Our first stop was to Scone Palace (pronounced Skoon not Scone) to try and see some Hawfinch. The grounds of Scone Palace are a favourite haunt of a small flock of Hawfinch, which is a relatively rare bird in Scotland.
Being Scottish we did not pay to go into Scone Palace but hung around the area near the back gate in the hope we would see a Hawfinch. Apparently that is often where they are seen.....but not by us on this occasion. We did however enjoy views of the wooded palace grounds:
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| Scone Palace towards Perth Racecourse |
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| Scone Palace Grounds |
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| Yew Tree Avenue (we were not authorised) |
We did see some birds including Dunnock, Yellowhammer, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, etc..............but no Hawfinch! We also saw a pair of Buzzards which looked like they were going to 'display' but didn't:
Having 'dipped out' with the Hawfinch we decided to move on, and twenty minutes after leaving the low lying farmland of Scone we were in the Hills and Glens.
The Sma' Glen to be precise, where we planned to scan the River Almond in search of either a Dipper or Grey Wagtail, preferably both. Although the sun was shining brightly, in the shaded valley of the Sma' Glen it was very cold:
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| Sma' Glen with Dun Mor casting shadows |
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| River Almond in Sma' Glen |
It wasn't just cold we were also having no luck on the bird front and 'dipped out' with Dipper and Grey Wagtail. We only saw a couple of crows and they looked cold too, so we decided to head for higher ground and hopefully catch some sun. We headed further up the Sma' Glen and turned right just before Amulree to take us into Glen Quaich.
Here it was much warmer in the sun................. Grant didn't even bother putting his coat on?
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| Grant in Glen Quaich |
It really was a beautiful day and the scenery was spectacular (the jam on the scone I thought).
Here is a few pictures to illustrate my point:
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| Glen Quaich looking East |
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| Glen Quaich looking West towards Meall nam Fuaran |
My photos might not do the scenery justice, but here is a video to supplement them:
We did however see a few birds here including Lapwing, Pink-footed Geese, Buzzards, more Crows, hundreds of Rabbits ..............oh! and a Red Kite.
By the time I got the camcorder fired up it had almost gone and I only got a few seconds of it flying away passed some big house (so I have done it in slo-mo in the hope you might make it out):
I could see that this was not going to be a day where I would get stunning wildlife shots!
We moved further into Glen Quaich and stopped alongside lovely Loch Freuchie; once again the scenery stole the show:
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| Loch Freuchie looking East |
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| Loch Freuchie looking North |
As well as being picturesque Loch Freuchie is also a winter home to many birds and on the loch that day were Mute swans, Greylag Geese, Mallards, Grebes, coots and hundreds of Canada Geese. You might not make them out in this video but if you have the volume turned up you can certainly hear them, even though they were on the far side of the loch:
Sounds a bit like we were being hunted by a pack of dogs, but they were feral Canada Geese.
We also saw Lapwing, Pheasant and Red Grouse but once again no decent photographic or video evidence I'm afraid.
Although Grant was driving I suggested that we should complete the round trip by continuing on through Glen Quaich and return via Kenmore, Aberfeldy and the A9. I didn't tell him this involved a dodgy road with hairpin bends over a mountain pass which may still have some snow on it. So it was onwards and upwards (literally):
Having successfully negotiated the mountain pass the view across to Schiehallion (over 1,000m high!!) and the surrounding mountains was simply stunning:
Thanks Grant for doing all the driving; which allowed me to capture some good footage of our trip.
Hope you all enjoyed it too!
Cheers
Teddyedward
