Today we decided to go and look for Dippers along the Findhorn River. We have been using the Scottish Bird Clubs app Where to Watch birds in Scotland, which we have found very useful, but today it would lead us into trouble. We followed the Banchor to Drynachan route which started ok, although we couldn't really find a decent place for a walk at the points indicated. After Point 3 on the route things very much took a turn for the worse, the road is absolutely terrible, the poor old Rio couldn't believe what we were putting it through😂 At one point half the road seemed to disappear and with nowhere to turn around we had to push through eventually reaching the end of the road!! We returned very slowly up the road and made it back through but I heartily recommend unless you are in a very robust 4x4 you avoid this route!! I have emailed them to warn about the road, for which they thanked me, but at time of writing the App hasn't been changed to alert people to the situation. One of the worse roads I've ever driven on and I've been along the entrance track to the Swale Nature Reserve on Sheppey😂!! So relieved were we to make it out in one piece that we immediately got lost😂, this actually was a benefit as we ended up on a very nice moor where we heard singing Snipe, displaying Curlew and a very posy Red Grouse!
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| Red Grouse |
On the spur of the moment we decided to give Dulcie Bridge a look, this turned out to be a good decision, we enjoyed a walk about a mile up stream along the incredible Findhorn River. Though the path was a bit dodgy at times, due to erosion, we made it through and were treated to some magnificent scenery, absolutely beautiful, a fantastic river!!
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| A couple of very newborn Lambs on the way to the first viewpoint! |
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| Dulcie Bridge |
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| Mistle Thrush saw several on our walk |
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| Grey Wagtail treat to see on a proper river |
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| White Wagtail, makes a change from the usual Pied |
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| Common Sandpiper lot's of these everywhere we went near water, clues in the name I suppose |
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| Oystercatchers |
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| First view of a Dipper, though we had seen a couple shoot past, Common Sandpiper behind |
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| Dippers in flight, quite difficult to get close to! |
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| This one took pity and came close enough for a half decent record shot |
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| Another Common Sand told you there were lots |
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| Possibly my best ever pic of an Oystercatcher |
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| Another Mistle Thrush |
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| Margie being intrepid, first mountains now this, action girl!!💖 |
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| Path was a bit dodgy, disappeared occasionally be we were not to be denied |
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| Laughing in the face of almost certain death, that drops a good 3 feet! |
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| Margie getting arty with reflections |
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| Enjoying the moment |
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| Heroic pose!! |
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| More intrepidness! |
On our return to the bridge, as so often happens there was a Dipper casually standing on the bank!!
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| The view from the bridge |
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| There's even a Waterfall |
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| The view downstream from the bridge |
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| Dipper, was still quite distant |
What a fantastic place couple of short videos below of the river!
Buoyed by our success we decided to head down to Loch Garten to have another crack at Crested Tit and on the walk down to Loch Mallachie we finally saw one, unfortunately high in the canopy, but reasonable views if no chance of a picture!! Not much else birdwise, a singing Tree Pipit the best of it but a nice walk in beautiful surroundings!
A day when Margie's camera did a lot of the heavy lifting!!! That river is awesome!!
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