Looking north towards Tummel, May 2010.
Roe Deer foal, May 2010.
Black Grouse, Perth & Kinross, May 2010.
"If you think you're hard enough".
Snow on 11 May near Aberfeldy!
Male Ring Ouzel near Crieff, May 2010.
Me and Mrs B watching the Ring Ouzels at the weekend.
Emirates Stadium, May 2010. The new Home of Football.
The old Home of Football.
The old and the new (I'm the handsome one) at the Emirates on a stadium tour.
So, I've been living just west of Perth for nearly a month now, conducting bird surveys in the surrounding areas and travelling to Ayrshire every so often. Once again the variety of "our" birds and countryside has astounded me with a diversity of wildlife experiences available to satiate the most demanding of natural history enthusiast.
Early days. The open-plan Scotland office.
Mrs. B arrived, staying for a long weekend and allowing us to take in some of the local sites in glorious weather. After introducing her to my "local" (also my first visit) and discovering that the pub has WiFi (a new brand of "cyberpub"?) we took an evening stroll with screaming
Swifts overhead and singing
Yellowhammers enjoying the fine late Spring weather. Saturday morning saw us driving up the A9 to Loch of Lowes for the "Osprey Experience", visiting a few local woodlands where
Wood Warblers and
Pied Flycatchers could be heard. After a superb evening in Edinburgh enjoying an excellent Justin Currie concert with new material and old favourites from his time fronting one of my all-time favourite bands, Del Amitri, we arrived back near Perth in the early hours seeing
Barn Owl along the A9. Last Sunday morning we drove to a spectacular valley near Crieff where we enjoyed singing male
Ring Ouzels and watched a pair mobbing a
Sparrowhawk and
Kestrel that ventured to near its nesting site. A
Peregrine called as it appeared from the low cloud and
Common Sandpipers sang from the river below us before we had to return, taking Mrs B back to Edinburgh for her train back to Preston.
Red Kite,
Hen Harrier,
Short-eared Owl,
Black Grouse, drumming
Snipe,
Whinchats,
Grasshopper Warbler and a smart summer plumage
Black-throated Diver were just a few of the birding highlights from the week prior to Angie's visit.
Red Deer sightings and numerous encounters with
Roe Deer and
Red Squirrels were frequent during the survey work as we roamed through local forests and across heather moors.
Time to stay at our caravan at Southerness has been at a premium this year, as it seems sensible to make the best of the facilities of my new temporary home in the Central Scotland region at the moment. So it was nice to drive down from a day working in Ayrshire and onto Loch Ryan in Dumfries and Galloway, through the Forest of Galloway arriving at Southerness in the evening to meet Angie. In truth Loch Ryan was pretty quiet but it was nice to pop in as it seems like an age since I was last there. A migrant
Honey Buzzard was a real surprise in the middle of a quiet period for birding but the drive through Galloway was better with
Redstarts,
Tree Pipits,
Cuckoos and
Wood Warblers in song along the Raiders Road and Mossdale.
Natterjack Toads could be heard from our caravan that fine evening on the Solway.
The weekend was very enjoyable if not spectacular, with
Bonxie (we missed the Pom's and Long-taileds thanks to bad timing) at Annan and a fine drake
Garganey at Mersehead during many hours of completing Timed Tetrad Visits and collecting Roving Records for the BTO Atlas.
Galloway Forest Park, Dumfries & Galloway, May 2010.
It seems bizarre to think that I was caught in a snow storm on 11 May while watching
Black Grouse as I sit typing this after a day of summer temperatures,
Orange-tips,
Green-veined Whites and
Common Darters. But snow it did, and quite heavy too.
Long-eared Owl was one of the birds of the week, but who can complain when my average day involves watching
Redstarts singing from exposed perches, parachuting
Tree Pipits, parties of
Crossbills and singing
Siskins.
At the end of my first week working here I drove back to Lancs and joined the rest of the family for a weekend in London. The hustle 'n' bustle was a bit of a shock after a week yomping across farmlands with Tree Sparrows; forests and moorlands with the faint hope of Capercallies and eagles, but I finally came to terms with it all.
Callum and Angie at Highbury. I remember when his feet didn't touch the ground as he ate a burger on that wall!
Highbury east stand (where we had our season tickets prior to our move to Lancs).
Now a property development!
Ben with his all-time favourite Arsenal player.
Three-headed Bushell creature (Ben, Callum and Angie) prior to the match at the Emirates.
Birds and birding has been an integral part of my life but combining other passions such as music as we did last weekend, and family and footy on this weekend makes life the rich and rewarding experience it should be. I can well remember the days when Angie, Ben and Callum (bedecked in red-and-white) would join me on our fortnightly excursion to Highbury to watch our beloved Gunners at Highbury. In early May we spent a very enjoyable weekend staying in the capital and taking in a stadium tour of the "new home of football" at the Emirates prior to the final game of he season versus Fulham on the Sunday. We gave up our season tickets the year we moved to Lancs so it was a nostalgic visit to Highbury before the game, eating burgers at the same place we used to, sitting on the same wall to scoff them, but strolling to the new stadium after seeing the new Highbury development. A 4-0 victory was nice too.
Back to Lancs for a long weekend break soon and an hour or two (or seven!) on the Ribble no doubt.
Ah leave it, he's just not worth it!
Mrs B. in pensive mood on the Ribble.
Warton from the south side of the Ribble at Hesketh Marsh this morning.
