Slow start, even slower end

Did I allude to a lazy morning in a recent blog? Well, it happened. One of those days when one's get-up-and-go has got up and gone. Umpteen mugs of tea did not bump-start my mojo, but hey, we were on holiday, so it's all good. Instead, we eventually sauntered down the hill to the Nethy House cafe for an early lunch, before tromping off into the woods for an afternoon of wildlife watching.

En route to the cafe, a Red Admiral and a Small Tortoiseshell were nectaring on a roadside bush. We managed a few photos of the former, but a passing car spooked the latter before we could commit it to pixels. Still, these were our first flutters of the year, and it felt like an energy boost for us too.

After an excellent lunch at the cafe, we wandered back over the eponymous bridge, past the village shop and followed a sign for the Speyside Way. This path took us by some sports pitches, then between the Millennium pools where, in a month or so, there will be loads of damselflies and dragonflies on the wing. Then it was into the forest and our eyes and ears were turned to maximum sensitivity (a notional maximum, it has to be said, as some days I can hear the high-pitched calls of Goldcrests, and other days, I can't).

Before long, we were craning our necks uncomfortably to try to locate the sources of the sounds we could hear. If the ground had been a little drier, I might have simply laid down on the path and taken my chances with the mountain bikers, just so I could effectively stare straight ahead without slipping a disc in my neck*.

What we were hoping to find were Crossbills and Crested Tits, and we did succeed, but capturing the moment was nigh on impossible. The birds were foraging in the treetops and therefore either obscured by lower branches, or effectively silhouetted by the sky. The only image I managed of a Crested Tit was so out of focus that even I needed to dislocate my eyeballs to see what it was, a bit like one of those Magic Eye pictures.

We had a bit more success with the Crossbills and there's some footage below of a male feeding on seeds from a pine cone, and liberally showering husks on anyone (un)fortunate enough to be stood below.

The Speyside Way meandered through the forest heading towards Boat of Garten, sometimes within closely-planted conifers, occasionally through more open (and natural) woodland, and for a good while along a ride. The firmer, stonier ride path was excellent for insects, with Wood ants, Dor beetles, Green Tiger Beetles and, a first for me, an Ashy Mining Bee, who was actually sporting more white hair than I was.

We made it as far as another pool (also sans Odonata) before retracing our steps back through the forest to the cottage. There seemed to be more frequent rest stops pauses for photography on the way back, none more entertaining than a female Coal Tit, who was busily engaged in letting her fella know that it was his lucky day. He was blissfully unaware, the muppet.

Red Admiral

Dor beetle

Ashy Mining Bee

Green Tiger Beetle

A lower case 'J'

Coal Tit

* a cultural reference to the incident in 2008 that resulted in a major operation, and the consequent prolonged convalescence which lead indirectly to me beginning a regular blog in 2009.

Next time: more wildlife and cake. Of course there is.