Author: David Miller

About this time last year we had Megan from the Tayside Ringing Group come & ring some of our garden birds, well having since given birth to a baby daughter she came back to have another go today. As we have had a wet & cold week I for one did not expect to get the same number of birds as last year, we managed I think 37 then & blow me we got 38 this year, but not the variety of birds as last year, but some interesting conclusions to what we did get.

Our Siskin population has increased with many one to two year old birds amongst the 32 we caught, two birds were youngsters from this years broods & had not long fledged. We also had two birds that had been rung before & we expected them to have been either ones we had rung earlier in the morning or from last year. But both were new birds to us, one which had a British ringers ring on, which will require Megan to investigate further with the BTO to see where it came from. The other one gave us the most pleasure of the morning as this had a ring on it’s left leg (all British birds are rung on the right leg) & on the ring it told us this had been rung in Brussels. Now this very small bird weighs 11 grams & had come all that distance up here to Perthshire, no matter if it came direct or across the English Channel & up that is still one heck of a long way for such a small bird. This gave Megan huge delight as both birds were her first rung birds from outside her Tayside area.

The other birds were a Robin, a Great Tit, 2 Chaffinch & two Dunnock, though we must confess one of the Dunnock got away before being measured & rung. So I have attached some shots of the birds caught & a brief explanation of what was happening in the shots.

I had always intended to write a blog about the Watermill & for so many reasons. Mainly because we love the place, visiting at least 3 times a week, also they make excellent scones & I also enjoy the hot chocolate. But food aside, the staff are always friendly even when the place is packed out , they have time to say hello.

Of course T.V. has visited, initially when Rami entered a baking competion om ITV & won the Scottish region finals. Followed By Nadia filming with them all, plus a private visit by Camilla. I can add that they will soon be on another series, but that’s a secret.

As you are aware I very seldom go anywhere without my camera & today when we visited for our usual, the mill was grinding some flour, so I thought time for some action shots, so I had a go. Now I must apologies for the very low standard of shots I got, it is nothing to do with my lovely new lens (that I was using for the first time) (Nifty Fifty for the camera buffs), nor the low light, nor the photographer (well maybe a bit my fault), nor that they were hand held shots. No, it was due to the fact that when the mill is at full pelt with the stones grinding, the cogs turning, the water running over the wheel, the whole building vibrates unbelievably. I think the following internal shots would have been even worse if I had used my tripod, for at least I was able to steady myself a bit.

Well these are my excuses & I am sticking to them.

Hope you enjoyed my trip around the mill, when the machinery is not working I will take some more shots, just to prove I am not such a rotten photographer.

Can you believe it, Scotland the hottest place in Britain this week? We have had a terrific week for weather, sunshine since Monday & with us temperatures reaching 29C. Lovely. Of course this means everywhere has dried up, no water in the rivers, so Salmon have been slow coming through Pitlochry fish ladder only 354 so far this season, where by now it would be over 1000. Goodness knows when they will reach us 8 miles further up on the River Garry, we don’t normally get many until August as they have a few falls to negotiate before they reach my rod & flies.

But with this weather of course things are progressing with nature. Birds are hatching out, where we had no House Sparrows when we came, we have at least 5 boxes occupied and a fair few squawking babies wondering about being fed by very busy parents.

Cannot see it very well, but the Thrush above has managed to find a worm.

Also a fair few baby Siskins are independent, feeding themselves & flying well, plus we are having a constant feeding frenzy by the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, so that must have young somewhere. A rare visitor to our garden ( in fact it is the only time we have seen it ) is the Spotted Flycatcher, which I managed to capture an image of through the double glazing.

I was driving down to the village today & just in a small field beside the road was the family below, not 50 yards from me & not at all bothered about me being there, all they did watch my every move. As you can see the Mother is well pregnant & normally that is the time last years calf leaves home & fends for itself, but, unusually it is still by the mothers side. So pleased to have got these shots, another good reason to always carry my camera.

As you can imagine the garden flowers are shooting on, I don’t like to many wild ferns in the garden but the wife does so we compromise & take a few older ones out each year & let the young uns have a go. The picture below is the only way I like them, just as they are about to spring open, makes for some good photographs.

The person who owned the house before us was a wonderful gardener & we still have a few areas where her original designs still exists, one such area is her Azalea garden, these shrubs give off such a wonderful fragrance & the colours are outstanding, I have tried for a few years through my photography to do them justice, but I just cannot portray them as the beauty that they have. I hope through this shot you can extend your imagination to smell & see the brightness that is these glorious plants.

When you live out in the sticks life is all about getting out & enjoying your area & beyond. For me this can be divided into a few categories.

Walking, this is a problem for me at present as I have damaged a muscle in my knee & as per doctors instructions, no hill walking. Though I have tried it is just to painful & for once am doing as I have been told.

