February 7th 2024 - Little Bello Woods
Took a drive to Little Bello woods yesterday for the first time, I'd passed it eons ago on my way to Errol and marked it as a possible good walk but, a wee look on google maps showed potential for a lot more than I knew about. There's no real parking place that we found so we parked at the gate, not blocking it and headed down the main track. It was a glorious sunny but freezing day and as long as we were in sunshine it was lovely and the ground was crispy, even the slightly flooded bits, which was nice. Anyway, not too far down the track and we were hearing birds around us, the first call heard was a
Raven, but there was something else making sounds nearby. I whipped out my device and flashed up Merlin while scanning around. There was a bird just off the track perched clear out on a tree branch but the sun was behind it, I was thinking that's big when I glanced at Merlin which was telling me
Hawfinch! I was frantically grabbing for the camera when it disappeared, of course!!!! Dammit. A first for me, in Scotland
The walk had been pretty quiet until that point but we started seeing and hearing a lot more. A small flock of
Bullfinches were moving around at the top of a clump of trees not far from the Hawfinch and as we walked on more
Buzzards were soaring around. We passed through a clump of Gorse both sides of the path and there was lots of activity in there, mainly
Blue & Coal Tits from what I could see. A
Treecreeper flew over and started running up a nearby tree and a
Jay(s) were kicking up a fuss in the same copse. We walked on,
Buzzard, Buzzard, Blue Tit, Wood Pigeons and ............
Crossbills. A gorgeous young? female was perched on a branch at head height just ahead above the path and there were a few more in the surrounding area, always chuffed to see and grab a few shots of. In standing watching and photographing them we noticed lots of birds flitting in and out of the conifers.
Chaffinches, Linnet, Tits, Siskin and
Brambling, a bonus. In the same area as the Crossbills I spotted a bird standing high on a branch then darting out for insects and back, in the quick glimpse I got, a
Spotted Flycatcher? We turned towards the loch and followed a line of conifers full of those already mentioned but we were in shade and freezing so kept walking and spotting, rather than stopping to ID / photograph everything. We came across Redmyre Loch after the trees and there was a good selection of birds on that so, we sat in the sun and had our picnic and I grabbed some shots.
Goosander, Goldeneye, Canada Geese, Mute Swan pair
& Wigeon were all spotted on the water, possibly more, they all moved well away from us and into reeds at the other end.
We took a track around the woods back towards the road and the car park, bordered by conifers on one side and fields on the other, a
lot of Fieldfare around,
Dunnock, Reed Buntings, Robin, Blackbirds & Mistle Thrush all around with
Carrion Crow, Wood Pigeons, more Buzzards, a
Wren and a lot of gulls on the fields being ploughed.
All in all it was a fabulous walk, an exploration of a new area and the added bonus of a Hawfinch, I'll be back asap.
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