4 Grouse in the Highlands

With the weather forecast looking good for the weekend I had an opportunity to do the Spey Valley. This is an area I positively love particularly at this time of year. Everything is so fresh and the tourist season has hardly got going and so it is still quiet.

I normally set my alarm for 2am and drive north in time for the 'Caper Watch' at Loch Garten. This time I set off on the Friday evening about 8pm and bed down for the night, in the car, parked in Garten Wood. I spent a less than comfortable night, not helped by forgetting my pillow. By 5am I can see its is beginning to get light and on opening the car door I hear a couple of Tawny Owls hooting.

My first port of call is Tulloch Moor for the Black Cock Grouse lek. I am the only one there surprisingly ! I had rather hoped that man & wife I had met last year would be there,with their Campervan, that offered me a cup of tea, the man not the campervan. They were not & I had to do without. Despite fretting over tea, or the lack of  it I still see at least 3 displaying male Blackcock.............No sorry, lets call them Grouse before someone gets completely the wrong idea here. The view is through a screen that the RSPB have put up to stop nasty people like myself from disturbing the birds, so the view is quite distant and frankly a bit disappointing. Even at ISO 4 million I can't take a shot. However, it is worth it just for the sound, lots of shrieking & hissing akin to banshees. You can see where witches covens perhaps came from many moons ago!

By 6:15am I am round at the Caper Watch. A displaying male can be seen on camera, but you can't count that for your year list ? As usual there is a reasonable crowd, all very protective of their window positions. If your late, you are very much in the cheap seats, if there were any, you have to stand. After very little sleep that's difficult. A woman ventures away from 'her' window, her scope goes with her ! I'm in on a flash, centre of the hide right at the window. There is nothing to see ofcourse, if you discount 2 Ospreys and 3 Roe Deer. Thinking I am set for the morning, I am rudely interupted by this ignorant so and so that barges in front of me. I do hear the words excuse me, but before I can move I am effectively pushed aside. Glances are exchanged, and he knows I am annoyed. I have seen some bad behaviour at various twitches in my time but for sheer audacity, this takes the biscuit. Fortunately, he moves quite soon before I hit him with my tripod.

Eventually, someone finds a Caper and I get a reasonable scope view of a big black shape in a treee about 100 yards away. On the basis that this is as good as it is going to get, I leave. On the track down to the car park I see and hear 2 or 3 Crossbill sp. A couple of Red Squirrels also show well on the feeders:

Red Squirrel

Loch Garten is a picture in the early morning light. If I was a decent photographer I would have taken a shot ! A female Goldeneye is present along with a pair of Wigeon and 2 Grey Lag Goose. It is probably too early for Common Sandpiper so I don't spend very long searching.

Last Spring I spent about 3 hours in Garten Wood trying to connect with Crested Tit and failed miserably. The weather conditions are infinitely better this morning, but nonetheless I am still expecting a long search. The combined effect of 2 severe Winters in a row has surely taken its toll ? I wander in the direction of the loch, seeing more Goldeneyes and instantly see and hear Crested Tits. That is how it goes sometimes ! Several more Crossbill sp are also heard.

A brief stop at the River Spey at Boat of Garten fails to find Dipper, but a pair of Goldeneye are present:

Goldeneyes on The Spey

Last year the woods just West of Boat of Garten were good for Scottish Crossbill. I eagerly head to the spot where I had seen them last year. I am soon rewarded by the sound of Crossbill. Despite not seeing them closely, the call is much deeper than the birds I have heard recently in Northumberland and indeed the one that flew over the garden a couple of weeks ago. I think this is Scottish Crossbill I am hearing ?

Despite not getting good views of the Crossbills, a further 2 Crested Tits show briefly. Again, I had tramped round here twice last year and failed to see Cresties ! Several Siskin & Redpolls are in evidence as well as lots of Treecreeper. A Raven is heard as it flies somewhere overhead. Back at the car park the area around the pools produce a Hooded Crow.

After a poor 'all day breakfast' including chips..........who serves chips at breakfast I ask you, in a cafe in Aviemore, I head up the A9 to the Findhorn Valley that is reputedly good for birds of prey including Golden Eagle and possibly Sea Eagle. It's also apparently full of Goshawks, Merlins & Hen Harriers. You can't miss them apparently Well I'm sure I can. After about 8 miles you come to the road end and what looks like definite Eagle country. Buzzard after Buzzard after Buzzard. 3 Kestrels, 1 ,possibly 2 Peregrine.

