March 2012 was incredibly mild and spring-like virtually throughout in this area, with record high temperatures, sometimes over 20c being recorded mid-month! & the weather generally very pleasant. We now have more hours of daylight than darkness, so it really feels like spring too...The migratory birds obviously thought so , with many returning to the area a good week earlier than normal.... & with these returning migrants adding to the resident birds & lingering winter visitors, bird day-lists crept up into the 40's, whilst mammal day-lists were steady at 6-9 depending on our luck.
Wildlife highlights included:
Local speciality species that continued to show well included Dipper, Black Grouse, Red Grouse, Capercaillie, Crossbill, Red Squirrel, Red Deer, Mountain Goat, Mountain Hare etc all being seen regularly - though Crested Tit became more difficult as they began nesting early....
Osprey (see pic), Slavonian Grebe, Red-Throated Diver & Black-Throated Diver - all very sought-after 'Highlands' species - returned to local breeding sites later in the month, putting smiles on many faces...
Winter visitor bird species such as Whooper Swan , Redwing, Fieldfare & 'Grey' Geese continued to linger , though their numbers were seen to reduce later in the month.
More wader species, such as Redshank & golden Plover, & even a rare inland Dunlin were noted later in the month, joining the Oystercatchers & Lapwings.
A 'proper' dawn chorus can now be enjoyed most mornings , with many more species joining the ever reliable Robins & Blackbirds..
The 'mountain' species such as Ptarmigan & Mountain Hare were seen on & off, though they have lost their pure winter-white colours now, it being replaced by a mottled grey.
Amazingly, a second 'rogue' Capercaillie appeared, at a different location to the 'original' one - giving me much more chance of showing my safari clients this incredibly rare & (usually) very wary species!
Both the Black Grouse & Red Grouse are at their easiest to see now, with the Blackcocks 'lekking' for a couple of hours from dawn , and the cock Red Grouse seemingly spending all day posturing & displaying.
Golden Eagles get progressively harder to see as the days grow longer, but we did manage a couple of good views, on both occasions seeing them in aerial battles with Buzzards.
We are now entering my favourite time of year for wildlife-watching in this area, so I hope to be very busy showing lots of safari clients the special wildlife of this beautiful & unspoilt area over the coming weeks....
