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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Marcus Conway - ebirder" data-source="post: 1221816" data-attributes="member: 26747">Day 6 - what's this black thing?The person with the nest gen also told us some interesting facts. Apparently there is no point starting early AM in June as the males are pretty static until about 10AM - could have done with that about a week ago! Also we find out that the birds move into areas with fresh cottongrass as soon as the growth occurs and we should check that out.So we have a lie in and then head to Loch Garten on the off chance. Unfortunately no Capers, but we decide to have a quick scan. Remarkably there are five Ospreys in the air EJ is under attack so there is plenty of going on. Suddenly, James is onto something, he passes the scope to me having found a black patch with a red dot. I tell him he's crazy it's not even moving. Then it does and there's a big horny bill attached to a massive Caper head. I told you he had ESP skills. This is immense the air in the hide turns somewhat blue and we get some stern looks from the RSPB staff, especially when we high five and I nearly knock someone over. Again - sorry. There are loads in the hide who want a piece though and we end up lining 3 or 4 scopes on the bird. It stays for our whole stay in the hide - in fact until we get bored(!) never really doing a lot other than pulling at bits of vegetation. The staff warmed to us in the end especially as we helped so many birders onto the largest grouse in the world. Our thoughts now turned to a complete highland 'clean sweep', but surely that was impossible??Anyway we decide to spend the afternoon in our own way -each with little success. I went to the Osprey hide and got no photo's, whilst James went to Findhorn and got no eagles. A couple of Ravens and a couple more crested were all we could add to this awesome day.</blockquote>

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