Day 3 of my trip to Speyside was the day to find those species in Speyside that we hadn’t found on day 1. Top of the list were Capercaillie and Dipper. In the morning we tried 3 different areas of forest but although we found evidence of their presence the birds remained elusive.
A coffee stop alongside the River Spey at Grantown delivered excellent views of a Dipper fishing.
Dipper (taken summer 2014)
Then it was back to the forest to try again for ‘Caper’, but again without success. We stopped for lunch beside Loch Morlich and added Goldeneye to our lists.
Loch Morlich
Male Goldeneye (taken 2013)
In the afternoon we had planned to go up to the top of Cairngorm looking for Ptarmigan but one look at the mountains told us this would be a forlorn task as the tops were well within the cloud line.
Instead we wet to Insh Marshes, an RSPB reserve comprising the flood plain of the river Spey and added a number of new species including Lesser Redpoll, Treecreeper and Hen Harrier.
Then it was back to the forest as the light faded for a final attempt to find a ‘Caper’ but still we came up short. There are only approx 800 of these birds left in Scotland and the area of pine forest is very large, so even with a local guide it is a difficult task. Despite their large size they can be very hard to spot either hidden in the heather or feeding in the trees.
Male Capercaillie
Photo By Skolan124 (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
My thanks to Heatherlea birdwatching for organising the trip and a special thanks to Toby our guide for a fantastic 3 days. In total 86 species of bird and 6 species of mammal:
Common Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus)
Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus)
European Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus)
Red Deer [sp] (Cervus elaphus)
Bottlenose Dolphin [sp] (Tursiops truncatus)
Eurasian Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)
Day 3 birdlist:
Greylag Goose [sp] (Anser anser)
Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus)
Eurasian Wigeon (Anas penelope)
Mallard [sp] (Anas platyrhynchos)
Eurasian Teal [sp] (Anas crecca)
Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula)
Common Goldeneye [sp] (Bucephala clangula)
Grey Heron [sp] (Ardea cinerea)
Northern Harrier [sp] (Circus cyaneus)
Eurasian Sparrowhawk [sp] (Accipiter nisus)
Common Buzzard [sp] (Buteo buteo)
Common Moorhen [sp] (Gallinula chloropus)
Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus)
Western Jackdaw [sp] (Coloeus monedula)
Carrion Crow [sp] (Corvus corone)
Northern Raven [sp] (Corvus corax)
Coal Tit [sp] (Periparus ater)
European Crested Tit [sp] (Lophophanes cristatus)
Great Tit [sp] (Parus major)
Eurasian Blue Tit [sp] (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Long-tailed Tit [sp] (Aegithalos caudatus)
Eurasian Treecreeper [sp] (Certhia familiaris)
White-throated Dipper [sp] (Cinclus cinclus)
Common Chaffinch [sp] (Fringilla coeleb
Lesser Redpoll [sp] (Carduelis flammea)
Eurasian Bullfinch [sp] (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)
