marty31
Well-known member
Last weekend took us to the Cairngorms. Arrived Friday night, checked in to the hotel, then meal &drinks. Saturday morning up early and breakfast, then drove to "glenmore lodge". Our route march started through the stunning ryvoan pass, past the "green lochan" then the "ryvoan bothy", down to the river "nethy"following the river up to "stac na h-lolaire" then through "the eagles corrie" scrambling up to the top of "mam suim" over the top, down the other side and back onto to "glenmore lodge" path and back to the car. The going was tough, rank heather and patchy snow, hard snow in places, 5-6 steps fine the 7th step up to your thighs in snow.
Birds of interest that were encountered were waxwings,(small flock) snow buntings (small flock) golden eagles (3) peregrine falcon (1) flying over its ancestral nesting cliff, ptarmigan (4) and last but not least red and black grouse (any gods amount) saw and heard them all day!
Remembering this is on a more or less natural moor, as it has been for hundreds of years, no heather burning, no vermin control, traps, mineral blocks etc, living in their natural habitat, I have been told from the experts here, that if these (fickle) birds stray from their cosseted moors they would be ravaged by predators and disease! This is clearly just not the case. After all 3 golden eagles were seen hunting on this one short outing, maybe some of these sturdy stock should be mixed with the "mamby pamby" Yorkshire/cumbrian stock but that's only a thought. I am not, and certainly don't claim to be any expert. in all fairness these unusually high numbers on a un keepered moor are most likely to be migrants from the nearby "dorback" and"revack" moors I would think!
This wonderful land is all in the "abernethy nature reserve" and the rspb deserve credit for its fine existence. We took packed lunches, but took all our litter home. Like most of the population we are responsible for exhaust fumes from our car, but I will ad it is a low emission model with a £20.00 road tax so these were kept to a minimum , we also would like to think that we put some imput into the local economy as we stayed in a hotel for two nights, ate in a good restaurants, and drank as much as any man in the local pubs. It was a bit of a exhausting weekend, and was glad to get back just in time for my weekly highlight on tv "countryfile". Totally a weekend to remember.
Birds of interest that were encountered were waxwings,(small flock) snow buntings (small flock) golden eagles (3) peregrine falcon (1) flying over its ancestral nesting cliff, ptarmigan (4) and last but not least red and black grouse (any gods amount) saw and heard them all day!
Remembering this is on a more or less natural moor, as it has been for hundreds of years, no heather burning, no vermin control, traps, mineral blocks etc, living in their natural habitat, I have been told from the experts here, that if these (fickle) birds stray from their cosseted moors they would be ravaged by predators and disease! This is clearly just not the case. After all 3 golden eagles were seen hunting on this one short outing, maybe some of these sturdy stock should be mixed with the "mamby pamby" Yorkshire/cumbrian stock but that's only a thought. I am not, and certainly don't claim to be any expert. in all fairness these unusually high numbers on a un keepered moor are most likely to be migrants from the nearby "dorback" and"revack" moors I would think!
This wonderful land is all in the "abernethy nature reserve" and the rspb deserve credit for its fine existence. We took packed lunches, but took all our litter home. Like most of the population we are responsible for exhaust fumes from our car, but I will ad it is a low emission model with a £20.00 road tax so these were kept to a minimum , we also would like to think that we put some imput into the local economy as we stayed in a hotel for two nights, ate in a good restaurants, and drank as much as any man in the local pubs. It was a bit of a exhausting weekend, and was glad to get back just in time for my weekly highlight on tv "countryfile". Totally a weekend to remember.
if only 
