Oot and aboot 10-04-16

I'd promised a pal, Kathryn, that I'd take her out for a wee tour around the area. Our main objects and Kathryn's desired photo opportunities were Golden Eagles, Adders and Green Woodpeckers!!!!!!!

No mean feat to get one of them all in one day never mind all of them!!!

First stop was a local loch to see if we could see the Great Crested Grebes, unfortunately no, however we did see this male Goosander

There were swans (Mute) in the distance and a few cormorant were pinging about

Next sighting were these frustrating little birds. Always melancholy looking but gorgeous at the same time. We had a bit of an issue trying to get half decent shots but eventually we got pics of these Goldcrests, frustrating little beggars to photograph.

We spotted the beaver workings on a bit of scrub willow. Believe it or not, this tree will be felled and resprouting sucker shoots within a couple of years.

Dabchicks and Mute swans were spotted along with a single Goldeneye drake plus this wee group of Tufties

Next sighting at the next location, my hide, was a large dollop of Marten poop, sorry Rhona, I'll pick it up and send it to you. All the bait was gone and I have yet to download the night cam images, and I will because they look great.

However the following wee birdies were on offer, Coal tit.....

...Great tit

....and a Blue tit

Personal favourite was this gorgeous wee Dunnock

Or maybe this lovely wee Red squirrel? Can't decide, both are just as lovely

So, onwards we toddled, spotting a few thrushes {mistle and song), blackbirds, chaffinches, crows, rooks and Jackdaws on the way. As we were walking I stopped at this ladies wee farm and asked if I could take some photos of these wonderful, hilarious, frivolous, cheeky goats.

Cute as hell, head butting and climbing over each other. Brilliant to watch.

Next stop was the Fallow deer, with a few albino beasties and a rather handsome but dirty hart, still nice to see

Our next stop was probably the best, the local CO-OP for a bacon roll. As we left the car a Chiffchaff could be heard and I think Kathryn managed to get her first photo of one. I was just content getting a bacon roll.

We took a wee detour to our next destination and Kathryn managed to get a few fantastic shots of a pair of Pheasants having a spat. I got this totally pants pic of a pair of Buzzards

and this brilliant shot of a true Scottish Wildcat, well it seemed wild or at the very least, pissed off at getting it's photo taken!

The next location threw up this beautiful Wheatear, great to see them back

There were quite a few knocking about. I just think they are an absolutely striking and beautiful bird.

We also saw more goldcrests, God, they are a bit of a toil to picture

Half a dozen Mute swans flew by at the next spot, and this gave me an incredible opportunity to take the shot too early, miss the beautiful background scenery, and get everything out of focus, quality cameramanship from moi

We did get a few long distance shots of our original quarry, the Great Crested Grebe

Next stop threw up a Teal and Snipe but no Marsh Har

Long Tailed Tits made an appearance

We moved to next location and saw Pigeons and a chaffinch

Plus a Jay

six siskens, try saying that after a few beers

A rather blonde tailed Red Squirrel

There were also the usual suspects of Great, Coal and Blue tits, Yellowhammer and Dunnock. We also had a few Greater Spotted Woodpeckers

But they were the wrong species and colour. The pressure was now on to get Kathryn at least one of her top three, could I deliver? I did get this dodgy pic

And Kathryn got her subject species, a far better pic than mine. I did get this long range effort though

Not great, but you wouldn't believe the effort involved in getting this image. At one point we had four of them round us, totally taking the mickey, if I hear "yaffa, yaffa, yaffa " again, I might just scream lol. Anyway, job done, mission accomplished, or at least 1/3 of it.

Next stop was the river to see the beavers, we weren't disappointed albeit the later showing than normal. It was quite a cool east wind and as the following saying goes, "a wind from the east isn't welcomed by man nor beast", can't really argue. However we did get a few pics of the beaver but we were far too slow for the otter, yet again!!!!