Lets Go Birding in Scotland's Cairngorm National Forest
In March as the shape of my Scotland trip was coming together, I began researching what wildlife is must see while at each of our stops. In the Cairngorms, I knew I wanted to see the Red Grouse and Scottish Crossbill. I started to contact a few birding tour guides as I was hoping to find someone who could help us distinguish the Red Crossbill from Scottish Crossbill. The two types of crossbills have differing songs. I wanted to see a variety of habitats in the Cairngorms, and a local expert would reduce the research I needed to do ahead of time.
I quckly learned that if you're looking for a tour guide for early June in the Cairngorms, you have to plan more than 3 months ahead! I contacted many guides who were booked. Some gave me some advice on where to locate the wildlife I'd hoped to see. Some referred me to other guides that they knew. I sent a few emails that went unanswered.
After a long delay I did get a response from, John with Highland Nature who was available to take us all around the Cairngorms National Park in a full day tour.
On the day of our tour we met at 9AM and we finished around 4pm. John drove us around the Cairngorms National Park to various spots, with a variety of habitats. I can't really say where we were when we saw each of the birds below, but I do have the overall map for the day.
We encountered (either heard or saw) 45 different species of bird. I created a single ebird checklist for the day. This is certainly higher than the number of species we would have come across if we'd had to go out on our own. While it was great to check so many birds off on my life list, we didn't always have the opportunity to get out of the car or spend as much time as I would have liked getting high quality photos. Despite this, I'm happy with many of the photos I captured.
Our next stop was a wooded area. Here we saw lots of birds high up in trees, and some not so high.
We spent way too much time trying to get photos of this Goldcrest as it flitted from tree to tree eating bugs. My neck got very stiff from craning upwards trying to find it.
A Common Chaffinch sits in a tree branch. The chaffinch is much more accommodating to being photographed!
A few different shots of the same Tree Pipit (I think!) from beneath way up in a tree.
When I got tired of looking high up in the trees, this Mallard was there splashing along the nearby loch. I appreciated him giving me some easy wins.
A Eurasian Treecreeper posing in the sunlight on a tree trunk with its breakfast in beak.
The Common Wood Pigeons were, of course, in the woods.
We stopped by just to see this Highland Cow (aka Coo) between bird habitat stops. When we initially looked for him we didn't find him. John commented that you can't hide a cow. But as we pulled out I found him hiding under this tree because at 60 F he was too hot.
We stopped off near at a stone bridge over a river. This bridge had a path that went down along the river, in hindsight I wish I'd suggested walking down to the path to get a bit closer to some of the birds in the river. We took a bunch of shots from atop the bridge which didn't provide great angles for all of the birds below.
I noticed Blue Tits flying toward the bridge. As we got closer we could see that they were flying into a spot on the bridge with caterpillars and then back out again to fetch more. They definitely had a nest in the bridge <3
This Common Merganser couple was further out in the river that flowed under the bridge with the Blue Tit nest.
These are all photos I wish I'd been closer for, each of these has a Common Sandpiper and a Gray Wagtail. I was photographing from way above them though so they are small in the photos.
We stopped off for lunch along this same river. We all packed sandwiches for lunch and ate on the grass. As we ate John pointed out a few birds in the area. When I finished eating I took a few photos before we moved on.
We drove through some moors in the afternoon. It was cloudy, colder, and windy by this point. As we drove in a Red Grouse fly by on the opposite side of the car from me, and some of our party were able to see chicks. I missed out on those because I found myself on the wrong side of the car. We got out once to try find more Red Grouse but we didn't see any outside the car.
As we drove through the moors, we found a Common Gull colony nesting in the grass. I really love how the white flowers sort of provide camouflage to the gulls on their nests with heads low in the grass.
The moors we visited surrounded a Loch where this Lesser Black-backed Gull was wading.
The photo on the right contains a pair of Red Grouse the male on the left and female on the right. The male has the more pronounced red eyebrow, which you can see better in the photo on the right.
As we left the moors, we saw this Red Kite flying along the hills.
We visited an area with some bird feeders. These were a bit different from the feeders we visited in Costa Rica. They were a bit closer to the feeders that I use at home in New York. Although these were hung on trees and mine are on poles.
My favorite feeder photos were of this Red Squirrel as it climbed the trees around the feeders.
A Eurasian Siskin, a Coal Tit, and a Common Chaffinch at the feeder together.
This Great Spotted Woodpecker was quite shy. It liked the back and bottom of the feeder and fly away quickly every time it visited.
We stopped by a property with a small pond. The pond provided space for many different types of birds. Unfortunately we didn't get out of the van for photos here and the pond was on the opposite side of the street and car from where I was sitting. The photos are a bit distant even with my Canon RF 100-500mm lens*.
There were several Eurasian Oystercatchers around the pond. I didn't get any photos of their long orange bills though.
This Eurasian Wigeon and her ducklings were in the middle of the pond.
A Green-Winged Teal Family was also in this little pond. It was neat to see two different species of duckling in such a small space. Ducklings are pictured in the top right photo.
There were a few Lapwings around. Their crests and iridescent wings are very cool, although with the cloud cover it was a bit harder to see the colors in the wing.
Our final stop took us to a loch with a blind where we could sit to watch the birds in and around the lake. It was a great spot, although the loch was huge so even my 500mm zoom didn't let me get as close as I would have liked for some of the shots. John really wanted to show us a Horned Grebe here though.
A Goldeneye swimming alone in the loch.
We encountered 2 families of Graylag Geese at the loch. The first family had goslings following parents. The second family's goslings really wanted to catch the first, so goslings lead the way. They eventually merged with one set of adults up front and the other bringing up the rear.
A Tufted Duck with some Graylag Geese in the background
A female and male tufted duck on the left with just a male on the right.
A Moorhen seemed to chomp its way through some of the vegetation on the water.
As we left, we spotted the Horned Grebe. It was a bit hard to capture because I was in the car and it kept diving, but I got a few decent photos.
Sadly, we didn't get to see any Crossbills. John said that the pinecones that they can be found feeding on opened early this year so we were perhaps a bit too late to see them. We did hear what Merlin identified as a Red Crossbill though.
Not Crossbills, but I did get some photos of this Siskin in the trees where we went to find Crossbills.
It was great to have an ornithology expert to take us around to a variety of habitats in the Scottish Highlands. John knew a ton about the birds and the area. I do wish when planning the tour I'd shared that I was looking to get photos of the birds and not just check them off. I'll take this lesson with me for future plans.