Monday 27 September 2010

Now you see me...

Saturday was a cracking day with a proper good start to the day. The camera didn't see that much action due to me being to slow off the mark! A juvenile WT Eagle was perched in a tree at the side of the road but I had to move on to let some traffic by and when I reversed the bird flew off. Stunning views of the bird in flight but it drifted out of sight too quick. After checking out a herd of hinds we picked up two large birds in flight - another two WT Eagle with a Golden Eagle, that we hadn't noticed, in tow. With 8 RB Merg giving us a fly past, a Little Grebe bobbing about and a single PF Goose hiding amongst the Greylags things were looking good. The two Golden Eagle flying about at lunch time gave us a treat. Ten minutes after leaving our lunch spot we were watching 3 WT Eagle. I picked up two adult birds perched together on an offshore island but by the time I pointed this out there was only one bird. The other adult bird appeared in flight closely followed by a juv bird! The juv gave superb views as it flew right past us. We finished the day off with another Golden Eagle, a bunch of Manx Shearwater, a cracking Skylark having a dust bath, five Mountain Hares...
...and an Otter at our final stop - phew! A stunning end to the day though.
Sunday was a day off but it was back to the daily grind on Monday;-) The weather was superb early on but it clouded over quite quickly and it was a bit chilly too. While picking up the guests I'd pointed out a hill top that was good for Golden Eagle - there was nothing there. With all the guest on board and about two miles away from the aforementioned hill top the Goldie was now sitting pretty!! We'd bagged a female Hen Harrier and a Twite so we headed off for a closer view of the Goldie. When we arrived at the closest point to the hill top it was bird free again!! Now you see me, now you don't - we left, quickly. A vast improvement was had when we spotted a young Goldie in flight - this one flew straight overhead!!
I was quite surprised to see a flock of 8 Swallows flying through after a couple of days of no sightings of this species. An adult Golden Eagle kept us company at lunchtime but never as close as the young bird we'd seen earlier.
Our grand finale for the day really was grand with two Otters in and out of the water...
...and two juvenile WT Eagles. One of these juvenile birds was sporting green tags which makes it a 2009 bird from the East coast project.

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