ecords. Driving to my square I was in a bit of a pea-souper mist in the strath, close to the rivers and lochs, but I was hopeful that higher up everything would be clear - and it was. To get to my "square" it's about a half-hour walk from the nearest road, and the views of mist-covered valleys and clear-blue skies above were amazing. Being at the start of the survey area by six-thirty in the morning, meant that I was traveling as the sun was rising, again an amazing sight as the big red ball slowly appeared through the mist. Once at the "square" a transect line is walked following the north-south grid one-kilometre across the square, returning back across the square o
n the second transect line some five-hundred metres away. The commonest birds were meadow pipits, a couple of red grouse, a single blackcock, an unlikely skylark, a nice breeding pair of stonechats, and, very unusual for this area, three ravens. The real bonus though, was the view from the "top of the hill" out towards Ben Rinnes - well worth all the effort. In addition, all the other birds encountered, outside the square, were also recorded for BTO Birdtrack, forty species in all.The other early mornings were helping to staff the Capercaillie Watch at the Osprey Centre, with fifteen keen visitors waiting for the gate to open at five-thirty! At least it is now light at that time of the morning. Sadly for the visitors, the overnight frost had created very misty conditions, and try
as hard as we could, no capers could be seen, in fact, we had a job to see EJ and Henry on the osprey nest! All very atmospheric, but not when 30-40 visitors are desperate to see a capercaillie. Not all the mornings during the week suffered the same fate and cottage guests Anita, David and son Christopher saw capers on two occasions during their week, helping them to a clean sweep of all four grouse species during their weeks stay. Black grouse lek counting on Friday saw the end of the early mornings and despite a bit of mist about the place lots of birds were counted and it is just so good to be out at that time of the day. Robins kick off the dawn chorus, the same bird being the last to be heard at the end of the day.The early flowers of the new growing season seem to be mainly white,
but just about now we start to be aware of great splashes of yellow everywhere. On Monday Janet dropped me off on the edge of Grantown on 
her way to work, to allow me to walk back along the River Spey & Speyside Way back to base in Nethybridge. The walk usually takes a couple of hours but not when you take a camera with you! Depart Grantown 9am, arrive Nethybridge - 2pm! Firstly there were the huge swathes of dandelions along the road verges, I am sure there are more than previous years. Full of flowers on Monday, lots of dandelion "clocks" by Saturday. Have you ever had a close look at how intricate the seed-head is, nature really is pretty amazing producing something so delicate to ensure the seed get the best chance to blow away with the wind to find n
ew places to grow. By the River Spey the first groups of marsh marigolds were well in flower, bigger showy flowers when compared to the smaller flowers of lesser celandines which were found growing in similar locations. I hope the two pictures help you with your identification, m
arigolds left, celandines right.By the Spey and on the edge of one of the farm fields a huge willow tree w
as in full flower (possibly crack willow?) hanging thick with catkins which were attracting lots of buzzing insects. Bees I thought, and as I am interested in trying to record which species are appearing and what they are feeding on, I looked up into the tree to see which species were there. However, there were very few bees and most of the buzzing was coming from hoverflies, some being perfect bee-mimics. Two that were identified by a colleague were Eristalis arbustorum & Eristalis pertinax. I suggest you type their names into Google if you want to know more about these amazing insects. One is a close relative of the larvae found in the water-filled "pots" covered by one of my earlier diary entries.
However, not all the recent flowers are in the yellow category, and everywhere currently, there are blue violets and in some areas, the first mountain pansies are appearing, usually in shortish grassland. Brilliant colours, extravagant petals, this is a flower that is not easily missed. In the same areas more butterflies are appearing, green-veined whites, peacock, small tortoiseshell and most recently green hairstreak, if I get a chance I will try and get a picture of the latter which is a 'now you see me, now you don't' butterfly. Nice green wings when the wings are opened flat but brownish once they are closed. You know one has just flown past but you have a bit of a job re-finding it. Oddity of the week had to be a photo report of a Camberwell beauty at Culbin Forest, up by the coast. I have recorded one in Nethybridge in the past so lets see if more turn up.
Little to report on the ospreys save to say no more eggs have been laid - yet, but the pair do seem to be trying hard, so watch this space. No spotted flycatchers yet or swifts locally but both should have arrived by this time next week. Sadly our neighbour's
swallows haven't made it this year. Presumably, the same birds have been nesting in Bill & Rita's stick shed for the last decade, but don't seem to have returned from their winter quarters for this breeding season. Let's hope a new pair take up the vacancy. A few house martins feeding over the garden currently where we have a wonderful show of flowers on the Clematis Alpina growing through the bushes in front of the cottage.Have a nice Bank Holiday & happy reading.
Stewart & Janet
Our Postlady Grace by a misty Loch Garten
All photos © Stewart Taylor
