JWN Andrewes
Poor Judge of Pasta.
April 26th
Great drive down Loch Ness on Friday morning, bit of a crawl through Fort William, and arrived at the Corran Ferry just as the boat arrived, so it wasn’t too long before we were bowling along on the correct shore of Loch Linnhe, then peeling off across country to the head of Loch Sunart, where we stopped, in squally weather, to scan the shoreline on the off chance of maybe a wader or two. No dice in the poor weather, so we pressed on, arriving by the upper bridge over the river in Strontian a few minutes later and clocking the Black Duck almost instantly! Not what I had been expecting given this bird’s reputation for being tough to connect with over the years. Perhaps now he’s middle-aged he’s become a bit more settled in his ways. I can imagine he’ll be harder to spot once the foliage on the overhanging trees fills out, but for now he is extremely showy (although kudos for anyone who can spot him in the pic of the boys). In much improved weather we spent quite a while with the Duck (having come all this way would’ve been rude to dash off) and had Cuckoo over calling while we were there, but eventually we decided to explore the area further. Not for the first time Gordon Hamlett’s vade mecum was pressed into service, as a result of which we headed first to the Garbh Eilean Hide. No Eagles or Otters in our brief visit, but nice views of Common Seals, a few Hooded Crows & a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers.
Next up was Ariundle Woodland, a beautiful spot, horribly marred by what looked like a recently laid down hardcore vehicle track which had enabled heavy plant to cart off timber from a recently felled area of conifers. A Grasshopper Warbler reeled for a bit from by the track shortly after we left the car, but soon shut up, and after a while we passed the extent of the forestry road and found ourselves in a quite wonderful, light, mossy woodland, boughs dripping with epiphytes, choruses of Willow Warblers and Chaffinches belting it out. A couple of Redstarts sang too, just long enough to indicate their presence without actually revealing their location, and a Tree Pipit staked its claim from a pathside perch. This is a site which I really feel we weren't seeing at its best. Nice though it was I'm sure that a visit earlier in the day, or better yet a little later in the season, would be so much more fruitful. A quick lunch in the Ariundle Craft Centre (very agreeable bacon & fried egg roll, decent coffee too) and then off, although we couldn’t leave without another session with the Black Duck, still showing ridiculously well, bird of the year so far!
Straight onto the Corran Ferry, no waiting, again, a crawl through Fort William, again, and then we were on our way, heading east. One of the great pleasures of Scotland trips is driving through glorious scenery on mostly empty roads. Frequently cars would pull over or slow to let us pass when we caught them up, and we always made sure to pay the courtesy forwards (which if I’m honest happened less frequently). General Wade’s Military Road was a new one to me. According to Wikipedia General Wade constructed a series of roads linking various Scottish garrisons in the middle of the eighteenth century, which adequately accounts for the state of the A889 between Laggan and Dalwhinnie. We were booked into a Travelodge near Perth for the night, and I had initially planned to maybe pop back into Loch of the Lowes on the way, but as we were quite a bit ahead of schedule I decided to try and squeeze in a detour up to Glenshee. The weather was not appropriate for an assault on the Cairnwell, particularly not this late in the day, but ever the optimist, thinking that Ptarmigans would probably still have a decent quota of white in their plumage, and recalling that I’d scoped them from the car park before, I was hoping to take advantage in one of the reasonably frequent breaks in the rain to score. Unfortunately the last decent break was about two minutes before we arrived, and after forty minutes of waiting in the car in the battering rain we had to concede that our year tick Red Grouse behind the café was as good as it was going to get. A quick, uneventful call in to Loch of the Lowes and we were done for the day.
Great drive down Loch Ness on Friday morning, bit of a crawl through Fort William, and arrived at the Corran Ferry just as the boat arrived, so it wasn’t too long before we were bowling along on the correct shore of Loch Linnhe, then peeling off across country to the head of Loch Sunart, where we stopped, in squally weather, to scan the shoreline on the off chance of maybe a wader or two. No dice in the poor weather, so we pressed on, arriving by the upper bridge over the river in Strontian a few minutes later and clocking the Black Duck almost instantly! Not what I had been expecting given this bird’s reputation for being tough to connect with over the years. Perhaps now he’s middle-aged he’s become a bit more settled in his ways. I can imagine he’ll be harder to spot once the foliage on the overhanging trees fills out, but for now he is extremely showy (although kudos for anyone who can spot him in the pic of the boys). In much improved weather we spent quite a while with the Duck (having come all this way would’ve been rude to dash off) and had Cuckoo over calling while we were there, but eventually we decided to explore the area further. Not for the first time Gordon Hamlett’s vade mecum was pressed into service, as a result of which we headed first to the Garbh Eilean Hide. No Eagles or Otters in our brief visit, but nice views of Common Seals, a few Hooded Crows & a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers.
Next up was Ariundle Woodland, a beautiful spot, horribly marred by what looked like a recently laid down hardcore vehicle track which had enabled heavy plant to cart off timber from a recently felled area of conifers. A Grasshopper Warbler reeled for a bit from by the track shortly after we left the car, but soon shut up, and after a while we passed the extent of the forestry road and found ourselves in a quite wonderful, light, mossy woodland, boughs dripping with epiphytes, choruses of Willow Warblers and Chaffinches belting it out. A couple of Redstarts sang too, just long enough to indicate their presence without actually revealing their location, and a Tree Pipit staked its claim from a pathside perch. This is a site which I really feel we weren't seeing at its best. Nice though it was I'm sure that a visit earlier in the day, or better yet a little later in the season, would be so much more fruitful. A quick lunch in the Ariundle Craft Centre (very agreeable bacon & fried egg roll, decent coffee too) and then off, although we couldn’t leave without another session with the Black Duck, still showing ridiculously well, bird of the year so far!
Straight onto the Corran Ferry, no waiting, again, a crawl through Fort William, again, and then we were on our way, heading east. One of the great pleasures of Scotland trips is driving through glorious scenery on mostly empty roads. Frequently cars would pull over or slow to let us pass when we caught them up, and we always made sure to pay the courtesy forwards (which if I’m honest happened less frequently). General Wade’s Military Road was a new one to me. According to Wikipedia General Wade constructed a series of roads linking various Scottish garrisons in the middle of the eighteenth century, which adequately accounts for the state of the A889 between Laggan and Dalwhinnie. We were booked into a Travelodge near Perth for the night, and I had initially planned to maybe pop back into Loch of the Lowes on the way, but as we were quite a bit ahead of schedule I decided to try and squeeze in a detour up to Glenshee. The weather was not appropriate for an assault on the Cairnwell, particularly not this late in the day, but ever the optimist, thinking that Ptarmigans would probably still have a decent quota of white in their plumage, and recalling that I’d scoped them from the car park before, I was hoping to take advantage in one of the reasonably frequent breaks in the rain to score. Unfortunately the last decent break was about two minutes before we arrived, and after forty minutes of waiting in the car in the battering rain we had to concede that our year tick Red Grouse behind the café was as good as it was going to get. A quick, uneventful call in to Loch of the Lowes and we were done for the day.