Watching wildlife, though it is so easy to miss a lot I am fairly observant & can spot the unusual going on, which leads me onto —-

Photography, as can be seen on here I love photographing many different subjects, mainly wildlife, but with my new wide angled lens scenery is becoming just as appealing.

Most probably my main thing that takes up a lot of my time (apart from eating) is fishing, be that coarse or game. So lets see if I can combine all of these things into this blog.

I showed you a few bird shots from my walk to Loch Moraig on the last blog, here are some more, of me Photographing Wildlife.

Above a male Stonechat & below a Meadow Pipit.

I belong to the local Angling club we have a small lochan opposite our house some 1/2 mile as the crow flies, but about 1 1/2 miles away by road. I love fishing there for Trout & as you are allowed to take 2 fish a week I also enjoy eating them. Today I caught a beautiful Brown Trout of about one & a half pounds, which I kept as they are superb eating fish. But as you can see from the second picture below, when I gutted it at home I was in for a surprise, will tell you what that was after you have looked at the shots.

Now its contents.

Unbelievably there were 4 dead Newts in different levels of decay, never ever seen this before. I have seen loads of weird contents, including a cigarette butt, silver paper even a bit of crisp bag, but never Newts.

The next couple of shots show what a lovely little lochan this is, just me & a mate, wildfowl & fish.

But just occasionally your fishing & tranquility get disturbed by two low flying big birds (see below)

The first pilot only had mischief on his min, because he was flying over to our right & dipped his/ her wings & flew right over us & of course the second one had to follow his mate. The lens I had on the camera does not do justice to just how low they were above us I could see the two sitting up front in the cockpit & I am sure they had a little grin on their faces.

Just finish off with a shot from the fishing lochan across the glen to my house, if you can see the white blob more or less dead centre to the photo is our house, so you can see by the terrain not much chance of walking without hills.

As I said a couple of weeks ago that I would follow up with some more flowers as the spring progressed, here are a crop from this lovely, warm, sunny Easter weekend. Not going to name all these but all you experts out there will know them anyway.

Love the Pom Poms, but not as big this year as in previous years, could be lack of water.

Very proud of my Trillion , every section goes in threes, except this year I have an extra bloom , I chose the plant (hence calling it mine) but the wife chose the colour, which I also liked.

What garden would not be complete with out primroses, I love the way they glow at night as well.

sorry added this twice & have not got a clue how to delete it.

Bumble Bees loving the heather out at present.

Today My son, his partner & myself got up at 5.45am to go & photograph Black Grouse on the Lek way up on the moors near Loch Moraig. Though my son got a couple of shots of males they did not perform as there were no females about, it was a cracking sunrise & I captured a few images of all that surrounded us.

This first one of a lone sheep on the horizon with the moon above. Although the drive up the hill from our house to Loch Moraig is only about a mile, as it was so early we managed to see at least 8 Roe Deer, numerous Hares, all of which were nowhere to be seen on our return trip.

Just loved this tree in the early sunrise.

Loch Moraig a beautiful Brown Trout Loch which is a pleasure to fish , though hard work to catch any of the large fish within.

Saved the best until last, this Wheatear posed beautifully for me, looking into the sun, showing off it’s wonderful plumage.

I realise that some of you reading this will be well into spring & all your bulbs & spring flowers will be in full bloom , or even over. Ours are (apart from the Snowdrops) a couple of weeks off of being at their best. Unfortunately I am very busy for the next two weeks, so did not want to not cover a time that I really love in the garden, so you will see in the following shots the ones that are out now & maybe, just maybe, in three weeks time when I have recovered from my business the best will still be here.

Before I start talking about any of the plants I must confess most of them I am unaware of their names, but with some help from SWMBO, I hope I have got the right names for them.

Those first two are of a plant that grows wild around here & goes through all different shades of colour, as you can see from the above shots. I hope I am correct in saying it is a Polonaria. What we both like about this plant is that once it is established it will stand up to almost anything the Cairngorms weather throws at it.

Next we have the Heathers, of course a true Scottish favourite & as we get older we are filling the garden with them, as long as you give them a haircut after they have bloomed to stop them from going leggy, they need very little other maintenance, but give you great coverage & bloom.

Next come the humble Crocus, not many of these in our garden, but what we do have are attractive, that is as long as the birds don’t get them first. For some reason, especially sparrows, the birds like to peck off the stems, maybe the sap is tasteful, not sure, but you can have a great display one day & the next they are all flat on the ground. The second shot of a single Crocus is amusing, this one decided to come up in the turning circle of our drive & whenever I have had to turn the car round, the wife has said mind the Crocus. Somehow I actually to avoid it every time & at last it has died back so I don’t have to avoid it.

