February 2008
By mid-month, I had recovered enough from January's back injury to risk a short break in the Scottish Highlands. My main target of this trip were Crested Tits, and they performed beautifully.
 Glen More, Highland |
 Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus) |
Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus)
Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus)
Other species coming down to the feeders I set up near the Loch Morlich campsite included Blue Tits, Coal Tits and Chaffinches.
Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Insect life was quite difficult to find most of the time as the cold wet weather was not conducive to high levels of activity, but was much more apparent during the few sunny spells.
Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Coal Tit (Periparus ater)
Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)
When not sitting by the feeders, I spent most of my time wandering around the forests enjoying the absolutely gorgeous weather. Because I didn't want to risk damaging my back again before it got a chance to properly heal, I left the big lens behind most of the time so missed a few opportunities to photograph a couple of small feeding flocks of Scottish Crossbills I encountered on my walks.
Glen More, Highland
Glen More, Highland
Glen More, Highland
Ryvoan Pass, Highland
The only longish walk I took my big lens along with me was up the Northern Corries of Cairngorm to photograph Ptarmigan. The Ptarmigan here are relatively easy to find and are used to human activity so can be approached quite closely without disturbing them.
female Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) - Cairngorm, Highland
female Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) - Cairngorm, Highland
male Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) - Cairngorm, Highland
Northern Corries, Highland
Ray Wilson owns the copyright of all images on this site.
They may not be used or copied in any form without prior written permission.
raywilsonphotography@googlemail.com