Scotland: Highlands & Wester Ross

This was a week-long birding trip with Heatherlea: Highlands & Wester Ross from July 16th-23rd, 2022. We were based in Heatherlea's own hotel 'Mount View' in Nethy Bridge for most of the week with a two night stay at Gairloch on the West Coast.

I travelled up on the midday train from Kings Cross to Aviemore with my friends John and Janet. For some inexplicable reason we all had to decant trains at York and board another train that had just arrived from the north while our train went back to London. We kept a bird list but it was slow going and we were relieved to arrive just 15 minutes late. Heatherlea picked us up, along with several other fellow passengers and we made our way to Nethybridge. After a quick check in we had dinner and discussed plans for the next day's birding.

On Sunday we had a day birding locally, firstly in Abernethy Forest to look for Crossbills and Crested Tit. We had good views of the first but only heard the latter. There were quite a lot of Ringlets on the wing including several lacking the golden circles that give them their name.

Common Crossbill

'Plain' Ringlet

We stopped at a private loch to see a fine Slavonian Grebe then drove around a private estate hoping to see Capercaillie which we didn't. We stopped for a distant Dipper at Old Spey Bridge and saw several butterflies including Northern Brown Argus before ending the day at Lochindorb seeing Black-throated Divers and plenty of Red Grouse.

Spey river with resident Dipper

Old Spey Bridge

Northern Brown Argus

Lochindorb

Red Grouse

On Monday we left straight after breakfast for our West Coast expedition, picking up Red Kite along the way. During our three day visit we explored many bays along the coast and various moorland stops, seeing three species of diver, White-tailed Eagle, Black Guillemot, Otter and a Hooded Crow on the roof of our hotel.

Otter

Hooded Crow

Red-throated Diver

Our hotel at Gairloch

A roadside stop in western Scotland

Waterfall

We walked up a hill looking for Ptarmigan but didn’t see any, however we did get brief views of Azure Hawker, a rare and very localised dragonfly and a new one for me. We were always on the lookout for wildlife and also saw several Magpie Moths and even visited a public convenience just to look for moths!

Walking up the hill

Scanning for Ptarmigan

View from the top

Northern Marsh Orchid

Magpie Moth

Dotted Carpet

On the middle day we had a boat trip out towards Skye, actually a RHIB which was fast as well as surprisingly comfortable. This was the highlight of the trip for most people (probably everyone), starting with close up Storm Petrels and even a couple of Leach's Petrels, a pod of acrobatic Common Dolphins and a Minke Whale that spent about 20 minutes checking us out, circling the boat and even swimming just underneath us. At one point it surfaced so close to us that you could even see its blow, which you don’t normally see on these small whales. We also saw a flock of Manx Shearwaters as well as Puffins, Guillemots and Razorbills.

Common Dolphins

Minke Whale

Back at Nethybridge we had a Dipper the following morning before breakfast from the main bridge in the village before spending another day in the Highlands, this time seeing several Crested Tits and several Northern Spinach moths before stopping to visit a pair of breeding Ospreys.

Dipper at Nethybridge

Osprey nest

Northern Spinach moth

We then spent the rest of the afternoon in the Lower Findhorn Valley which was full of raptors including two Golden Eagles, a distant White-tailed Eagle, Osprey and Peregrine. There were plenty of insects including Emerald Damselfly and more butterflies and moths.

Emerald Damselfly

After dinner we had an evening visit to see a Short-eared Owl on the moors.

Our last day's birding was spent on the East Coast, primarily at Troup Head which hosts Scotland's only mainland gannetry along with plenty of other breeding seabirds. Bird flu was in evidence with many Gannet corpses littering the cliffs. The coastal walk was good for butterflies, especially Dark Green Fritillary.

Troup Head seabird colony

Troup Head Gannetry

Fulmar coming in to land

Dark Green Fritillary

We also visited a few other sites for waders and other seabirds before making our way back to Mount View for our last night and then the return train journey back to London.

