Fife

Started at Ruddons Point on a cold but bright morning. The walk through the caravan park produced several Yellowhammers & Reed Buntings.

Once at the coast the main target was the long staying female King Eider. For about an hour I searched on my own in vain. There were many Eider to go through and the position of the sun and the presence of haze made it difficult. As the morning wore on more birders started to arrive & finally one guy got on the bird & put everyone else on it.

Other birds of note included Swallow, Wheatear, Common & Velvet Scoter, Red Throated Diver, Sandwich Tern & Razorbill.

Spent the afternoon at Loch Leven.

View from the Carden Hide

There was a good selection of wildfowl; Wigeon, Teal, Pintail, Shoveler, Tufted, Pochard, Goldeneye, Shelduck, Gadwall, Great Crested & Little Grebe.

Small skeins of Pink Feet were also still around & there were several displaying Lapwing, Curlew, Redshank & Oystercatcher. 11 Black Tailed Godwit were present. The feeders at the visitors centre had both Brambling & Siskin.

Drake Shelduck

Drake Tufted Duck

Spey Valley Weekend

Partick Thistle had the chance to get into the top 6 by getting a result at Ross County so it seemed like as good a time as any to visit the Global Energy Stadium in Dingwall for the first time. Even better if it could be combined with some birding in Speyside.

I reached Loch Garten at 2am and slept in the car until 5:30 for 'Caperwatch'. The cameras had got on a male in view of the forward hide & so the 15 or so hardy souls were invited to proceed to aforementioned hide where very soon I was looking at a male Capercaillie. A good if brief view as it quickly became totally obscured by the trees. Also of note were Osprey, Siskin & flyover Crossbills. Sand Martin were over Loch Garten.

Garten Wood

Loch Garten in the early morning

Tulloch Moor was the next stop in the hope of Black Grouse but I drew a blank. Back in Garten Wood I quickly located Crested Tit and several Crossbill sp.

By late morning I was at Lochindorb and had 2 Black Throated Divers & great views of Red Grouse.

By 2pm I was in Dingwall for the football but despite a spirited showing we finished out of the top 6.

After an overnight stay in Aviemore I headed to Cairngorn for 10 o'clock. Right away I had Ring Ouzel just below the car park. As I climbed into the hills Loch Morlich became ever distant.

The high tops became ever closer:

I was now in Ptarmigan country....

.... and Mountain Hare:

I had a brief stop at Inch Marshes but it was quiet with only 11 Whooper Swans of any note.

Lochwinnoch & Hogganfield

Tried in vain this morning to find any of the reported Smew. Checked Aird Meadow, Barr Loch & Castle Semple with no joy. I see this evening that both are being reported again :(

Aird Meadow

 13 Whoopers on Castle Semple were notable & lots of displaying Goldeneye. 3 Shoveler in front of the Visitors Centre at Lochwinnoch.

A couple of hours late morning was spent at Hogganfield.

Hogganfield

One Whooper remained and there were perhaps 10 Pochard, increasingly scarce these days. There were also c8 Great Crested Grebe present.

Daffodils beginning to come out

Female on territory

Loch Ken

Good Friday looked by far the best day of the Weekend weather wise. I was hoping for some early migrants at Loch Ken but I couldn't find any.

There were 42 Greenland Whitefronts in fields close to the reserve entrance & Red Kites were everywhere. I managed 1 Willow Tit but spent most time in the hide photographing some of the woodland birds.

Blue Tit

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Nuthatch

Nuthatch

Blue Tit

Norfolk

Mrs H & myself spent 3 leisurely days in Norfolk staying at the Premier Inn in Kings Lynn for £105. We had traveled down overnight on the Tuesday night and Wednesday was a bit of a write off because it rained heavily all day.

Thursday was by contrast very spring like & we started off at Titchwell.

Titchwell's star species - typically confiding

Titchwell Beach

There was nothing out of the ordinary today but birds like Marsh Harrier, Cettis Warbler, Grey Plover & Water Rail stood out.

After a look round Norfolk Lavender we headed east towards Burnham Overy Staithe. Brent Geese were the main feature here.

We stopped at Wells and then took in a brilliant sunset and Barn Owls at Cley Marshes.

Wells Harbour in the sun

Cley looking over Arnold's Marsh

Sunset over Cley Marshes

Next day we walked from Titchwell out to Thornham.

Looking Towards Thornham Harbour

Little Egret

Mersehead

I started at Caerlaverock at 09:30 on a bright crisp morning. I was hoping to photograph some of the Geese but there were only small groups and none particularly close. Apart from the usual stuff there was a mobile flock of c300 Golden Plover & 1 Black Tailed Godwit on the Folly Pond. By midday it had got incredibly busy & I had had enough so moved on to Mersehead which had hardy any people & loads of close Geese.

Golden Plover

I stopped at Carsethorn for c20 mins but could find no Scaup.

There were hundreds of Barnies in the fields bordering the approach road & many others on the reserve all fairly close:

At the Visitor Centre I saw a handful of Tree Sparrow, didn't see them at all in 2015. Both hides face north and the light in the afternoon was really good.

Curlew

Mallards

Pintail

Pintails

Loch of Kinnordy

I stopped in at Loch of Kinnordy prior to taking in Thistle's Scottish Cup tie at Tannadice. It turned out to be a rather cold dreich day.

Lots of Teal on the reserve including a Drake Winged Teal but no sign of the hoped for Bittern in the time I was there.