me?) and I had heard that a white-phase gyrfalcon had been seen in Glen Kyllachy two weeks earlier, although it was clutching at straws to hope it would a) still be there and b) I would see it.
As luck would have it, just as we passed Carn Eitidh, a golden eagle flew low across the road just in front of our car. There was no mistaking it, it was huge and it was less than 20 feet away! Even my girlfriend, who is not normally impressed by most of the birds I point out to her, excitedly, was gobsmacked. The bird I'd really wanted to see and it was right there in front of me, almost close enough to touch.
My girlfriend quickly stopped the car and I followed the eagle with my camcorder as it stayed low to the ground. Unfortunately, I hadn't time to setup my tripod and my hands were shaking in excitement, so the images were never going to be top-notch, but I hadn't needed to use my binoculars to get a view of this bird and it had found me, rather than me finding it.
I watched the eagle rise up and soar before moving out of sight with a big grin, before realising that we'd stopped in the middle of a dip in the road and any vehicle coming in either direction would have little warning that we were there.
The journey from then on to Inverness, via a celebratory pint at the Dores Inn, was uneventful, I hardly bothered searching the skies, as I had now seen what I had came for and far better than I could have imagined.
Tuesday was a wet day so we didn't make the planned for drive to the west coast and instead pottered around Inverness town centre before packing our bags for Wednesday's drive back to Aberdeen.
Wednesday was the day we were due to fly back to London, but as we didn't need to get to the airport until 5.30pm we thought we could fit in a trip to Insh Marshes and then follow the scenic route to Aberdeen through the heart of the Cairngorms.
Curlews were the main bird present at Insh, their wonderful trilling calls ringing out over the marshes. Buzzards were present in good numbers and a marsh harrier made a brief, cameo appearance.Pink footed geese and whooper swans also showed well.
The trip down south to Kingussie had again been uneventful, but we should have taken heed of the roadworks on the A9 that our journey back might not be as smooth as we had planned - the sign saying 80 miles to Aberdeen that we passed at 4.15pm led to some quickfire mental calculations and some Colin McCrae (or Marcus Gronholm for Karwin) style driving.
For anyone living in Scotland, how many tractors is it possible to get stuck behind when you're in a hurry?
We managed to make it to the airport in time and in one piece and assumed that we would have no further incidents once we were back in London, but guess who showed at 5.30 this morning?
Only the bloody taxi driver! :C
The highlight was not only a lifer but a real close encounter.
The trip up to Scotland from London did not start auspiciously. Getting up at 5am is never the best way for me to start a day and it didn't get better when the taxi to the airport failed to arrive at 6am for the 8.20 flight to Aberdeen.
A call to the taxi office at 6.15 revealed that they had no record of any booking :eek!: and they could guarantee getting a cab out within the hour.
Mad cap ringing of other companies to no avail and much panic.
Luckily the internet and Google came to the rescue - I could book parking for the week at less cost than the cab journey if I used one of the outlying parking companies.
Did I say I was suffering from a hangover? Mad dash to Gatwick, throwing up in the car park (such style), running to the check-in desk two mins before closing. The flight was full so they'd have to kick two standby passengers off to make way for me and my missus, I threw up again in the departure lounge, explaining (lying) that I was afraid of flying, hence the nerves o
and spending the next hour bent over double with a sick bag in my hand.The drive to Inverness from Aberdeen was serene in comparison, the birding highlight being a peregrine being harassed by a couple of crows near Inverurie, before I returned to my head-in-hands position, clutching the same thankfully unused airline sickbag.
The rest of the day was wasted sleeping off the night before. Never again.
Saturday morning and a refreshed, rejuvenated and severely admonished character headed down the A9 to Loch Garten and the RSPB reserve.
No Crested tits to be seen at the feeders or in the nearby trees was a disappointment, but plenty of coal tits (a bird which I haven't seen in London for a few years) were very welcome sights along with the usual menagerie of chaffinches, greenfinches and siskins.
On to the hide, which in previous years has been another disappointment for me, normal views consisting of the top of an osprey's head distorted by heat haze.
