Scotland Visit Day 1 : RSPB Inversnaid : 8th September 2011
Scotland Visit Day 1 : RSPB Inversnaid : 8th September 2011
We had the chance to visit family up north so we decided to make a bit of a break of it by staying at some birding places on the way there and back. We drove from Manchester to Stirling on 7th September. We had a couple of things we wanted to do the following day and the first of these was to visit Inversnaid RSPB reserve which is on the edge of Loch Lomond in Stirlingshire. There is a big hotel there – the Inversnaid Hotel – but that it the only thing for miles around as it is very remote and the roads (paths really) that lead there are very narrow and slow to negotiate. From Stirling you head west into the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park and drive along the edge of Loch Ard and then Loch Chon. When you reach Loch Arklet the road gets very interesting and becomes more of a narrow path with lots of pot holes until it ends at Inversnaid.
The hotel does good cheap teas and sandwiches and has loos and a big car park. There are a few walks that you can do there and the one we chose was part of the West Highland Way which runs from Milngavie, near Glasgow, to Fort William at the bottom of the Great Glen althouggh we only had an hour to walk before we had to get back for our appointment at Doune. We did encounter a lot of walkers, though – it is an extremely popular walk.
As soon as we arrived at the car park by the Inversnaid Hotel we could see large flocks of Swallows and House Martins all around the trees and over Loch Lomond – we even saw a single Swift . We had a cup of tea and then walked along the path the edges Loch Lomond. There is a recommended forest walk but we did not have time to do this so we didn’t see to many other birds. En route we saw a Pied Wagtail and a Wren and Chaffinches and when we stopped to rest we had good views of a Buzzard overhead.
Unfortunately it had taken us so long to get to Inversnaid because of the state of the roads that we couldn’t linger for long for fear of missing our pre-arranged appointment at Lerrocks Farm in Doune where we were due to observe the 3pm feeding of the Red Kites. So we had to get going despite not really seeing too much in the way of bird life. However the road was fantastically scenic and the area around Inversnaid was very beautiful. It’s so out of the way that we didn’t know if we would get there again so we were happy we had made the effort.
Bird List
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Buzzard | 1 |
| Swift | 1 |
| Swallow | 30 |
| House Martin | 20 |
| Wren | 1 |
| House Sparrow | 20 |
| Pied Wagtail | 1 |
| Chaffinch | 12 |