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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Marcus Conway - ebirder" data-source="post: 1221666" data-attributes="member: 26747">Day three - the search beginsAn early start takes us to some prime capper country near Grantown on Spey. We arrive on sight shortly after 6 and begin searching. The habitat here is ideal for them. Relic forest with plenty of blaeberry , stony ground, enough distance between the trees for the birds to fly, and plenty of low perches. After three hours we have seen nothing. We have had some crossbill but too distant to split visually (if that's possible), but we are starting to get our ear in and can certainly start to tell some different calls. There's also plenty of siskins calling, and they certainly can lift the mood. Then, all of a sudden, James finds some Capercaillie turd! There must be some here, and our spirits are lifted even further whne we find a dust bath with large grouse footprints. That was as close as we were going to get. We moved onto another recommended site, but that was also fruitless. Deja vu!However, on the way back to the car we came across another flock of crossers and these did decide to perform and call. James and I immediately nailed the same bird, a storming adult male Parrot Crossbill. We watched the bird for about three minutes and got onto another in the flock which looked good for a pine species too. We also made a note to memorise the call, which got our attention in the first place. We decided to try Loch Malichie for Crested Tit, which had been worrying absent since that first evening. We drew a blank, but a couple of birders told us the Bonapartes gull was at Loch Ruthven so we headed north for a change of scenery.We picked up the gull straight away along with 8 different Slavonian Grebes. Neither showed well and with the light failing and it being about 3 degrees we headed back to the motor.That was not before another Osprey caught a monster trout from the Loch. On the way back to Boat we called in at the now famous layby 151 for Ring Ousels, and we saw the ousel parents feeding the recently fledged juveniles before heading back to base.It starting to get cold, and we were pleased that we had managed to complete our climb on day one.Total buzzard count after day three - ...Total time in Capper habitat - 9.5 hoursTotal Cappers - 0.1(poo!)</blockquote>

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