Scottish Birding Holiday May / June 2016
Scottish Birding Holiday May / June 2016
Our holiday to Scotland was really to go to my brother’s for his 70th birthday. In 2014 when we went to Scotland birding at about the same time (perhaps 4 days earlier) we felt that we had done rather better but then we were guided by John Poyner; this time we decided not to be as intense and to try it ourselves. In point of fact, we knew all the right places to go and any shortfall in the number of birds we saw was entirely our own lack of desire to drive for long periods. The weather was fantastic for almost all the trip with only a few weather problems – fog at Cairngorm when looking for Ptarmigan and fog again when we were out on an evening Black Grouse hunt. These two events apart, we could not have wished for better weather and this continued for all of our holiday – more or less !
29th May 2016
We started off with a stopover at WWT Caerlaverock where we had a nice walk on a beautifully sunny day though we didn’t see much. We stayed over in Dumfries for the night before driving up to Grantown on Spey.
30th May 2016
We found ourselves with a bit of time on our hands before we could check in at the Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown on Spey so we decided to take a little diversion off the main road ending up at the little village of Laggan. Here we accidentally managed to run into the “Shorpshire Birder” and get great views of a Cuckoo and a “life tick” in the shape of Icterine Warbler.
31st May 2016
Our first full day in the Highlands saw us visit Anagach Forest, Lochindorb, Carrbridge, Avielochan and Cairngorm.. Driving to Lochindorb we got Red Grouse and at the loch we got a nice Black-throated Diver, the first for the year, and at Avielochan we got “year tick” Slavonian Grebe. It is a lovely little hide and there are an amazing number of woodland birds all around it to add to the birds actually on the water. Cairngorm turned out to be very foggy and, although we got lovely views of a young Hare, that was about our lot. I wasn’t so disappointed about Dotterel after seeing so many earlier in the month at Chosely Drying Barnd but I was disappointed to not see Ptarmigan. A consolation was a pair of nesting Ring Ouzels at the bottom of the funicular railway.
1st June 2016
On our second day in the highlands I had an early walk in Anagach Forest followed by visits to the Findhorn Valley and RSPB Loch Ruthven.
2nd June 2016
On our third, and last, day in the highlands we went to Loch Garten, Lochindorb and Nethy Bridge. the best of the day being the Ospreys at Loch Garten and an encounter with either Merlins or Cuckoos at Lochindorb. Unfortunately our evening guided birding ended up as a wash out as rain and fog rules out lekking Black Grouse or flying Owls.
3rd June 2016
This was a travel day for us with the added bonus of a pair or Hooded Crows en route and the discovery of a new seabird site at The Bullers of Buchan ,quite close to our destination of New Deer, which gave us year ticks for many cliff dwelling birds including Kittiwake, Shag, Guillemot, Razorbill and even an Edier and a Gannet !
4th June 2016
This was a family day but we still managed to get a visit in to Loch of Strathbeg.
5th June 2016
This was also a family day but we again managed to fit in a visit in to The Ythan Estuary at Newburgh where we got our target King Eider but also had a wonderful display by Common, Sandwich and Litle Terns. The Common Eider were also in their usual plentiful numbers and there were entertaining Sand Martins and Swallows and House Martins. A lovely summer scene that our family enjoyed enormously.
6th June 2016
We left New Deer and drove south, stopping off at RSPB Fowlsheugh where we the cliff dwellers included Guillemot, Razorbill, Kittiwake and even a Puffin, a year tick. On land another year tick was a Rock Pipit. This is always an amazing place to stop and even more so on a gloriously sunny day – which it isn’t always ! We moved on from there to St Andrews where we spent the night.
7th June 2016
This day was a pre-arranged boat trip to the Isle of May which turnes out to be a very foggy passage. However, when we got to the island we got unrivalled views of Puffins and Arctic Terns in their thousands and a multitude of Guillemots and Razorbills.