 

July 9th-15th: week of the hairstreaks

I had a quick scoot around Brent on Saturday morning before taking the 297 bus to Perivale, just round the corner from Horsenden Hill for my second Lepidoptera field trip of the week. This one was led by David Howden and he showed us the contents of his overnight mothing to start with. I recognised quite a few species from when I used to trap but there were a few new ones including a smart Rosy Footman.

Rosy Footman

Once we’d had a quick look, as the plan was to spend more time with them at the end, we went for a butterfly walk, mainly to look for hairstreaks. It didn’t take long to find our first Purple Hairstreaks but there were several novices in the group, some of whom didn’t have any optics so we spent quite a lot of time trying to get everyone to see a perched individual. Directions of 'it’s on that leaf below the nibbled leaf' don’t work that well when looking at an oak tree with thousands of nibbled leaves!

Eventually we moved on to the row of elms where the other target, White-letter Hairstreak, is usually found. We saw a couple in flight before one landed and we went through a similar process of trying to get the group onto it which most people managed.

Spot the White-letter Hairstreak

I left the walk at this stage rather than go round the whole site as I had just come for the moths and hairstreaks. As I waited for the bus a Buzzard flew over.

I spent the rest of the week birding at Brent Res as it was pretty quiet elsewhere in London. After last week’s Red-necked Grebe arrived I had hoped for further signs of the autumn migration but in a similar vein to the fabled Swallow of spring it seems that one grebe doth not an autumn make.

It was also the start of the heatwave and rather too hot to travel far anyway. I did a butterfly transect at Brent and found my own Purple and White-letter Hairstreaks. The latter are usually seen along the same stand of elms every year but I didn’t see any there last year so it was good to know they’re still around. I was lucky enough to discover a Purple Hairstreak low down for a change which was much better for photography despite it having a bite out of its wing.

Purple Hairstreak

Wader numbers slowly climbed during the week and by Friday there were 14 individuals: 5 Lapwing, 5 Common Sandpiper and 4 Green Sandpiper. Hopefully it won’t be long before there’s something different like a Blackwit or at least a Redshank at Brent, whilst, further afield I'm hoping for a repeat of last year when I saw two Pec Sands in London.

July 1st-8th: back in the game

I had a rare visit out of London on July 1st, albeit not that far out with a day trip to Box Hill with friends. Principally a trip for butterflies it usually turns into a general nature walk, often beginning with looking for moths at the underpass. This time was pretty good with Swallow-tailed Moth being the best.

Common Footman

Marbled White Spot

Riband Wave

Swallow-tailed Moth

We began the slow climb up the steep slope, finding Pyramidal and Common Spotted Orchids although the latter were going over compared to last year when we were here at exactly the same time.

Common Spotted Orchids

Common Spotted Orchid

Pyramidal Orchid

There were plenty of butterflies on the wing including Marbled Whites, Ringlets and the hoped for Dark Green Fritillaries. Once we reached the top of the hill it was time to admire the views and have a short rest.

Dark Green Fritillary

Marbled White

We walked along the ridge path, stopping to look at the headstone of a local who chose to be buried vertically before we reached the National Trust car park and cafe.

After a pause for hot drinks we had a look over the road, adding a brief Silver-washed Fritillary to the butterfly list. Usually we take the stepped path down to the river but it was closed for repairs which according to the signs should have been finished several weeks ago. So we had to descend the hill and walk around to the river where we stopped for lunch. As we got back to the station a Little Egret flew over and we heard our first pesky parrot of the day, a recent arrival in the area.

On Saturday I popped down to the Wetland Centre for a few hours. I wasn’t expecting to see much although recent reports of Black-tailed Godwit and Wood Sand suggested there may be some waders. In the event there was no movement and the only waders were local breeders including a pair of Oystercatchers with two half-grown young. One of the adults sat on an island and called to them continuously as if trying to get them to come over but as they bred on a raft the young will have to stay there until they’re much older and can fly. A pair of Little Ringed Plovers were unaccompanied by any young so presumably failed to breed this year.

