Friday 31 August 2012

The last laugh.

Another tour with the same guests but very different weather - pretty dull, plenty of rain and windy. What a day we had! We didn't bother looking for WT Eagle as it was lashing down so a look at the water was in order and we found a Great Northern Diver - awesome.
Next up was an Otter that gave us the slip while we got soaked! A couple of Little Grebe and a female Hen Harrier kept the spirits up. A few wading birds had dropped in with about 14 Dunlin, 2 Ringed Plover and 3 Knot.
A couple of Red-throated Diver showed reasonably well as we searched for another Otter. A brief look at the sea was quite productive as we picked up Great Skua, Manx Shearwater and a Little Gull. The weather wasn't really improving any but we'd had some good sightings including this persistent Goldfinch begging for food.
Another two Great Skuas were seen while we watched the Gannets fishing and the weather started to clear. With bits of blue sky showing it was time to go eagle hunting. We located a Golden Eagle sitting on the hill side that was superb in the scope. We watched as it took off and was joined by it's mate before they both disappeared. We headed further down the road to relocate the birds but we found them in flight heading back towards where we'd come from! Back we went to find nothing but a Red Deer that must have been sniggering at us!
We managed to get the last laugh as we finally got a close view of the Golden Eagles sitting next to the road - cor blimey, mate.
We finished the day with a WT Eagle sitting in a tree as the rain started to fall again - awesome day.
On my way home I bumped into Doc - he loves Greylag Geese
We stood chatting for a wee while, long enough to see a couple of Hen harrier to fly about and for this monster to fly over.
She landed beside the male who was busy plucking a Grey Heron but he soon got the message that he should be taking this one home for the kids!

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