Seaside Excursion

distant view of sea cliffs [please note weather!]

Today we went to the seaside on a sunny Scottish excursion.

It was hot! Damn hot! There were blue skies and the temperature I’m sure climbed above the twenty degrees Celsius mark however in direct sun light it seemed much warmer than that number suggests.

We started close to our village of Granton-on-Spey and checked out a nearby river; let’s call it the Spey. Goosanders or Common Mergansers were the targets but neither were seen. A reasonable range of other spp including Dipper, Sand Martin, Goldeneye though.

Bridge over the Spey

Back to Abernathy Forest to search again for Crested Tit but the forest was very quiet save the Chaffinch.

Now to the Inner Moray Firth near Inverness where we saw my ‘bird of the day’ – Otter! Reasonable views of two animals were seen under the pylons of the one massive bridge spanning the Firth.

Then on to The “Black Isle” for some seabirds such as Guillemots, Razorbills, Cormorants and shags plus the regular gulls and Common Terns. At the sea watching spot we also scored a few nice views of Goldcrest, Whitethroat, Robin, Song Thrush, Wren etc. The lunchtime spot yielded Red-throated Divers out in the firth plus Yellowhammer on the adjacent golf course.  Red Kite was seen on route – our first for Scotland.

The last couple of stops yielded, most notably, Red-breasted Merganser. Plus a few others like Ringed Plover.