The following day I went to a new area: Ten Acre Wood and Gutteridge Wood, collectively called Yeading Woods. Surrounded by meadows and a golf course that’s in construction this large green space in suburban west London has a lot of potential. It’s been an area I had wanted to visit but wasn’t quite sure how to access it so a friend showed me around the place. July isn’t the best time to visit but we did see several Red Kites which presumably breed nearby, including what I think is the first one I’ve actually seen perched in London.

Haven't identified this fungus yet

Red Kite

We also saw Common Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and heard a singing Skylark. Hopefully, I’ll get back here later in the year.

I was back in West London the next day, this time at Staines Res where I was hoping to catch up with a Red-necked Grebe that had been present for the previous few days. A couple of local birders on the causeway told me where they had last seen it and after a few minutes scanning I picked it up, swimming against the north bank on the north basin. It was an adult in summer plumage so looked very smart despite the distant views. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one in this plumage and as I didn’t go for the one on KGV earlier in the year it becomes number 171 on my London year list, the first addition for a month.

Also on the reservoirs were a little gaggle of Egyptian Geese, the first ones I’ve seen here and six Black-necked Grebes, all in summer plumage. Two of these were close to the causeway, giving great views and were even calling as well. On the banks I located a roosting Black-tailed Godwit but I didn’t venture to the other end of the causeway to look for the pair of Oystercatchers that were there.

Black-necked Grebe

Egyptian Geese

Instead I left early to head over to Kensington Gardens to search for Little Owl. It meant taking the train back to Waterloo then the tube up to Lancaster Gate. By the time I arrived it was lunchtime and quite hot as well as heaving with people so it wasn’t a great time to be looking for these birds. I wandered down towards the Round Pond and checked the area out but couldn’t find any. At one point I heard some mobbing so I paused my lunch and went to investigate. A pair of Chaffinches were berating a Magpie that was eating something in their tree, possible one of their nestlings.

With no hurry to get home I took a bus up the Edgware Road to look out for interesting restaurants to visit at a later date.

I managed a couple of visits to Brent during the week. There hadn’t been much change since last week with a few Lapwing, Green and Common Sands around but one of the breeding pairs of Common Terns had hatched a chick.

On the intervening day I joined a Herts & Middx Butterfly walk at Ruislip Woods. I met my friends at Wembley Park and we took the Met Line to Ruislip where we ran into Neil at the bus stop. At the Lido there was time for coffee and cake at one of the beachside cafes before the walk started.

The group set off at 10.30 and headed into a meadow to look for butterflies and whatever else took our interest including moths, ladybirds, flowers and birds. We entered the woods and found the two main targets there: White Admiral and Silver-washed Fritillary. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen White Admiral so it was good to catch up with it again although they didn’t settle for photos. We worked our way along Poors Field over to the northern side where the Purple Emperor spot is.

Silver-washed Fritillary

We had lunch and waited for the sun to come out but the overcast conditions meant we only had fleeting glimpses of one probable Purple Emperor over the canopy. Rather than walk all the way back to the Lido we walked the short distance to the local bus stop and took the bus to Northwood Hills station.

On Friday I decided it was time to visit Rainham for the first time in over a month. With an early start I arrived at Rainham station at 07.30 and by the time I started walking through Rainham West it was already fairly hot. A few warblers were still singing but most of the Cetti’s had now shut up as they undergo their post-breeding moult.

Looking out from Serin Mound almost all the pools had dried up but I did manage to find a solitary Avocet. It was high tide in Aveley Bay so there weren’t any waders there either. I did a circuit of the reserve but it was pretty hot and there wasn’t a lot moving. Purfleet scrape only had a little water in it but there were no birds there as there was someone cutting the vegetation in front of the hide.

I had a look in the Cordite in case the Long-eared Owl was back but it wasn’t so plodded on to the KB hide. The Great Crested Grebes had bred successfully and a well grown youngster was following its parents around. In front of Butts Hide there were three juvenile Little Ringed Plovers and a group of feisty Little Egrets which kept chasing each other off. The best sighting was at the dragonfly pond which was almost dry but a male Bearded Tit was feeding on the mud the whole time I was there. At least one juvenile also came in but didn’t hang around.

Bearded Tit