Insh Marshes, Laggan, and Kingussie Wildlife

   
In reverse chronological order starting with Loch Laggan and ending at my second home, the Lurgies.

There were a few small waders, and an interesting beetle which we wrongly ID'd at first, and a display of paragliders at Laggan.

An early morning visit to Insh Marshes where I saw but wasn't able to photograph a Red-necked Phalarope. It flew a short distance into a small pool out from the Gordonhall Hide, landed and circled in the pool before disappearing out of sight behind a bush. The unmistakable red neck with a white throat, a thin black beak, dark head and rich colour of a female. I stayed watching the pool for around an hour before I had to return  to my hosts. I did get video and photos of other species and managed to pick out and film a Wood Sandpiper in the long grass.

Also a Bee-fly at Killiecrankie, Dipper and Grey Wagtail in Arbroath, and some photos from a short Lurgies trip.

Videos below, click to play

Wood Sandpiper      Curlew      Brown Hare      Snipe calling      Snipe pair 

Dark-edged Bee-fly      Whooper Swan, Lurgies      Black-tailed Godwits      Goosander brood, Lurgies

Black Spotted Longhorn Beetle, seen on the ever increasing beach at the east end of Loch Laggan

Ringed Plover, Loch Laggan

Dunlin, and a Common Sandpiper seen but not photographed

There were 11 Paragliders navigating the hills and thermals around Loch Laggan, I wonder if they kept last years Golden Eagles away?

Now at Inch Marshes, the Gordonhall Hide early on Saturday morning. This pair of Snipe are in the video and were disturbed by a third Snipe in the grass nearby

Curlew in a gulley just below the hide

Brown Hare, near where the Curlew was, also in one of the videos

Ruthven Barracks, lit by the early morning sun

I didn't get a chance to photograph the Swifts flying around Olive's brother's house in Kingussie, they were mostly low over the rooftops with a high count of 16

 

A Dark Edged Bee-fly on the path a Killiecrankie where I didn't have enough time to find my target birds

The same female Dipper I photographed in the winter near Arbroath Harbour

This Eider drake looks to have been caught in something which has left it with damage around its breast area. Seen in the Brothock burn outflow at Danger Point, Arbroath

Great Black-backed Gull

One of a pair of Grey Wagtails behind E&O Fish, Arbroath

Herring Gull

The only Lesser Black-backed Gull I saw at Danger Point, they are nesting on ledges in the High Street again

Ringed Plover and a few Dunlin at the Lurgies

Black-tailed Godwits, near the Shelduck Hide