Wednesday Wanderings in Perthshire
It was after nine when I picked up Barry in Dundee. This weeks plan was a wander around some of the Perthshire glens. As Barry was doing the navigating, I'd supplied him with a list of birds missing off my year list. Mainly raptors, the list also included Spotted Flycatcher.
I had headed out at about half past seven. As I made my way across Fife, I firstly dropped in at the Wilderness, and then at Letham Pools. The main target at Letham was Water Rail, as it had been on several occasions this week, but once again they evaded me.
I arrived at the Tay Bridge car park on the Fife side at about 08:45 hrs. The plan was to wait there for half an hour or so until Barry, who had an appointment, phoned for me to pop over the bridge and pick him up. Waiting in the tree surrounded car park, I decided to have a little wander here. I was soon spotting birds, the best of which was a Sparrowhawk that flew by with its breakfast dangling from its talons. I'd already spotted a bacon roll at the car park hot food kiosk prior to seeing the hawk. The roll had met a similar fate to whatever poor little bird the hawk had pounced on.
It was not too long later that I received a text from Barry, and minutes later he was clambering into the car and we were off. in the direction of Perthshire. The sun was shining, and I had a good feeling about the day ahead.
I am going to be a little vague about where exactly we were for two reasons. Reason one is the sensitivity of some of the birds spotted. Reason two is that I wasn't exactly sure of where I was half the time.
Under Barry's guidance, we reached the beginning of our first target glen and started up it. Every now and again, we'd stop the car in a suitable(ish) place and have a scan about the area. This was a pattern that we followed all day, hardly ever being more than a few seconds away from the car.
It was during one of these stops that we picked up my first year tick of the day, as a Cuckoo swept in towards our position, then away again. Barry was equally delighted at this stop, when he picked up on a lifer for him. Not a bird, but a Golden Ringed Dragonfly.
We proceeded to the top of this first glen before turning back at the loch that sits near its head. As we headed back down the road, a pair of Whinchats were seen on a roadside boulder. We moved on quickly, as the male had a beak full of food, and was obviously waiting to head in to what we guessed was a nearby nest. Whinchat though was year tick number two for me.
Instead of heading all the way back down the glen, we turned off onto a smaller winding road that crossed the hills. I can't remember us spotting too much along this road, and we were soon descending down onto a main road that took us along side a large loch to a village. Passing through the village we again turned off the main road and started to climb up a particularly steep road that ascended up and over the hill that overlooked the village below.
At the top of the climb, we started to stop and scan again, as we moved our way along this new glen. The surroundings here were typical Scottish moorland, so with raptors high on the agenda, we paid particular attention to the hilltops and skyline. We soon started picking out distant raptors at several of our stops. Although distant, some still looked large. Barry clicked away with his camera and zoom lens, and the display confirmed that we had found eagles. Now the question is what type? Golden Eagle was the most likely for the location, but White-tailed was not impossible. We needed to wait for Barry to be able to check the photos on a full size computer screen before confirming what will be a lifer for me if Golden can be confirmed.
Moving on we were at one of our scanning spots when Barry said something along the lines of, " It's quiet here, so I'm going to take a leak". He then disappeared behind a heap of roadside rubble to answer the call of nature. Of course, he has hardly gone ten seconds when I spotted a raptor relatively close to us and getting closer. I shouted raptor in the direction of the unseen Barry, while continuing to keep it in view through the binoculars, until Barry was able to join me again.
I could tell the bird was not an Eagle or a Buzzard. Hen Harrier was a considered possibility, but as it wheeled closer to us, I stated that I thought it may be a Red Kite. Barry soon had the big lens on the bird, and confirmed Red Kite, giving me my third year tick of the day. I requested that Barry take more comfort breaks, as this seemed to have triggered greater success.
Moving on a little way, we found more Red Kites, having four in view at one time, at one point. It was here that we also found a pair of Kestrels chasing after each other.
All too soon we were heading out of this glen. As we did so, we passed through an area known to be holding Short-eared Owls. We saw a couple of other birders/photographers parked up at different points, obviously waiting for the owls to make an appearance in the fields that fell away below the road. Barry advised that to stop and chat to these other birders would create a bit of crowding that might put the owls off, so we just headed on.
We were only seconds past the second parked up birder, when a Short-eared Owl swept along the roadside ahead of us. It banked away and down onto the fields where it quartered in a hunting pattern. We stopped very briefly to allow Barry to grab some photos out of the passenger window, before moving on so as not to cause any disturbance to this bird or its hidden partner.
The Short-eared owl was our unanimous bird of the day award winner, and a fourth confirmed year tick for me.
After exiting the glen, we decided on an impromptu visit to Loch of Lowes. The centre was closing up as we arrived, but we managed a quick viewing of the Ospreys, but did not find the Mandarin Duck that is in the area. From Loch of Lowes, we headed across to Blairgowrie, where we stopped for a while at the riverside. It was here we picked up on Dipper, and a pair of Grey Wagtails feeding their fledged youngsters that stood on the tops of river surrounded rocks. It was also here that Barry's keen ears picked up the sound of young birds in a riverbank tree. He soon located three young fledged Treecreepers, huddled together in a slight depression of a moss covered tree trunk. (see photo). The parents were nearby, still bringing food in for their charges.
It was here the birding day ended. I dropped Barry off in Dundee and headed home, with only the briefest of stops at Letham Pools to check for Water Rail. There were no Water Rail in sight, but I can't really complain on a day like today, even though Spotted Flycatcher also evaded us. Seventy-four species seen, including seven raptors (Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Kestrel, Red Kite, Eagle, S-E Owl, Osprey).