Scottish Highlands Part 1

Day one of my Highland adventure. We had planned to go out on the mountain tops to photograph Ptarmigan but once we got up their the weather wasn't suitable for photography to say the least! So we headed off to the Capercaillie site where I spent the next two hours with this wonderful male. I had a couple of shot in mind that I wanted of this bird and over the 2 visits I was very pleased with the results. After lunch we went to have a look for Crested Tits and Red Squirrels. Arriving on site I was pleased to see and photograph my first Crested Tit. We didn't manage to spot any Red Squirrels though.

One of the few shots I had in mind

Environmental shot

One of my favourite shots of the Capercaillie

An early start on Monday saw us heading up onto the mountains again to try for Ptarmigan, but the road up to mountain was shut due to snow so we made the decision to head for the coast and have a look in the harbours for Long-tailed Ducks and maybe a King Eider. We tried two bays and had a good day, but the light just wasn't quite right. A good birding day was had though, Red Grouse, Purple Sandpiper, Eider, Common Scooter, Red throated Diver, Rock Pipit, 2 shag and at least 12 Long-tailed Ducks.

Male Long-tailed Duck

Male Eider

Male Long-tailed Duck

Male Long-tailed Duck in-flight

Female Long-tailed Duck

Long-tailed Ducks

Male Long-tailed Duck in-flight

Cormorant

Grey Seal

Great Black-backed Gull in-flight
 

Day 3 and finally we managed to get onto the mountains to photograph the Ptarmigan. It wasn't easy finding the birds but eventually we managed to find a group of at least 12 birds. They showed well allowing us to get fairly close.  We also managed 2 Mountain hare and I managed a record shot. The weather was always grey and overcast where we were but looking at the other mountain peaks they looked beautiful in the sunlight just ours that didn't have the sun. After lunch we headed back to try photograph the Crested Tit's with a little more success than yesterday. Still didn't see any Red Squirrels, but did manage to see a Goldcrest and Treecreeper.

Ptarmigan

Ptarmigan

Ptarmigan

Mountain Hare

Coal Tit

Crested Tit

Great Tit

Ptarmigan