Becalmed at first, increasingly rough later. 25th February 2019.

We were tired, very tired in fact, after all the driving of the past four days but, when you've only got a week to bird Speyside and the surrounding area, then you just have to carry on and get to as many places as you can! The car was covered in a slight frost but it was going to be another warm day which somehow just didn't feel right for Scotland at this time of year. There was hardly any snow visible on the mountains that we could see from the cottage so at least we knew that our planned excursion up Cairngorm tomorrow would be easy going (ha, wishful thinking!). As I cleared the ice from the windscreen I could hear the Yellowhammer singing again from his usual song post and the trees surrounding the garden were adorned with around ten Brambling. Brambling do seem to be everywhere this year, except at Castle Caley back in Oxfordshire obviously.

Brambling

Not having made too much of a plan for today we decided to do a recce of the Cairngorm mountain from the ski car park where at this time of year the Snow Bunting flock usually hangs out around the picnic tables happily taking the free seed handed out by eager photographers. However on reaching the parking area it was soon apparent that this was not normal conditions for the time of year since the only snow was high up on the mountain tops. It was also over 10 degrees celsius at ten in the morning. We went into the rangers office and inquired as to the possible whereabouts of our target species. When we visited at the same time last year in very wintry conditions, the Ptarmigan were holed up in the Corries and just a short, although gruelling, walk from the car park (see Ptarmigan) while the Snow Buntings were indeed favouring the food bank distributed in the car park itself (see Snow Buntings). This year with the lack of snow at lower altitudes the ranger told us that the Ptarmigan would be keeping to the remaining snow patches which were generally above 900 metres and the Snow Buntings would be right up on the tops. So in order to get to them we would have to walk uphill and a long way up at that! But we were undaunted in our quest to see these birds, after all it's one of the reasons we chose to be in Scotland at this time of year, so we made plans to return the following morning (the weather forecast was good) and make the climb up to the birds, more of that later.

Ptarmigan, Coire an t'Sneachda, 26/02/2018

Snow Bunting, Coire an t'Sneachda, 26/02/2018

Our next recce was made to Loch Garten to see if any Crested Tits were using the feeders there. Again, when weather is poor, Cresties are frequent visitors to both the car park where they are fed by photographers and to the Osprey Centre feeders. There were a few people present watching the feeders but none had seen any Cresties, only more common species such as Coal Tit. With the warm conditions the Cresties had retreated back into the woods to feast upon more natural offerings. We gave it half an hour and gave up feeling sure we'd find a few Crested Tits in the forest later in the week.

Crested Tit, Loch Garten, 28/02/2018

Over a coffee and an early lunch we decided that in the absence of any easy birds to get around Nethy that we'd drive up to the Moray coast and hopefully add some wintering sea birds to our year list. We chose Burghead which we've visited many times before, it's where Elvis the King Eider has spent many a winter although he wasn't present this year. It was high tide which was good since any wading birds would be close in on the shore, but not so good was the fact that there wasn't any discernible breeze at all so the sea was totally unruffled and as a consequence all true marine species of bird would be miles out from the shore! And so it proved, the only birds close enough to recognise with binoculars were the rock loving Turnstones, over 50 of them searched among the seaweed for food, around 20 Redshanks, 40 Oystercatchers and just 4 Purple Sandpipers. For the birds out at sea the scope was required and on pretty much full 75x zoom at that. At least the waves weren't getting in the way! Photographing birds sitting on a lifeless monotone grey sea at half a mile distance (at best) is a waste of time so I didn't bother but I did find some good birds nonetheless. Added to the year list were Red-throated Divers (over 10 seen) and a couple of Shags. There was a small raft of 7 Common Scoter loosely associating with a group of c15 Razorbill and a flock of c10 Eider. Best of all were 2 Velvet Scoters, a bird that we missed on last years list, that flew strongly past and headed towards Hopeman to the east. The Velvets made it 141 for the year so far.

Purple Sandpipers

By this time, in the early afternoon, I was beginning to feel a little unwell so we gave up on the sea watching and drove back towards Grantown with a plan to look for a Great Grey Shrike that had been found a few days before not far from Lochindorb. We took a now familiar slow drive along the minor road where the Shrike had been reported, scrutinising every possible potential lookout post that a Shrike could use with no success. We turned around and drove along the road in the opposite direction but still couldn't locate the Shrike. I was now feeling much worse and deteriorating rapidly so after one more go I had to give up and search out the Chemist in Grantown instead and stock up on flu remedies. Day Nurse usually works for me so I popped a couple and headed back to Nethy Bridge intending to go straight to the holiday cottage. As we entered Nethy a message came through informing of 11 Waxwings currently perched in trees next to the Nethy Bridge Hotel garden so, just a few minutes later and temporarily forgetting my increasing malady, I was staring up the tree and getting yet another Waxwing fix! By now, this late in the day, the light was awful but Waxwings are still to be admired. The Waxies were using the tree as a staging post and were flying out frequently presumably to catch flying insects, behaviour I've not witnessed before. 

Waxwing

I would have stayed until dark but my body was telling me that I must get back to the comfort of the cottage. My day ended with one of those shivering fits that a flu bug sometimes brings on. I was in bed early fearing that our planned walk up Cairngorm may not happen unless I felt considerably better by the following morning.