This time, however, the resident male had two females competing for the nest, meaning lots of aerial action as they tussled for dominance and lots of displaying and calling by the male. Coupled with less haze, good views were had by all. Even the loudmouth with the constantly ringing mobile couldn't upset me.
Easter Sunday was pretty much a lazy day but late on I headed out with the high tide to Chanonry Point to see if the Moray Firth dolphins were about.
No dolphins and even more surprisingly, for the weather was good, no red kites on the drive through the Black Isle.
Monday's birding was a trip up the Findhorn valley. This is an area that has normally been good for me with good sightings of ring ouzels, wheatears, mountain hares, peregrines, merlins and ravens, although I'd never seen the elusive golden eagle.
On arriving at the car park I spoke to a couple of other birders, one of whom, up from Matlock, proved to have the sharpest eyes I've ever encountered, picking out raptors and ravens on distant horizons and setting his scope on them, where I could see nothing at all.
We all walked up the valley, whereupon "sharp eyes" pointed to a ridge where he'd seen the distant silhouette of a large raptor. A look through my binoculars was not good enough or long enough to positively ID the bird.
We parted company as I travelled further up the valley and he stayed put to set up his scope.
On meeting up again "sharp eyes" told me how when I'd gone he'd had the scope on three golden eagles soaring together in the distance, me, all I'd had was a kestrel and a peregrine. Missing out on a lifer was disappointing but it was tempered by the fact that he'd only had distant views, I wanted a much better sighting if I was going to claim my first aquila.
We decided to head back to Inverness via Farr and Loch Ness after loudmouth from Loch Garten turned up (was he stalking me?) and I had heard that a white-phase gyrfalcon had been seen in Glen Kyllachy two weeks earlier, although it was clutching at straws to hope it would a) still be there and b) I would see it.
As luck would have it, just as we passed Carn Eitidh, a golden eagle flew low across the road just in front of our car. There was no mistaking it, it was huge and it was less than 20 feet away! Even my girlfriend, who is not normally impressed by most of the birds I point out to her, excitedly, was gobsmacked. The bird I'd really wanted to see and it was right there in front of me, almost close enough to touch.
My girlfriend quickly stopped the car and I followed the eagle with my camcorder as it stayed low to the ground. Unfortunately, I hadn't time to setup my tripod and my hands were shaking in excitement, so the images were never going to be top-notch, but I hadn't needed to use my binoculars to get a view of this bird and it had found me, rather than me finding it.
I watched the eagle rise up and soar before moving out of sight with a big grin, before realising that we'd stopped in the middle of a dip in the road and any vehicle coming in either direction would have little warning that we were there.
The journey from then on to Inverness, via a celebratory pint at the Dores Inn, was uneventful, I hardly bothered searching the skies, as I had now seen what I had came for and far better than I could have imagined.
Tuesday was a wet day so we didn't make the planned for drive to the west coast and instead pottered around Inverness town centre before packing our bags for Wednesday's drive back to Aberdeen.
Wednesday was the day we were due to fly back to London, but as we didn't need to get to the airport until 5.30pm we thought we could fit in a trip to Insh Marshes and then follow the scenic route to Aberdeen through the heart of the Cairngorms.
Curlews were the main bird present at Insh, their wonderful trilling calls ringing out over the marshes. Buzzards were present in good numbers and a marsh harrier made a brief, cameo appearance.Pink footed geese and whooper swans also showed well.
The trip down south to Kingussie had again been uneventful, but we should have taken heed of the roadworks on the A9 that our journey back might not be as smooth as we had planned - the sign saying 80 miles to Aberdeen that we passed at 4.15pm led to some quickfire mental calculations and some Colin McCrae (or Marcus Gronholm for Karwin) style driving.
For anyone living in Scotland, how many tractors is it possible to get stuck behind when you're in a hurry?
We managed to make it to the airport in time and in one piece and assumed that we would have no further incidents once we were back in London, but guess who showed at 5.30 this morning?
Only the bloody taxi driver! :C
