Friday 21st March. We had originally booked Marcus Conway for two days, Monday and Tuesday but the weather on Cairn Gorm from Tuesday onwards was not good so Marcus kindly delayed our second day to Friday so see if there would be any improvement. Unfortunately not so the Ptarmigan were a gonner for us this trip.

Anyway, Marcus surprised us by arranging for us to spend some time in a couple of hides by Peter Cairns, for Red Squirrel and Crested Tit. We had not set eyes on a Red Squirrel all week and was one of my targets so this was exciting.

Marcus warned us that the Squirrels were not coming in to feed in the numbers of previous years. The warm winter meant that they were able to access their hidden store of nuts in the ground, normally frozen out. There was snow on the ground and a couple of heavy but short snow storms showed what the weather can do in this part of the Highlands.

Anyway, after a wait, one Red Squirrel appeared and put on a show for 15 minutes or so.

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This was the only one to show so we were lucky in some respects. In a normal year, there would be 5 or 6 showing at the same time but I was satisfied with the images I got.

We then moved on to another hide for Crested Tit.

Among the Chaffinches, Coal Tits and Great Tits, there was also a feeding station for Great spotted Woodpecker with a pair regularly coming in to feed.

Crested Tit also made several appearances.

We then moved on to a place for Capercaille. We had been informed of a rogue male that was showing well close to the road in Abernethy Forest. There were excellent photos taken of it the previous week but no sign of it for us despite several visits. I have since found out that it had been found dead - very unfortunate and this one did not show either despite a long walk through the pine forest.

Anyway, Marcus really provided the goods for us today - en excellent one for me.

More images in the Recent Additions section.