Holiday in Scotland Day 14: Castles and Beaches

 May the 10th 

Our final full day in Scotland and Margie suddenly realised we hadn't been to a Castle!! Damnation I thought I'd got away with it😂!! There were a few Castles in the area to choose from, however most were the stately home type of thing and Margie prefers an old ruin, fortunately for me💓😂! Eventually we settled on Duffus Castle, which had the added bonus of being free!! 

Our route took us past Roseisle Beach as it was a lovely day, we decided on an unscheduled diversion, this was a good decision beautiful flat sea, large swathes of sand, Gannets diving, a Skua powered by, an Osprey, a couple of Goosanders and five Red-breasted Mergansers, best of all we had it pretty much to ourselves!

Another action shot, always alert!!!

There were two Gannets feeding just offshore, great fun trying to capture their plunges, with varying degrees of success!

 

Dark Phase Arctic Skua 

Possibly the bird of the holiday!

Gannet getting hassle from a Gull

Osprey didn't quite come as close as I'd of liked

Great Black-backed Gulls

A flight of Curlews overhead

Gannet flying over the mirror like sea

The two together

Oystercatcher, the bird behind has a deformed bill but is  presumably getting enough to eat.

Love this!

Grey Seal

Goosander

Red-breasted Merganser

So relaxing with the waves lapping gently on the shore a couple of short videos below to sample the atmosphere.

 We dragged ourselves away and headed onto the Castle! Which was actually pretty impressive, with Sedge Warblers and Yellowhammers singing all a round, although they were often drowned out by the Jets taking off from the nearby RAF Lossiemouth!

Duffus Castle

Can see why it was built here dominating views across the countryside

The Moat

These we quite loud!!😱

Sedge Warbler at least 5 singing around the moat

Reed Bunting

Yellowhammer

For our last adventure we decided to head into Lossiemouth, mainly for an Ice Cream as it was pretty hot!! Another good decision as there were Long-tailed Ducks near the harbour and plenty of Terns, think most were Common Terns but pretty sure there were a couple of Arctic Terns in the mix.!

Another Castle, Margie being spoiled!😂

Long-tailed Duck

Posy Rock Pipit

Long-tailed Duck

Pretty sure this one was an Arctic Tern

That was about it for our Holiday!!

The journey home was a bit of a non-event the only bird of note, a Black Grouse, seen on the the moorland between Nairn and Carbridge, the cameras had been put away for the journey so sadly no pictures! We stayed the night in Cambridge where we enjoyed a nice meal with my Son and his better half, where I discovered I like Strawberry Daiquiris and Espresso Martinis!!!! 

Margie found out she like Polestar Martinis and Pina Coladas, she also found out they didn't necessarily like her, lightweight😂😂😂