The snow did not defeat!!

Just back from another wonderfully refreshing and bird-list boosting week in and around the Highlands.  Clocked up 105 species in total with highlights being Iceland, Glaucous and Ring-billed gulls, close Cresties, Black Grouse in a Spruce tree, fantastic Golden and White-tailed Eagles - and oops nearly forgot the Harlequin duck.........

The weather was kind for the most, with snow descending towards the end of the week making for an amazing walk through the forest with the sun rising behind the trees.  We even made it over to the West Coast - although had to keep running for the van during the sleet showers but were rewarded with a low fly past from a white-tailed eagle plus the ring-billed gull at Dingwall proved obliging when we stopped on the way.....


Black Grouse                                                       Red Grouse

Crested Tit

Glaucous Gull

Golden Eagle hunting

 Long-tailed Duck

Bar-tailed Godwits

Purple Sandpiper

Iceland Gull taking a bath

Dipper

Harlequin Duck

Snow Buntings

Ring-billed Gull on ice

 White-tailed Eagle fly past

Slavonian Grebe

Kingfisher to Kites (not the alphabet of birding)

Had a great day out at North Cave Wetlands (jsut love that place) and ending with the Red Kites at Nunburnholme and a Buzzard perched over the road on the way back.  It was a very cold and frosty day but made for trying some different photos.  The Reed Buntings were amazing, disappearing into the field, hopping back over and posing then flying off again - and as for the Dunnock.......  We even found the Kingfisher - perched over one of the few bits of open water.

A bit of a Gull-fest

Had a blow the cobwebs away walk in Scarborough today, plenty of people, not many birds but did get to see the Med Gull (not difficult but still find it hard to recognise!!) and just a few Black-headed....

OOOPS

Took loads of pics today thinking the focussing was odd because of the drizzle, oops big mistake - I was still on manual focus not auto!!  Ah me........  still the Great Skua obviously flew into range occasionally........