Where do we get the energy from? 11th June

The previous day (Sunday) had been spent doing very little and we satisfied ourselves with just a short walk up the hill to the forest and back hoping on the off chance for a Capercaillie sighting. We didn't see any yet again but I did manage to flush no fewer than five woodcock from an area of nettles whilst answering a call of nature! Sadly I didn't have the camera to hand being otherwise somewhat engaged! To be perfectly honest I'm never very impressed if I flush birds from cover since I feel let down by my own field skills and those birds may have been nesting there. I was sure to back away from the area and will only view from a distance in future so as not to repeat the intrusion. Some of the locals didn't appear too impressed either!

The reason that I was intent in taking the day at a leisurely pace was because I had hatched a plan involving great effort for the next day. It was over Sunday lunch that I broached the subject along the lines of "you know how we didn't see any Dotterel up the mountain...well how about we have another go tomorrow...the weather forecast is good...". Mrs Caley thankfully agreed and without too much persuasion either so at 8 o'clock on a cloudy and grey Monday morning we left the car at the parking area in Glenfeshie and started on the long haul up to Carn ban Mor. The walk up to Carn ban Mor, a large upland plateau to the south of Cairngorm and Ben Macdui is long and arduous (for us anyway) and climbs steadily for a couple of miles before steepening considerably in the last half a mile or so. There is no benefit of parking the car halfway up the mountains as there is at the Cairngorm ski centre and the walk is made from the base of the Glen. The first part of the walk is across open moorland where Tree Pipits and Stonechats sing, then enters a section of young pine trees which tends to be relatively quiet, although common woodland birds are there, before emerging into open moorland again where the ubiquitous Meadow Pipits are seen and heard. Once you reach the higher ground the moorland gives way to a rockier landscape and the heather is replaced by the hardier mountain plants and grassy and this is where the special birds are found. 

A breather for Mrs Caley

We had one big surprise when a male Black Grouse erupted out of one of the pine trees, too quickly for me to react with the camera, but a species we hadn't encountered here before. Otherwise we only saw the aforementioned birds, had maligned the fact that there didn't appear to be any Red Grouse around, before we came across a fine male Wheatear just before the gradient racks up a few notches. The Wheatear was warning us away from its nest site "chacking" incessantly until we had gone on our way.

Wheatear

The clouds were hanging heavy on the tops and we couldn't yet see our destination which was probably a good thing since had Mrs Caley been able to see where the path led, she may well have refused to go on! As it was we had made slow but good progress and after a couple of hours we made it to the  narrow saddle which separated Carn ban Mor from its neighbour. The last time we had attempted this walk we were driven back here by the strength of the wind. On a windy day, as it was then, the wind is strong enough to lift a person off their feet (I know that because I had to hold Mrs Caley down!) and it's a long way down the hillside. We had turned around that day without getting a fix of the mountain specialities but had later seen a "rogue" Capercaillie so maybe it was fate! Today there was barely a breeze so we were able to pass without any trouble. The view back the way we came is one of the best and unblemished vistas that I've seen.

That view back towards Glenfeshie

We were startled by a sudden movement just ahead of us on the path when a female Ptarmigan materialised from nowhere, as if by magic. She "clucked" loudly in alarm and the source of her concern went scattering in all directions in the form of seven very small chicks. We stopped dead in our tracks and watched from a safe distance as the Ptarmigan collected her charges together and secreted them by a tussock close to the path. 

Female Ptarmigan & chick

She remained as watchful of us as we were of her but then, as we resumed our walk, she became very animated and actually ran towards us with her wings outspread in threat posture! 

Female Ptarmigan

The message was received sound and clear and we decided the best thing to do was to leave the path and give the birds a wide berth, I'm not sure any non-birding hikers would do the same though. Even then the Ptarmigan wasn't entirely impressed and flew around us twice before settling down by her family again. Annoyingly I didn't get a single usable image of the Ptarmigan flying (I would have liked to capture the all white wings) since she only gave us a few feet leeway and the camera wouldn't focus at such close range!

More relaxed Ptarmigan!

A short way further up the track and as we neared the cloud cover I heard the sound that I'd be hoping for. A strident "peep, peep" uttered over and over again came rolling down the hillside. I liken the sound to the "cheep, cheep" of the House Sparrow but much stronger and more far reaching. I peered excitedly uphill but the mists were obscuring the views. We soldiered on but with an extra spring in my step and were momentarily engulfed in the clouds but I could still hear the Dotterel calling away above us. We settled for a few minutes waiting for the clouds to lift which they appeared to be since we could now see the adjacent hills in all directions except the one in which we headed.

