Starting Birding (2)

Whilst I have been interested in all forms of ‘nature’ for my whole life it is only recently that I became fanatical about bird watching. Being keen on the great outdoors led to my wife and myself hillwalking in my home country of Scotland and this led to mountaineering in Europe. 

Grossglockner, Austria

The mountaineering showed us the wonderful alpine flowers 

Gentiana clusii

and we have spent many years both looking at the plants in the wild and cultivating them at home. Throughout this time there was an interest in birds and have had many wonderful experiences over the years. One holiday in the Pyrenees was shared with a group of birders who shared the sight of a fallen cow being eaten by vultures with us. We have marvelled at the acrobatic flight of the alpine chough over the alpine peaks and seen Egyptian Vultures in places where the guide books say they shouldn’t be! A great overseas birding experience was on a cruise up the River Nile. We commandeered a deck table at the rear of the boat and set up our own ‘observatory’

'Oor Table

Little Egret

there  to watch all the water birds. The only regret would that we never managed a decent picture of a pied kingfisher.

Our current addiction really kicked off last summer when we went to Orkney but were too early to find Primula scotica. Instead we did some serious birding around the coast and on the lochs, getting some great ‘spots’. Other flower holidays to Caithness have included time to watch birds on the sea cliffs as have trips the Hebridean Islands.

Now, we are out along our local coastline on most days of the week and I hope to start putting up blogs, probably monthly, of our trips.