Monday 11 July 2016

Speyside 2

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Speyside has been well known for breeding Goldeneye for some years, using nesting boxes in most cases. This year we only came across a couple of pairs which we found close to Aviemore. We also found breeding Wigeon , a female with 4 young on a loch in the middle of an ancient forest.

Another gem in the area is Slavonian grebe, we found a few pairs back in 1979 and although two of the nesting sites had been lost due to building work we did find a pair near Boat of Garten and two pairs on another loch.





 All these photos were taken from a public footpath, and behind fishermen next to the loch.




We were told that that main area at Loch Ruthven only had a couple of pairs and most had moved into the Spey valley. Slav Grebes are lovely colours and the red eye really stands out again the black head and golden tufts.
                                                                                                       Grey Wagtail

                                                                                         Sedge Warbler

A couple of pairs of Little Grebe , pairs of Teal and lots of Mallard all nested around these lochs. The vegetation held Sedge warbler, Wren and Pied Wagtail.


                                                                                                                   Teal
                                                                                                     Goldeneye


The rivers held the usual species, Dipper , Grey and Pied Wagtail, Common Sandpiper and thousands of midges  which attracted numerous House & Sand Martin, Swallow and a few Swift

                                                                                                    Swift

                                                                                        Sand Martin

                                                                                      House Martin
                                                                                                        Swallow




                                                                       mother and Zepha the young dolphin

                                                                          Bottle nose Dolphins at Channery Point

One of the jewels of the ancient forest is the Crested Tit and I manage to find a couple of pairs in Rothiemurchus Forest very close to the main path. They only called a few times in the half and hour I watched them so they could have easily been missed. No Crossbill on this trip and this was the case for several other birders who had searched good areas

                                                                                                      Crested tit




                                                                                                              Buzzard
                                                                                                                    Gt Tit
                                                                                                              Goldfinch
                                                                                                       Pied Wagtail

                                                                                                            Dunnock


                                                                                                            Greenfinch

                                                                                                  Mistle thrush

                                                                                                             Blackbird

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