Snow on St Andrew's Day

The weather has been turning much chillier lately so we were not surprised to wake up on Sunday morning to see a layer of snow covering the mountains opposite. More snow fell overnight and the temperature today has not risen above 4C with the threat of a freezing -4C tonight.
Today is St Andrew's Day, the patron saint of Scotland, so we will be celebrating tonight by the fire with a few wee drams.... cheers.

Sparrowhawk

While we were doing the changeover at the cottage yesterday we noticed this magnificent sparrowhawk sitting in the aspen tree outside the lounge window. He was watching the bird feeders along the fence with anticipation but all the birds had seen him coming and were well away. He stayed for a while and dried himself off by fluffing out his tail feathers. The male sparrowhawk is quite smaller than the female of the species which is rather unusual in animal life.
While we were at the cottage we had arranged for two new bathroom blinds and a new vertical blind to be fitted in the main bedroom. As we were taking down the old fittings in the master bedroom a red squirrel ran along the fence during an interval in the showers and munched away at the peanut feeders. Unfortunately the fitter drew up in his van and this noise was enough to scare away Cyril the squirrel...but at least they are still about.

Spot the Buzzard.

Yesterday dawned clear and bright so we went into Inverness to collect a few items. As we were driving back home along the shoreline of Loch Ness a buzzard swooped low in front of the car and quickly disappeared into the woodland. They are unmistakable as they have a wingspan of between 3 to 5 feet depending on their age. A bit further on we passed another one sitting absolutely still in a tree, only spotting him as we drove past. By now I had the camera actually ready and sure enough another buzzard flew across the road and rested on a nearby branch in the forest. He remained absolutely motionless and blended magnificently into the woodland scene with perfect camouflage.

Kincraig Wildlife Park

Enjoyed a very good day out at Kincraig Wildlife Park, about 7 miles beyond Aviemore passing the Loch Insh Watersports Centre. Even though it was cold [the temperature was -6C at Aviemore earlier in the morning] with a sharp frost on the ground the park was very busy for the time of year. The new arrivals must have encouraged visitors. These 3 Amur tiger cubs were born earlier in May this year.Also a baby Japanese snow monkey arrived and of course Mercedes the polar bear...who had just been fed and was fast asleep when we saw her. After a drive round the animal reserves we then explored the rest of the Park on foot seeing other animals at close quarters. We enjoyed some much needed hot soup in the restaurant.
For more information visit the Kincraig Wildlife Park website.

Some Pheasant !!

Luckily ths type of pheasant does not frequent our garden as it is extremely large and brightly coloured and very likely to scare the local wildlife - as well as us!....and it sits in trees!
We saw this species of pheasant - the Himalayan Pheasant [Satyr Tragopan] - or Crimson Horned Pheasant on our visit to the Kincraig Wildlife Park this week. It lives in the upper cooler reaches of the Himalayan Mountain of India and China at about 10,000 feet making the Highlands seem quite warm ..... more about our visit to follow.....watch this space!!

Berry nice

The flock of mistle thrushes have now migrated south after swarming around and gorging on anything tasty for the past week. The last few remaining rowan berries have finally dropped to the ground where they are being devoured mainly by the blackbirds and the odd passing pheasant.

Migrating Mistle Thrushes.

Over the last few days we could not fail to notice abnormally large flocks of birds flying about. Some would eventually settle down on the trees around the house,especially on the rowan trees, and on the path loch-side. Anybody walking casually along the front path would trigger this swarm of birds to take off en masse, enough to frighten most folk on a quiet stroll. The birds have been eating the remaining rowan berries left on the trees and generally filling themselves up with any food available, sometimes looking and listening very intently to underground sounds on the grassy front bank.
We did wonder if they were waxwings which would be a sign of a cold winter but on closer inspection we discovered they were mistle thrushes. Apparently some of the Scottish species swarm about in large flocks in late Autumn to gorge themselves and then migrate south, across to Ireland or even to France for the winter. They are also known for their loud song, which we can verify as we could not believe the constant birdsong noise this morning, even though it was raining. Their loud song can be heard during stormy weather hence their alternative name of 'Stormcock'. They came quite near the house in their search for grubs on the front bank and driveway and a few stopped for a splash about in the rain puddles