Not Speyside, but Skipwith Common, near York.
I decided that as Allerthorpe is literally bulging with Northern Redpolls, Skipwith would be worth a look. So, under the guise of 'Sunday afternoon stroll for all the family' off we went. Vicky did ask me whether I really needed my scope for a walk with the kids... Anyway, very quiet birdwise, though I managed corking views of a distant overflying Redpoll sp. And a Great Tit. It seems since I have been away that Skippy has been designated as a National Nature Reserve, and as such, all the birds have been rounded up by the Government and sold to help with the National Debt. With it's new credentials, I hope the visitors throwing litter and letting their dogs run amok at this stunning site were ashamed of themselves.
Number 2, The Birch. My favourite tree incidentally.
Later, I nipped down to the Ings to distract Russ in his attempt to find a Franklin's. The big scary female Peregrine was causing chaos by flying around over the flood but didn't seem to be particularly serious about nailing anything. She perched hereself on a twig poking out of the water, looking massive. Russ tried to persuade me that she was in fact a Gyr, but I wasn't having it.
Too many gulls gave me gull-blindness - a bit like snowblindness, but it manifests itself in the inability to pick out anything at all. I pretended to Russ that I was grilling the gulls, but I was secretly enjoying the cute Roe Deer frollicking on Storwood Ings...
Slippery walk back to the car, with a bulging Derwent looking good to burst and the bubbling of Curlews over the meadows signalling the coming of Spring.
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