The news...

Not a great deal to report for the last few days as we had family visitors but just to keep you up to date here is the news.The snow made a brief reappearance on Saturday.

I'd had an early run round the loch for a quick Otter fix and bagged an adult WT Eagle too before getting a snap of this Cormorant drying it's wings.

Monday I ended up having a trail around on my own. The weather was fine and there had been a few Waxwings on the move. The Waxwings had been reported as arriving on the Sunday and it seemed like they were pushing rapidly East. I didn't rate my chances but I was keeping my eyes and ears open for them. I'd picked up WT Eagle on the way to check on the WF Goose numbers (still 10) then the Coot was duly checked out alongside 30 Tufted Duck. A quick check of a piece of woodland threw up a few species with Chiffchaff and Goldcrest being the star birds amongst the 4 species of Tits seen and a Sparrowhawk that nearly had me for as meal by mistake!! Great Northern and Red-throated Divers seemed easy to find today and the flock of 30 Golden Plover with 4 Dunlin hiding amongst them seemed to be a good find until my next stop. There were 120 Golden Plover on view with 4 Dunlin (again), 4 Turnstone, 8 Ringed Plover, 12 Redshank, 2 Greenshank with a cracking female Merlin and two Golden Eagles to spice things up. When all the waders lifted off I waited for a WT Eagle to appear but it never happened until after I left - typical that someone fills the gaps;-) I finished the day off with some stunning views of the Otters - this one eating a fish...

...and this one just passing me by.

I'd seen a few migrant birds through the day with fly over Skylarks, Fieldfare and Redwing but no sign of any Waxwings. Most of the Rowans seemed to be stripped bare but the Hawthorns were virtually untouched so there may still be a chance but I'll not be holding my breath!