 I decide to climb up the hillside a bit cos that call sounds very Wheatear like ! Indeed 2 Wheatears right on cue. Another bird is calling that sounds suspiciously like Ring Ouzel. Despite much scanning I cannot locate it and it goes quite again. I start to scan seriously for Golden Eagle & all these Goshawks etc. After, not long, my eyes are getting heavier and heavier. It's warm & the bracken is dry.........the inevitable, I fall asleep. After about 40 minuites I wake up. 40 winks has taken the edge off my tierdness. I look up................ Golden Eagle?..................Goshawk?..............Hen Harrier?.................no this:



Ring Ouzel........I heard right ! 




























I follow a sheep track back down off the hillside, taking care not to fall and break my neck or worse still my telescope. I spend the next hour scanning for Golden Eagle etc and by about 5 o'clock I have had enough. Time to find myself a bed & breakfast me thinks. The idea for tomorrow is to do the Lochindorb area, so it makes sense to head for Grantown on Spey. After driving round Grantown, I find a suitable looking B&B and I meet a very welcoming landlady who appears genuinely thankful for my custom. For £ 38 a night the room looks more than acceptable, so I take it. The main part of the town is just up the hill and I quickly find the Ben Mhor Hotel and sink a pint of Stella. The bar food looks quite enticing & Swansea and Norwich are on Sky Sports 1 and it looks like an interesting game, so I stay. End of Day 1 and my head hits the pilow by 8pm. What an exciting life I do lead.

Sunday morning dawns and the weather looks cracking again. The plan is Lochindorb followed up by the Cairngorns. Breakfast is good and I pay my £ 38 and head off by 9:30 am. Lochindorb is quickly reached and with the car windows open and only going at 15 miles per hour I quickly score my 3rd Grouse of the weekend:

Red Grouse

I can see you

Ofcourse it was good to see Osprey yesterday at Loch Garten, but let's be honest, it is a bit boring just seeing them about 100 yards away sat in a tree. What is much better is seeing them close up fishing over a loch. Indeed several years ago in North America I saw 'many' like this. I was reminded of just that occasion this morning with one fishing over Lochindorb. At one stage was right over the car, and I don't mean high over the car, I mean just above the car. Now that's what I call seeing an Osprey, absolutely superb !

Other then Red Grouse & Osprey Lochindorb was a bit quiet. It probably deserved more time but I was keen to get to Cairngorn. By about 11:30 am I had reached the funicular railway that takes visitors to the plateau. The problem with this is that once you get to the top they don't let you out of the station. This is quite simply to stop loads of people trampling what is a very fragile landscape and ofcourse rightly so. So in order to see Ptarmigan I headed off on foot. Original plan was to follow the track right up to the plateau and take it from there. However, I quickly got distracted andwandered off in another direction along a path that although not as obvious as the main one was still well capable of being followed. That was until I encountered my first snow field. In my light training shoe excuse for walking boots, carrying a tripod, camera etc, this was not ideal. I could hear my heart thumping. I'm sure a few years ago I would have skipped up here but my level of fitness these days is not what it should be.

Now I've never found Ptarmigan plentiful on any of the Scottish mountains I have been on, not that I've been on very many. Indeed on several occasions I have drawn a complete blank. I was in habitat that looked good and indeed I found droppings that I reckoned belonged to the birds. But all the scanning in the world was yielding nothing. By 2pm I had seen virtually nothing aside from a Wheatear and started to think about heading back down again. Oh but which way to go ? I saw some walkers on what looked like a good path further down the hillside. It didn't look too steep, so I went for it. It was steep enough to warrant my full attention & I certainly was not scanning for Ptarmigan. All of a sudden I heard a call and a male Ptarmigan was literally at my feet, the female crouched close by. I stopped and at first I thought they were going to stay put. However, the moment I went to put my tripod down & reach for the camera they were off. Nonethless, it was a terrific view albeit it only lasted for about 20 seconds.

Cairngorn Mountains...... Spot the Ptarmigan, it's hard believe me !

Loch Morlich in the distance

So I have achieved 4 Grouse in a weekend and have seen the majority of the species I had come to see. All in all it has been a very enjoyable weekend. Roll on the next one !