Well 25 Waxwings reported today from Aviemore, seems I missed the other 24, well it was gettin dark!  One irate Crestie going ape at my Black Lab bounding round in the forest was the sum total of todays birding other than a  couple of lonely Bullfinches. Actually thinking about it, those Bullfinches are a bit of an enigma. They are perpetually in exactly the same clump of young pines, and have been for weeks. Have no idea  why those pines are preferable to millions of others in the area, but they never budge. Guess is they are feeding on heather seeds, but there’s about 5 billion square miles of that here. Funny birds really Bullfinches, they just sort of exist in a mysterious sort of "Bullfinch world"…………odd what you think about when walking the dog.

Wild, windy and cold just about sums up the Highlands in winter. Good job I really enjoy watching swirling flocks of corvids at dusk as that’s about all there is to be seen in this weather. Oh and a wawing, dashing for cover in an Aviemore housing estate today was first "rare" of the year. Apparently the local Buzzards suffered in the recent cold snap, with reports of them attacking hens at several places. Cresties are showing very well on local feeders but they just hate my garden for some reason. There was one once in the big pine, many moons ago, but other than that my garden is a Crestie no go zone.
Got Tawny Owl on my car window list, also Black Grouse and Woodcock.

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Ah! Is it winter again? It’s very cold and I suddenly remembered the password to my blog account!

Mystery Photo No.1

Loch Morlich

Only hope it melts before the divers return!

It has been serioulsy cold over the past few weeks, Inverness shrouded in freezing for for days became ice capital of the north. Even at Kinloss at sea level was down to -12. Here in Nethybridge the lowest I recorded was -14 on 28th December, I think that it has barely gone above zero for at least two weeks now. Currently it’s back to -10 this evening. Not surprisingly there aren’t many birds about. A Blue Tit on the feeder today had a noticable odd bend in it’s tail, evidence probably of spending the night roosting  tight in to a crevice somewhere. No doubt many have succumbed to the bitter cold.

Birding from my window or car has become preferable of late though not doing too bad, had a nice White-tailed Eagle drifting over the Strath as I was coming back from the shop and a flock of Waxings while filling with petrol at the garage. Am considering going for the lazy birding challenge in 2009 perhaps. It is actually possible I reckon to see EVERY Scottish speciality from your car window, there’s a challenge for 2009. My vehicle window list will be updated on a regular basis, watch this space.