Scotland Day 1

A weekend trip to Speyside in Scotland with Mark, Andy and Martin, we set off early on Friday and headed straight up to Glen Shee on the Eastern side of the Cairngorms, plenty of Buzzards seen en route and a scan from the Ski centre there soon found our target species, Ptarmigan, a bird seen on the top of a nearby ridge, also a Raven flew over plus plenty of Red Grouse and a pair of Ring Ouzel there. We carried on around the top of the range and dropped back down to Grantown Forest, a short walk into the forest proved fairly quiet although we managed to locate a pair of Scottish Crossbills as we headed back. It was on to Loch Garten next but the reserve was closing as we arrived, we got the information about the Capercaillies for in the morning though, we had a look at a site nearby where we had seen Parrot Crossbills 3 years ago but no sign of any today then took a walk down to Loch Malachie but again fairly quiet, then headed off to Boat of Garten where we were staying.

Glen Shee scenics

scenics en route to Grantown

Grantown Forest

some poor shots of the Scottish Crossbills

late afternoon sun over Loch Garten

Loch Malachie

just a few of these