Speyside Wildlife - Day tour (1 Viewer)

• Given our target birds (below) and the places we're visiting (also below) which targets are we most likely to miss.
• Has anybody been on one of these day trips - if so, what was it like?
• Ptarmigan and Dotterel would be very nice additions. How likely are we to see them with an expert taking us?
• Any other advice?

hollis_f said:

Hi,

Didi and I are planning a trip to Scotland for the first week in May. We've got three days in Speyside and three days in Skye.

Being as it's our first time we're planning on spending our last day of the Speyside section on one of Speyside Wildlife's day trips. We're hoping this will allow us to pick up any species we'd missed during the first two days.

But Speyside Wildlife do several trips - Pine Forest, Highland Glen, Moorland and Cairngorm.

So, my questions are -

• Given our target birds (below) and the places we're visiting (also below) which targets are we most likely to miss.
• Has anybody been on one of these day trips - if so, what was it like?
• Ptarmigan and Dotterel would be very nice additions. How likely are we to see them with an expert taking us?
• Any other advice?

For the previous days I'd been planning on doing -

Loch Ruthven, Findhorn Valley, Loch Garten Capercaille walk, Loch Mallachie and anywhere else we have time for.


Our target species will be -

Crested Tit
Capercaillie
Black Grouse
Red Grouse
Red Throated Diver
Black Throated Diver
Crossbill
Golden Eagle
Osprey
Merlin
Slavonian Grebe

Click to expand...

paulwfromtheden said:

Frank,
I'll talk to you at Dunge, I spent a week on Speyside.
Paul

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Mike Cross said:

or alternatively (and I appreciate that the ideas of altruism and information sharing are sadly alien to many) you could provide information on the public forum that they were sought on. I'm sure that there are many would value that.

Click to expand...

hollis_f said:

Hi,

Didi and I are planning a trip to Scotland for the first week in May. We've got three days in Speyside and three days in Skye.

Being as it's our first time we're planning on spending our last day of the Speyside section on one of Speyside Wildlife's day trips. We're hoping this will allow us to pick up any species we'd missed during the first two days.

But Speyside Wildlife do several trips - Pine Forest, Highland Glen, Moorland and Cairngorm.

So, my questions are -

• Given our target birds (below) and the places we're visiting (also below) which targets are we most likely to miss.
• Has anybody been on one of these day trips - if so, what was it like?
• Ptarmigan and Dotterel would be very nice additions. How likely are we to see them with an expert taking us?
• Any other advice?

For the previous days I'd been planning on doing -

Loch Ruthven, Findhorn Valley, Loch Garten Capercaille walk, Loch Mallachie and anywhere else we have time for.


Our target species will be -

Crested Tit - Learn there calls and spend a couple of hours in the pine forest, I got lucky after about an hour
Capercaillie - Good luck with that one!!
Black Grouse - There is a Lec very close to Insh Marshes, if you have a chat with the warden then he may allow you to join the survey, but they are a very early start - about 04:00!!!, obviously depends when you are going to be there
Red Grouse
Red Throated Diver - Should be easy enough to spot, there were a couple regularly on the loch at Insh Marshes
Black Throated Diver
Crossbill
Golden Eagle - I saw a couple of GE's in the Cairngorms, watch out for the locals though, they take great delight pointing out a GE to the English, when it's obviously a common buzzard
Osprey - Loch Garten or Insh Marshes (great views from here and very quiet)
Merlin -
Slavonian Grebe - RSPB cant remember the name - near Inverness, they breed there

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