Scotland Journey Pt 2 - Kingdom Of Fife

A look out our Kinross hotel window at 7am revealed a wet and dreary morning but it was my birthday and we were heading east to the coast so my hopes were not dampened.

As we made our way down the A91 across Fife the weather cleared and we arrived at Morton Lochs in Tentsmuir Forest with blue sky and sunshine.

It was colder than it looked.

The sounds of Chaffinches and Tits filled the air as we headed to a feeding area hoping to see more Red Squirrel after our encounter at Kielder the previous day.

A near black squirrel ran across our path as we approached the feeders and after settling down and waiting it was only 5 minutes or so before another returned.

 Rumbled:)

Mute Swans on Morton Lochs.

While watching the Mute Swans & Wigeon the wind picked up and out of nowhere a downpour of hail stones made us close the hide windows, but to no avail as the combination of strong wind and heavy hail pushed them through the gaps.
10 minutes later it was back to blue sky as if nothing had changed.

Leaving the Lochs we moved south to Guardbridge and the hide at Eden Estuary.
Tree Sparrows were joined on the feeders by Greenfinches, Siskins & Long Tailed Tits.
Siskin

Long Tailed Tit

Herring Gulls calling from the river.

The river was lined with Curlews, Redshanks & Godwits.

A Curlew landed if front of the hide and strolled along piercing the mud with its bill searching for food.

It was then agitated by the presence of 2 Black-Headed Gulls and forcibly chased them off the shoreline.

Continuuing down the coast towards St.Andrews I saw a pair of Skylarks dancing on the wind before heading onto Crail.A few Eiders were scattered in the rough sea  as I looked across to the Isle Of May.

Gulls were fighting the winds and waves.

This young Herring Gull seemed to have caught its lunch in the form of a small octopus.

As our own lunchtime approached we headed to Anstruther and to their famous fish bar.Well worth the acclaim:)
A small walk across to the harbour and beach produced my 1st Rock Pipit of the year.

The coastal wind gave this Redshank a bad hair day.

The sea at Anstruther.

News of a female King Eider 15 minutes away at Ruddons Point in Largo Bay gave me a chance to see a bird I have never seen.
Unfortunately the weather had other plans as very strong stormy winds at Largo Bay made it difficult to stand never mind raise the binoculars to scan the crashing white tips for birds.

I did manage to spot a small raft of Eiders braving the stormy conditions though.

We left Largo Bay or more like blown away from and headed back to the hotel in Kinross.Before getting back north numerous skeins of geese totalling around 400 took flight from a field so we stopped the car and listened and watched them as they flew overhead.The noise was immense and breathtaking.
It was a mixture of Greylag Geese & Pink-Footed Geese.

Turning around from photographing the geese I realised I had another observer giving me the look that most of us get from non-wildlife lovers when photographing the natural world.

A great way to spend my birthday despite the mixture of weather, but its Scotland so you just need to change your clothes to fit the weather.:)
Total Bird List for trip-
39.Wren 40.Wigeon 41.Long Tailed Tit 42.Redshank 43.Curlew 44.Greater black Backed Gull 45.Tree Sparrow 46.Shelduck 47.Skylark 48.Eider(New for 2014) 49.Rock Pipit(New for 2014) 50.Black tailed Godwit(New for 2014) 51.Pink-Footed Geese(New for 2014)


Thanks again for reading through my trip.Sorry for posting 2 posts in one day but it means I can keep up now as long as I have internet connection in the Highlands:)

Tomorrow we head further north to Kenmore & Loch Tay before heading through Glencoe & Fort William.It may become more interesting than I want as snow is forecast for the morning:(

Will try and post tomorrow night for Day 3.

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:)

An Early Season Visit to RSPB Bempton Cliffs

I usually wait til April to get over to the East coast of Yorkshire and the wonder of Bempton Cliffs seabird colony.
This year though I couldn't wait that long to get my Gannet fix and with the prospect of maybe Peregrines & Short-eared owls it was too much temptation.

Hundreds of Gannets already lined the cliffs and soared with ease in the windy conditions.Some returning with nesting material.

The returning Gannets are greeted back with beak tapping reunions.

All this nesting work is tiring:)

Of course the Gannets were the stars of the show for me but there were plenty of other birds finding their own space amongst the ledges on the cliff face like this Fulmar.

Guillemots fought with each other to protect their own nesting sites.

 A quick peck on the head to let the intruder know, "This site is taken"

 Before being unceromoniously pushed back off.

 Followed by a good laugh for the victor, joined by a spectating Fulmar.

 Another of the seabirds returning for the breeding season is the Razorbill.

Meadow Pipits danced around the grassy cliff tops in search of a meal.

The noisy Tree Sparrows frequented the feeders outside the visitor centre.

A trio of Harbour Porpoise swam amongst the Guillemots drifting on the North Sea.

Herring Gulls called over the waves and cliff tops.

Unfortunately the Peregrines & Short-Eared owl avoided us today but a quick trip to Bridlington harbour for some lunch gave us the wonderful sights of 4 Turnstones.

Another trip a bit later in the year is a must as the numbers will increase even more and also see the return of the Kittiwakes & Puffins:)

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read through my latest blogpost.

Take care all and hope you all have some great wildlife experiences for yourself.:)