Along the Moray Coast......Day 3

 Today's plan was to head West along the A96 to Nairn and then make our way back along the coast, past Elgin to Spey Bay to see what we could find on the water.

 We arrived at Nairn early in the morning as the incoming tide was already concealing the majority of the stoney beach. Hooded Crows were foraging among the rocks and washed up seaweed.

 A Rock Pipit appeared from out of it's camouflaged place among the stones and flew up to greet us on the pier wall.

 Back down on the beach a flock of around 20 Redshanks and 10 Oystercatchers rested but were continually disturbed by the waves of the encroaching tide.  

 The Redshanks were only able to rest their heads under their wings for seconds at a time before another deepening wave annoyed them and caused them to move a few more inches up their rapdily disappearing sanctuary.

 Video clip of the Redshanks trying to keep ahead of the tide.Filmed by Majella.

 A small group of Turnstones briefly joined the increasingly crowded, shrinking beach before joining us up on the pier out of reach of the surf.

 We left the flock to battle with the inevitable tide and walked along the pier to scan the Moray Firth for Sea Ducks.

 Photo by Peter Moore.

 Pale-Bellied Brent Geese flew East, their wing tips scarcely above the undulating water surface.

 Through the scope, scanning of the water revealed distant rafts of Ducks with the wonderful Black Isle as a backdrop. Common Eiders, Common Scoters, Red-Breasted Mergansers and some stunning Long-Tailed Ducks calling out across the deep water. Unfortunately all too distant for photographs but we were immensely happy to have seen them none the less.

 

 We left Nairn after an enjoyable 3 hours of birding and relaxing to the sound of the waves and headed back East and in to Findhorn Bay.

 Findhorn Bay was also alive with the sounds of calling waterfowl.More Redshanks, Curlew and dozens of Pintail Ducks all along the shoreline.

 It was only a brief visit to Findhorn as the wind seemed to becoming more Arctic by the minute so we warmed back up in the car and made our way to Spey Bay.

 Spey Bay is most notable for the WDC Scottish Dolphin Centre but today the conditions were not favourable for Dolphin sightings.We stood on the shingle beach for a while gazing out across the Firth. A flock of small birds flew past and landed further up the shingle, it was a group of Linnets. We just managed to get the binoculars on them and identify them before another person with a loose dog many yards away from her disturbed them, making them move on and unnecessarily use up more energy.

 Moving out of the wind we had a short walk along the Spey River. As well as a large congregation of Gulls there were also numerous Goldeneye and Goosanders.

 Song Thrushes, Robins and Dunnocks were hopping among the gorse and another group of Curlew had been joined by a few Greylag Geese in an adjacent field.There was still some daylight left so instead or returning straight to our hotel in Elgin(another expensive Travelodge) we followed the coastal road through Portgordon to Buckie.

 On the way we spotted more Gulls, Herring, Black-headed & Great Black-backed, as well as Wigeon, Oystercatchers, Redshanks, Grey Herons, Mallards and a couple of Buzzards.A wonderful long birding day completed, it was time to head indoors for some shuteye and decide on our destination for tomorrow.

Thanks as always for taking the time to view my blog. It is very much appreciated.

If you do enjoy it then please leave a comment so I know that at least one person has read it ;) lol 

More Scottish wildlife to come tomorrow.

 

 

 

Tales From The Highlands

Day 9 - Another Holiday Breakdown

  No, this time it wasn't myself or Majella, it was our car but I will get to that later.I got up at 6.15am as I could see the sun through the blinds.It was quite a nice sunrise over the Moray Firth.

  As I was up early we decided to head to Inverness carboot at the football ground.It was pretty busy but we managed to pick up a few bargains.Two African hand crafted masks, a Panda money box and a Rhino puppet lol

  After the carboot we drove back across Kessock Bridge and parked underneath it on the North side.There were plenty of Cormorants and Grey Herons but nothing else so we went back across the bridge to get shopping.
  We had lunch and then took the short drive up to Udale Bay.It was a couple of hours after high tide and the bay was teeming with birds.Hundreds of Pink-footed Geese squabbled among themselves with some taking flight and landing in the field behind us.
  Pink-feet everywhere.

  There were also over 100 Curlew which is more than I've ever seen in one place at the same time.

  The other numerous birds were the Redshanks and Wigeon.
  Redshanks

  Wigeon flying into Udale Bay.

  The two star species though had to be the Male Scaup, one that I don't get to see very often.
  Scaup sat watching the Pink-footed Geese move into the water.

  The other bird was a stunning Male American Wigeon.Looking through the sightings book we found that he has been here over 2 months.

  There were also Knots, Starlings, Crows and a couple of Skylarks in the field behind.We left the hide and as we headed back the car started shuddering so we headed to Munlochy garage where the guy was not very useful and just told us we needed it looking at lol Our only option was to call the AA, explain we were on holiday and see if they would come out.They did send someone but after an hour of revving the car, moving connections and spark plugs he couldn't work out the problem.We found that there was a garage in Fortrose so the car can hopefully be looked at and repaired there, otherwise it will be a long walk back to Lincolnshire lol

Thanks for reading :) Hopefully we will still get out tomorrow as a friend is taking us out while the car is sorted out.