30 Days Wild 2022 - Day 1 - Our Garden Birds

 

 I first did 30 Days Wild in 2015 when it all began but have lost touch with getting to do Nature inspired activities on a daily basis over the last few years due to ill health. This year though, I am going to try and do something for each day in June again even if it is just watching the behaviour of a fly for 5 minutes.

 

 I am going to start with a quick and easy one as I had to stay in for a boiler service so spent some time with the birds that visit our garden.

 I'll begin with the current creche attendees. At the moment we have 9 or 10 juvenile Starlings along with 2 juvenile Blackbirds, a couple of juvenile House Sparrows and a juvenile Pied Wagtail.

The rest of the garden's visitors.

Pigeons

 Starlings

 House Sparrow 

Blackbird

Collared Dove

Blue Tit

Jackdaw

Goldfinch

Magpie

 I hope you have enjoyed the photos.Thanks for browsing my blog.

#30DaysWild #WildlifeTrust #gardenbirds #gardenforNature #connectwithNature

The Three Lochs......Day 10

 We usually spend a lot of the week driving East and back again along the A86 but this was our first journey along this road on this particular adventure. The road takes us East to Newtownmore, Kingussie and then on to the Cairngorms.

 We stopped in Newtownmore to check out the one charity shop there and while we were getting out of the car a young Red Squirrel scampered across the road. Hoping to get another sight of it we followed the path it had vanished down but to no avail. Giving up on our search we decided to head straight up to the Cairngorms car park. There was still snow about and the driving wind and rain kept us from walking to search for Grouse and Snow Buntings.

Rainbow with Loch Morlich in the background.   

 With the weather not easing up, we headed back to lower altitudes where we hoped the more sheltered areas would provide some birding. Walking through the pine forests we could see plenty of Great, Blue and Coal Tits, Siskins, Chaffinches and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. We then parked at Loch Morlich to look for Goldeneye, 3 were seen on the loch. 

Loch Morlich

 There were plenty of Mallards on the shore ambushing us for food.

 After a chippy lunch break in Aviemore we continued on to Abernethy Forest aka Middle-Earth. We had noticed this tree on the way in and couldn't resist re-enacting a scene from one of my favourite movies, The Lord Of The Rings, Fellowship Of The Ring.

 Walking back to the car park Majella spotted movement on the road, it was a Toad.With cars coming up to park I thought we'd best help it get off the road quicker and so carried it to the roadside.

 Loch Garten

Down the trail to the visitor centre the usual array of birds were flittering between the trees. We were only too happy to provide them with some extra food though this Great Tit was trying to get 'ahead' of the queue. 😉

 There was constant activity on the feeders at Loch Garten Osprey Centre.

 As we left Boat Of Garten I managed to get a quick photo of this Roe Deer chilling in the field.

 The drive back took quite a bit longer than expected as the Sun setting over the mountains and the varying cloud cover kept changing the awesome light, so there were stunning views at every turn along Loch Laggan and Glen Spean.

Loch Laggan

 We arrived back at Tulloch and Robert was out in the farmyard along with Chester, so I had to get a quick selfie (with Chester not Robert 😉)

 It was finally going to be a dry night again so before we settled in for the evening I set up the trail cam once again hoping for more Scottish mammal action.

Photos by Stuart Pike & Majella Fox

Thank you again for all the views on my blogs. It is always appreciated and hopefully you get some enjoyment reading through them.

Just a couple of days of this current Scotland trip to go but still plenty more Wildlife to share with you all.

Stay safe.

 

Tales From The Highlands

Day 5 - Ice Age, A Shoreline Thing

  Apologies if you were hoping for animated Mammoths, Sabretooth Tigers and Sloths but this is a different thing ;)
  It sucks when you are sick on holiday and that's exactly what happened to Majella who was up most of the night again.The alarm went off at 5am but there was little chance of us getting up with only a couple of hours sleep so our planned excursion to Mull had to be postponed(hopefully for just a day).
  I spent the morning taking a few photos of the Horses and birds outside our window.
Even Tug couldn't be bothered to get up lol

  Ceilidh

  Blue Tits and Great Tits had now joined the Chaffinches on the feeders and the flock of Meadow Pipits were ever present.
  Blue Tits

  Meadow Pipit

  We had lunch and then decided to make the short journey to Glen Roy and go see the Parallel Lines.Created by a glacial lake during the Ice Age that was a incredible 350m deep.The water drained out in three stages leaving the shoreline marks and different heights along the glen.
  Try and imagine the glen filled with water up to those lines in the hillside.

  Glen Roy

  It's amazing to think that Charles Darwin was at this very spot in 1838 trying to work out the cause of the then mysterious parallel lines.
  We left and went back to the cabin where we thought to have a "relaxing" walk along the river that runs through the farm.We followed the river upstream to Inverlair Falls.What started as a gentle stroll soon became a fight for survival ;) Okay maybe it wasn't quite that bad but it was a struggle for me.Some uneven and steep sections were hard on my knees and walking through the "Dead Marshes" didn't help lol

  Eventually we did make it to Inverlair Falls.

  The Sheep were feeling sorry for us on the walk back.

  Still no Dippers but I did spot another couple of Grey Wagtails before arriving, shattered back at the cabin.

  Thanks again for taking the time to read.Hopefully the next blog will be from Mull ;)