Red Grouse - Scotland Day 3

We left Pintorn Valley and headed to Inverness were we saw Long tailed duck, Goldeneye, Wigeon, Starling, Collared Dove, Herring Gull and a new bird for the trip, a Red Kite.   A Seal poked his head out of the water and Guillemot, Cormorant and Razorbill flew by and a lone Heron was fishing. On our way again and we stopped the van when we saw a Red Grouse  and once again these were taken from the middle of the van!

This shot was taken through the closed window of the van.

We managed to open the door a little although the Red Grouse moved further away but I was pleased that I got any shots of it at all!

Heading to our hotel as the light was failing, we stopped the minivan for the last time that day at a small lake and saw Whooper Swan, Scaup, Mallard and Tufted duck.  

So overall that day we saw 33 birds, however there were 10 new birds thus bringing our trip total for the 3 days  to 78.  Tomorrow the post will contain what we did on our last evening and how Day 4 panned out as we headed homeward bound!

I hope you enjoyed this post.

Thank you for visiting and to those who left comments on any of my posts.

I am linking this post with WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.

Birds on Scotland Trip - Day 2

When I arose on my second day of birding in Scotland, I pulled back the curtains of my bedroom and was greeted by this beautiful sunrise below.  After a very hearty breakfast, we set off in search of more birds and in particular an American Coot about half an hour away.  From the minivan we saw Starling, Robin, Blackbird, Feral Pigeon, Jackdaw. Red Grouse, Pheasant, Carrion and Hooded Crow, Rook, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Herring and Black headed Gull, Buzzard and a new bird for the list, a Wren.  Finally we arrived at Loch Farmington.

Although you cannot see the American Coot yet in this photograph, it is just over on the left so we were pleased to find it so quickly.

Other birds found around the lakeside were Mute swans. Cormorant, Blue and Great Tit, Greenfinch and another new bird, the Moorhen.

However for most of us the American Coot was a new tick 

and here it is with 2 Moorhens.

We now headed for Nairn where we spotted this Red Breasted Merganser and a line of Redshank behind it.

We also saw, Scotor, Wigeon, Goldeneye, Mallard, Red throated Diver, Great Northern Diver, House Sparrow, Eider, Sanderling, Curlew, and Long tailed duck.

We saw Pale bellied Brent and Bar tailed Godwit at the far left of this beach.

We had good views of the Long tailed ducks and it was lovely to have them so close as certainly in Northern Ireland they are usually far out at sea and the recent ones I showed at the Quoile Pondage were young ducks.

The Long tailed ducks joined the raft of Eiders.

A single Long tailed duck in the harbour.

A lone Cormorant.

A lone Great Black backed Gull.

This is the harbour were I saw another lone Eider.  I don’t blame them sheltering there as we had stopped for lunch (outside) and it as cold and windy!

I took these shots with 2 different setting to show you the waves through the breach in the harbour wall and we also saw a Shag and Lesser Black backed Gull.

On our way again, and we saw Pink footed geese, Blackbird and Kestrel, and an Oystercatcher.  

We arrived at Loch Loire where there were a lot of Gulls however one of the group spotted a Glauscous Gull.  It has all white wing tips and the Herring Gulls has black.  It is in the middle of this shot.There were also a good number of Goosander and Common Coot.  

In Portknockie we saw Gannet and Turnstone and at Banff  where this shot was taken, we saw Common Gull, Common Guillemot and Rock Pipit.

 This is part of the group trying to remain upright!  Our day’s birding had come to an end. We had seen 54 bird species that day however there were only 15 new birds seen but we all enjoyed it despite the cold and windy weather condition.

I do have a little video I took of the waves however I did not have time to upload and edited it yet but I will do that today and show you it tomorrow.

I will leave you with a very short clip of the Glaucous Gull.

 You can access it at http://youtu.be/Seyf-wpHGqg

If there is a black space below,click it and the video will appear.

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