8th June 2016
This day I had the opportunity to fill in the gaps from my trip to the Isle of May. This time I got a boat from North Berwick to the Bass Rock home to 170,000 Gannets !
9th June 2016
With a bit of the day free we decided to go to Musselburgh pools but these were totally dried out and there was very little to see there. Instead we went to Aberlady Bay. This is a place we have been to before but I don’t think we got much further than the boardwalk. This time we did the three mile round trip to the coast at low tide and were rewarded with twenty-seven species of the most varied kind.
10th June 2016
The 10th was our last day in Scotland and we had planned on staying overnight in Penrith so one of our favourite stops for a tea break is Moffat and it was here that we found a great site for Garden Warblers and it gave us a new angle on Moffat for the future
Summary of All the Species Seen On Scotland Trip Spring / Summer 2016
Bird Sightings : Species List
| No | Species |
|---|---|
| 1 | Greylag Goose |
| 2 | Mute Swan |
| 3 | Common Shelduck |
| 4 | Eurasian Wigeon |
| 5 | Mallard |
| 6 | Common Teal |
| 7 | Tufted Duck |
| 8 | King Eider |
| 9 | Common Eider |
| 10 | Common Goldeneye |
| 11 | Goosander |
| 12 | Red-legged Partridge |
| 13 | Common Pheasant |
| 14 | Red Grouse |
| 15 | Black-throated Diver |
| 16 | Little Grebe |
| 17 | Slavonian Grebe |
| 18 | Northern Fulmar |
| 19 | Northern Gannet |
| 20 | Great Cormorant |
| 21 | European Shag |
| 22 | Grey Heron |
| 23 | Osprey |
| 24 | Red Kite |
| 25 | Common Buzzard |
| 26 | Common Moorhen |
| 27 | Eurasian Oystercatcher |
| 28 | Northern Lapwing |
| 29 | Common Sandpiper |
| 30 | Eurasian Curlew |
| 31 | Common Guillemot |
| 32 | Razorbill |
| 33 | Atlantic Puffin |
| 34 | Black-legged Kittiwake |
| 35 | Black-headed Gull |
| 36 | Common Gull |
| 37 | Herring Gull |
| 38 | Lesser Black-backed Gull |
| 39 | Little Tern |
| 40 | Common Tern |
| 41 | Arctic Tern |
| 42 | Sandwich Tern |
| 43 | Rock Dove |
| 44 | Common Wood Pigeon |
| 45 | Eurasian Collared Dove |
| 46 | Common Cuckoo |
| 47 | Common Swift |
| 48 | Common Kestrel |
| 49 | Eurasian Magpie |
| 50 | Eurasian Jackdaw |
| 51 | Rook |
| 52 | Carrion Crow |
| 53 | Hooded Crow |
| 54 | Common Raven |
| 55 | Sky Lark |
| 56 | Sand Martin |
| 57 | Barn Swallow |
| 58 | Common House Martin |
| 59 | Coal Tit |
| 60 | Great Tit |
| 61 | Eurasian Blue Tit |
| 62 | Eurasian Treecreeper |
| 63 | Eurasian Wren |
| 64 | Willow Warbler |
| 65 | Common Chiffchaff |
| 66 | Icterine Warbler |
| 67 | Sedge Warbler |
| 68 | Garden Warbler |
| 69 | Spotted Flycatcher |
| 70 | European Robin |
| 71 | European Stonechat |
| 72 | Ring Ouzel |
| 73 | Eurasian Blackbird |
| 74 | Song Thrush |
| 75 | Mistle Thrush |
| 76 | Common Starling |
| 77 | Dunnock |
| 78 | Grey Wagtail |
| 79 | White Wagtail |
| 80 | Meadow Pipit |
| 81 | Rock Pipit |
| 82 | Reed Bunting |
| 83 | Common Chaffinch |
| 84 | European Greenfinch |
| 85 | Eurasian Siskin |
| 86 | European Goldfinch |
| 87 | Common Linnet |
| 88 | House Sparrow |
| 89 | Eurasian Tree Sparrow |