Scotland

Hard work and long birding days paid off this year in Scotland. The weather was mixed some nice sunny warmish days interspersed with Arctic like conditions. We saw the Pied billed grebe at Leighton Moss on the way north. Black throated diver seen that evening at a local loch.
 Caperwatch was very disappointing and we were there for 3 early mornings but only had one brief glimpse of a male Capercaillie
Our first full day was spent going up the east coast. We connected with the long staying male Harlequin duck in Aberdeen and whilst there also saw a Long tailed tit building a nest. We then travelled to  the Ythan estuary. What a fantastic place this is with thousands of Eider and a single male King Eider. Also seen were Long tailed duck, Arctic tern, Sandwich tern, Common tern and Little tern. We finished the day at Portsoy and saw Great northern divers and a single White billed diver plus a Black guillemot.
The next day the weather was poor. We bagged 2 Crested tits at Loch Garten had a poor trip up Findhorn valley with a possible but  unconfirmed large raptor probably a Golden eagle plus good views of Peregrine. We went to base of Cairngorm where the only notable sighting was 2 Ring ouzel. We finished off with 2 Slavonian grebe at a local fishing lodge.
Our last day proved more fruitful and the weather was better too. We had good views of 1-2 Scottish Crossbill in Abernethy Forest and went to the top of Cairngorm where we had superb views of a pair of Ptarmigan. We finished off with good view of Goshawk at Dunkeld on the way back

Spring in Scotland

What a fantastic long weekend we had in Scotland. The weather was great and we ticked off all the Scottish species except for crossbill. First full day and we saw Capercaillie at Caperwatch at Loch garten and also another bird lekking in a nearby tree. Also see was a Crested Tit on the feeders. The next day we went up to the coast and had good views of White-billed Diver at Portsoy along with Red throated and Great Northern Diver. On the way back to our base in Nethybridge we bagged the King Eider at Black Dogg near the Ythan estuary. The following day was spent with our guide Dave Slater of Birding Ecosse and he delivered with Black throated Diver at Loch Indorb and Golden Eagle plus Ring Ouzel in the Findhorn Valley. In the afternoon we up Cairngorm and had brief views of Ptarmigan. On Monday we managed to see Black Grouse on Tulloch Moor and we went back to Findhorn valley for crippling views of an adult Golden Eagle and further Golden Eagles one fighting with a White tailed Sea Eagle. Our last day involved a long driver to Iona where we heard and saw Corncrake. Other highlights of the trip included Hooded Crow, Tree Pipit, Redstart, Slavonian Grebe, Cuckoo, Twite, Peregrine, Eider, Long tailed Duck and Artic tern