Scotland Journey Pt 1 - from Lincs to Kinross via Kielder Water

This is not a very long post as this first day just includes our trip up from North Lincolnshire, through Northumberland and on to Kinross.
It takes us just under 2 hours to get up to Scotch Corner for a quick pit stop, then another 2 hours to our first real destination, Kielder Water.
I saw and noted quite a few birds on the way up(not me driving;)) that I will list at the end.

Kielder Water is a regular stop for us to get a couple of hours at the Red Squirrel hide.

Plenty of birds there too with Chaffinches by the bucket load as well as Coal Tits, Siskins, Great Tits & the occassional Nuthatch.

Siskin on the feeders.

A Crow coming down to find food amongst the feeders.

The 100+ Chaffinches are pretty tame and will come quite close to feed from you.

 Both above photos taken by Majella Fox

More Chaffinch photos.

The main reason for the hide is for the hope of seeing one of our cutest mammals, the Red Squirrel and they didn't disappoint.We saw 3 that day:)

2 hours later and back on the road past Edinburgh and over the Forth Road Bridge into the pouring rain of Fife.
A quick trip to RSPB Vane Farm at Loch Leven revealed a group of 22 Whooper Swans as well as Pochards & Goldeneye.
Catkin covered by the Scotttish rain.

Total bird list for March 6th:
1.Common Buzzard 2.Kestrel 3.Rook 4.Grey Heron 5.Jackdaw 6.Carrion Crow 7.Black Headed Gull 8.Herring Gull 9.Starling 10.Magpie 11.Cormorant 12.Oystercatcher 13.Lapwing 14.Pheasant 15.Mallard 16.Fieldfare 17.House Sparrow 18.Red Kite 19.Collared Dove 20.Wood Pigeon 21.Canada Goose 22.Songthrush 23.Blackbird 24.Pied Wagtail 25.Robin 26.Chaffinch 27.Mute Swan 28.Coal Tit 29.Great Tit 30.Siskin(New for 2014) 31.Greenfinch 32.Greylag Goose 33.Blue Tit 34.Dunncok 35.Goldfinch 36.Pochard 37.Goldeneye 38.Whooper Swan(New for 2014)

I will add just the new sightings for the trip on each day.

The next day will be spent on the coast of Fife.

Thanks for reading and I hope you can follow our trip over the next week or so:)