Cloud obscuring the way

At last we could see the path ahead of us and I searched for the Dotterel which I knew would be a female since they are the ones that do the courting. Dotterel along with Phalaropes are unique amongst our native breeding birds since the male attends to all nest and rearing duties and are thus much less brightly plumaged than the female. The girls, in direct opposition to normal bird behaviour, woo the male, do all the running and then once they've laid eggs go off and a have hen party somewhere else! (Not strictly true since some female birds go and find another mate and breed again but essentially the males get the hard work in the Dotterel world). I finally spotted the Dotterel and she was calling from right next to the path about a hundred yards further on. What a relief after the failed mission the previous week. I rattled off a few record shots before we edged closer.

Female Dotterel calling from the ridge

The Dotterel seemed to be actively warding us off since her volley of calls appeared to be aimed directly at us. But we were on the permissive path and had no intention of leaving it either (I almost trod on a Dotterel once and didn't want a repeat of that). As we came alongside her position the Dotterel sprinted along the ridge ahead calling all the time. We carried on and gained ground so that we were now looking down at her and she settled down a bit into the long grass. I could only imagine that she was protecting her mate who must have been nearby, possibly at it's nest site. 

Female Dotterel

Our luck was in again when the Dotterel flew right past us and landed just  a few yards away enabling me to get some much better images. Dotterel are incredibly confiding and if you sit tight, as we were doing, they will often approach very closely, which this one did! Then without any warning the female flew off and away onto the adjacent hillside where she was lost to sight, the area here is vast and Dotterel are not very big so they are easily lost amongst the terrain.

We made it to the top and surveyed the plateau which stretches out in every direction. I had promised Mrs Caley that as soon as we had seen a Dotterel that we would turn back around and descend back down the track but first we enjoyed a picnic lunch while enjoying the magnificent views. I could hear the thin "seep" of a Golden Plover calling but despite searching hard I couldn't locate the source. As we struck off back down the track the female Dotterel came hurtling across the hillside slightly underneath us and I secured some flight shots, not great ones by any means but action shots nonetheless. 

When we focussed back on the bird that had now landed on the ridge line we saw that she had joined her mate and both birds set about feeding. The male didn't approach as closely as the female had and the day had warmed up so that the scourge of the bird photographer, the heat haze, resurfaced yet again spoiling any images taken. But I was more than happy, Dotterel are one of my favourite birds and certainly one which I just have to see when in Scotland, if I don't see any then I'm very disappointed indeed. The huge effort that you have to undertake in order to get views of them is well worth every gruelling step. The merit in scheduling this second mountain walk had paid off.

Male Dotterel

Leaving the Dotterel alone we made a brief scan of the path below us and not seeing any Ptarmigan hiding among the stones safely negotiated our way back to the saddle without disturbing any chicks. Another (or the same) male Wheatear greeted us as warmly as the previous one had, this time he had food for his hungry brood, so we cleared out of way and left all the upland birds to it. 

Wheatear with lunch for the chicks

It was now very warm and I refilled the water bottle from a stream. A Buzzard that floated past overhead briefly got the heart beating faster, there are Golden Eagles in this Glen (we saw our first ever Goldie here, incidentally being mobbed by a Buzzard, the size difference was amazing proving that old adage that "you know when you've seen an Eagle!").

Common Buzzard

A huge Dragonfly was lying prone upside down on the path that wound it's way down through the trees. The nearest stream was hundreds of yards away so I couldn't work out as to how it came to be this far uphill and to why it was on its back and unable to right itself. I helped it get to the correct orientation and after a few moments it whirred away seemingly unharmed. I later learned after consulting an ID guide that it was a male Golden Ringed Dragonfly, a new species for us. I don't go out of my way looking for Odonata species but am always interested to see them if they're around.

Golden Ringed Dragonfly

We also came across a Coal Tit that was doing its level best to decimate the local insect population. It didn't stop at insects either as the photo below proves, it was quite happy to take Arachnids too! One day I'll get myself an ID guide to spiders so that I can work out which one it was that made up the Coal Tits dinner.

Coal Tit & Spider species

We had had a cracking day, extremely tiring but well worth it. For a couple of "not the fittest people around" we don't do too badly and we find that energy from somewhere!

Looking up to Carn Ban Mor, the track where the Dotterel were seen is just left and above the snow