Natural highs and lows

Today is April 23rd. Today is not Errol's birthday, neither is it the day of his death. This is because Errol is a swamp dragon, a fictitious character in the book Guards! Guards! by Sir Terry Pratchett. Errol is a small, lazy swamp dragon who falls in love with the huge, female Noble Dragon which terrorises the citizens of Ankh Morpork in the afore-mentioned tome. Errol woos her by evolving his internal plumbing so that he can flame backwards, effectively becoming a jet engine (the parody is that Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of said engine, was rejected by the RAF due to his diminutive stature). Errol by Paul Kidby Coincidentally, the other day, Megan and I visited the Tay Reedbeds , an RSPB reserve on the banks of the Tay estuary. We parked by a church in the village of Errol and followed a waymarked trail through farmland, down to the shore, full of hope at the prospect of possibly seeing Bearded Reedlings. Alas, despite much gazing, we did not. However, there were plenty of ot...

Now that we were ensconced in our actual holiday location (as opposed to taking the circuitous three day route to get there), mornings were quite slow, especially as there was so much wildlife on tap at the cottage. We would wake to the dawn chorus, fall back asleep, then eventually surface once more to shuffle to the lounge to watch the bird feeders on the patio and their clientele of feather and fur. But that's a story for another day. Once such morning, we journeyed to RSPB Loch of Kinnordy, a small wetland habitat midst rolling farmland in Angus. As was becoming a holiday theme, we had to take a diversion due to some roadworks, but the place was still peaceful and quiet when we arrived. For the rest of the morning we were sensory sponges, soaking up the sights and sounds of a mixed woodland, reedbeds, marsh scrub and open water. Ospreys regularly flew over the loch, occasionally hovering and diving at fish, Marsh Harriers quartered the reedbeds, Water Rails squealed from deep c...

Usually, having spent at least a day travelling to a holiday destination, I like the first full day on holiday to not involve a car. So, having carelessly forgotten to check the weather forecast, we woke to a wet Sunday morning and immediately resolved not to be so carless. Instead, we drove to RSPB Loch Garten to see a pair of Ospreys. The visitor centre has a wall of tv monitors showing camera close-ups of various scenes. Two large monitors showed the Osprey nest and a favourite perch in a neighbouring tree. Another monitor was split-screened into four, giving a view of a bird feeder; a couple of nest cams (Goldeneye and Great Tit); and a mammal box baited with nuts which had a Bank Vole foraging busily. The female Osprey had very recently (within the hour) laid her first egg for the year, so the staff were very excited. Her mate was sat in the neighbouring tree, having just caught a Brown Trout, which he was undecided whether to offer to the female or eat himself. After watching for...