Cairngorms 2018

Last week I spent the best part of three days in Aviemore, birding various sites across and around the Cairngorms National Park with my mate Rob. We arrived on Wednesday at 10:00am with the intention of heading straight up the funicular railway to try for Ptarmigan. However, as we drove up the road towards the mountain railway it wasn't looking promising. There was a thick layer of cloud and as we pulled onto the car park it was beginning to snow, so with the prospect a rather cold and wet time at the cafe with zero visibility, we decided to cut our losses and go elsewhere.

Instead we headed to Abernethy and Loch Garten, not so much for the Ospreys but just the general birding around the woods. We did visit the Osprey watchpoint though - who doesn't? A Redstart was singing as we approached which was the first of the trip, and we had some 'limited' views of the female Osprey on the nest from inside the centre. As usual there were Siskins and Coal tits everywhere.

After half an hour or so we left the centre and went for a walk around the Loch. It was pretty quiet, a pair of Goldeneye, a couple of Common Sandpipers and a few Greylag Geese were on the Loch, with Swallows and Sand Martins hawking insects above the waters surface. We heard a Tree Pipit but could only get brief glimpses, however a Treecreeper put in an appearance whilst we were searching and then, out of the blue, a Crested Tit flew into view. Lifer (or more correctly UK tick) number one for Rob and a good year tick for me. By now it was lunch time so we decided to drop our gear off at the Aviemore Youth Hostel and grab something to eat.

A quick word about the hostel. Its a great place to stay for a cheap break. It has good kitchen facilities, a common room, dining area, drying room etc and its really clean and comfortable. An added bonus is that you can see Peregrines from the car park and its adjacent to the Craigellachie Nature Reserve - more of which later. The hostel has a website and you can find them on twitter @hostellingscot.

After dumping our gear the weather had changed and we could see the summit of Cairngorm, so we headed back up. Although the cloud had lifted there was still a good amount of snow up there, much more than when I was there last year, and it was bitter on the cafe viewing terrace, with a stiff wind creating a bit of spin-drift.

View from the terrace!

There was a single birder on the terrace but he hadn't seen any Ptarmigan. But we were there so gave it half an hour anyway (its not like you can just nip back down). It was worthwhile as we had cracking views of Snow Bunting down to just a few feet. After half an hour though we were pretty cold so went in for a brew and a warm up. Just as we finished our drinks the other birder came back in and told us he'd just seen a Ptarmigan fly in, and gave us precise directions to where it had landed. We went out and managed to get on it immediately - impressive as it was a moulting grey and white bird on a very grey and white background! Lifer number two for Rob. A dutch family were intrigued as to what we were looking at so we spent a few minutes showing them the bird. Satisfied we had seen what we wanted we got the train down. Back at the car park we picked up a small flock of Snow Buntings (4 to be exact) and a single Wheatear, my first for the year. After that it was back down and off to get a shower, some food, some beer and some sleep!

Snow Buntings!

Next day we started early in one of the many beautiful woodlands in the area hoping for the elusive Capercaillie. I will point out now that we were not looking for a lek, we were in public woodlands and we stayed on the forestry tracks. The woods were very quiet, spring was clearly a few days behind; last year there had been Redstarts and Tree Pipits everywhere but this year they were few and far between. We spent about an hour wandering around and had started to retrace our steps after covering a few areas of the woodland. We were chatting quietly, discussing where we were going to go next, which path to take when we got to the next junction, when Rob tapped me on my shoulder and simply muttered my name. I knew instantly what he was getting at and luckily I looked straight in front just as a stonking great male Capercaillie walked slowly across the path and into the vegetation! We quickened our pace to see if we could get another view and luckily I spotted its head sticking up amongst the Bilberry and Heather. We stopped and I had chance to set up the scope for a few minutes of excellent views before it decided it had had enough of being looked at and flew off. A superb bird, a lifer for me and lifer number three for Rob.

Bird of the trip - Capercaillie!!!

Even though we had nailed the target bird of the trip we stayed in the woods, birding for another hour or so, during which time we had another pair of Crested Tits, singles of Redstart and Tree Pipit plus a pair of Crossbills which, given the calls, the habitat and the (to me) slightly larger, deeper billed appearance were good contenders for Scottish Crossbill. Lifer number four for Rob.

Now, I will point out here that yes, Rob managed four lifers in 24 hours (admittedly that could easily be the case for any UK birder heading to Speyside for the first time), but, Rob is about the luckiest birder I have ever met. Since he started joining me on trips I have had some of the best birding days ever, adding quite a few lifers and some tricky year ticks seemingly every time we go birding.

After the woods we called at small Lochan to check for Slavonian Grebes but none were present. According to some birders we spoke to later, most territories on other waters had 'Slavs' back on them so it looks like they may have abandoned this particular site this year.

We drove into Aviemore and had breakfast and then headed up to Lochindorb to see if we could see the Black-throated Divers that had been showing so well.

Lochindorb- sadly no Black-throated Divers

When we arrived it was clearly not going to be as easy as we had hoped. There was a very stiff breeze (possibly an understatement) cutting across the loch whipping up a few white horses. Small ones, but still white horses. We drove along the loch edge scanning at every opportunity. A group of birders were parked up in one of the few parking spots and when we pulled in after doing a length of the loch, they told us the divers had been out, but had swam into a bay out of sight. So, it was a waiting game. We amused ourselves watching a few Red Grouse and Meadow Pipits and constantly scanned the water and the sky for divers and raptors respectively. We stayed for four hours and still dipped the divers. But, we did have brilliant views of one or maybe two separate Ospreys, a Red Kite (which was a surprise), and a very distant Golden Eagle. As we waited, we chatted with a few birders, one of which mentioned seeing Wood Warbler at the back of the Youth Hostel in the Craigellachie Nature Reserve, so we decided to go for a look later.

Once back at the Youth Hostel in Aviemore, we parked up and headed out to the nature reserve. Its a brilliant woodland area that was buzzing with birds and we quickly picked up a singing Wood Warbler which eventually gave good views. We then picked up a Tree Pipit in full display mode which was really nice to see. By now though we were both ready for some food, so that was the end of day two.

Our last day started early again as we only had an hour or two before we needed to head home. We tried a route I had been told about that led through Rothiemurchus forest to the estate lodge. The birder who told me about it must have been there a while ago as the Forestry Commission are currently removing vast swathes of Lodgepole Pine to enable the native Scots Pine forest to regenerate. Great, except it wasn't great for us. The birding was, lets say, poor. We walked for 3/4 hour from the car before turning around, and apart from a few Willow Warblers, Coal Tits and Siskins we saw very little.

So a slightly disappointing end to the trip, but overall it was another great visit to this beautiful part of the world. We didn't amass a massive trip list - only about 50 or so species, but the list contained some real quality birds so no complaints at all.