I followed the Crocus on with the iconic Spring plant, the Primrose, only a few out in the garden at the moment & the few that are out, as you can see, are all different shades of yellow. I like when the purple & pink ones join them & make a cracking display.

The Hacquetia (think that is right) though not a flower (again I think) it is a brack, but is still a colourful addition to Spring in the garden.

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All Winter the next plant, a member of a large family of plants & not sure which one this is, has given us a bit of colour as you come to our front door, now in Spring it gives us this almost Autumn colouring which is very bright & affective. makes you smile as you come around the corner of the house.

See what I mean about the plant above?

Next is this little bulb that is described in the plant book I am using as ” A cheery small bulb, good for naturalising in borders or grass” at the end of the paragraph it adds ” No maintenance required other than to control the self seeding”. So now you can see why we love this bulb, it is so prolific in our garden and such a bright blue it is gorgeous. It is called a Scilla, just plant & let it take over, nothing else will fill your garden with such brightness as this little plant

Lastly I doubt there is hardly a garden in Britain that doesn’t have a Daffodil or two in their garden. Our are not really out yet, a few are when they are South facing & also the miniature ones, but the real display of main crop ones are still to come.

So Spring has started, but way from finishing & I expect we will have another dumping of snow before summer (especially if my neighbour Rod is not here ) (sorry in joke), but we do enjoy our crop of Spring flowers.

Most of you will be aware that Red Squirrels are the minority species of the two we have in the U.K. . Mainly due to the pox that Greys carry that has killed a large number of Reds, but doesn’t kill the Greys who just are carriers. But here in the Cairngorms we have a stronghold of Red’s & our garden is no exception to that. The most we have had at any one time was 5, but we do have 3 regular visitors to our garden feeders, in fact they eat more of our peanut supply than the birds do. The nearest Greys to us are only 20 miles away in Dunkeld, though we did have one stray to up here on a neighbours feeder, that I managed to dispatch of within an hour of it’s arrival.

All the visitors have a different approach to us humans, one in particular doesn’t pay much attention to us, providing you don’t look directly at it. Though it doesn’t mind the camera lens being focused on it & it is very photogenic. Most of the shots below I took this morning of that one animal, just in time before the snow arrived.

The 5 shots below show the various feeding places for them. The first was by the pond where I placed some Sunflower seeds to attract some birds down to takes some shots of, but the Squirrel sniffed them out & got in before the birds.

Second also on the ground but after he had found a peanut loose from when I filled the feeder. This one was first thing in the morning after I had just filled the feeding trough that was visible in my last post.

Fourth is a standard peanut holder but it hangs by it’s back legs & lifts the feeder for ease of extracting the nut, last one is just prising out nuts from our long feeders, note how its feet just grip into the feeder.

The next two show where & how they like to eat their bounty. The first shows today’s visitor having just eaten a nut & ready to have another go, if you look along the perch just to the right of the Squirrel you can see the string going down to the feeder that it eating from in two shots above this. Sometimes (as in the second shot below) they do not bother coming up to the perch to eat, they just hang by their hind legs & eat upside down, how they swallow the nut from that position I do not know.

The last shot is a very rare event, two Squirrels eating from the same feeder. Normally they will scrap over territory & this was the only time I have seen this happen. All I can think is that it was a parent & babe & the parent showing the youngster where the local café is. Or a couple out on a date for a birthday celebration.

Here I am in the middle of February, on the edge of the Cairngorms, in near Summer weather. So mild it is truly unbelievable, tomorrow we are set to beat the previous highest February temperature by one degree, going up to over 18C, ridiculous. Of course we would be complaining that we were totally snowed in with a perma frost developing, but this sort of heat is a bit silly. Again I must be realistic & state winter can go on well into May up here, so maybe I should just enjoy this sort of weather while it last’s. One major advantage is we are able to get out on walks without getting frostbite & today we did just that with a walk around the Castle grounds.

As you can see no visitors today so was able to grab this shot with just one staff car in my way.

The main reason for the walk was to see the Snowdrops, which are in full bloom. Down South of course they are all but finished & the yellow of Daffodils are more prominent, but with us this is Snowdrop time. The Castle have developed a Snowdrop Walk through the woods with thousands of bulbs making a wonderful show, below are a few shots I took of them.

Also on the estate grounds all the Highland Ponies are down from their normal stalking stables & have added a shot of these.

On the estate (just above the Castle there is a Folly, now what large estate would consider themselves complete if they didn’t have a building that had no practical use whatsoever such as a Folly. I have just entered this one into my Canon monthly competition with the subject of Symmetry, don’t expect to win, but I do put something in each month.

What Blog from me would be complete without a photo of a bird? while taking the above shot of the folly, I saw a Treecreeper creeping up an adjacent tree. Now I think I have said if you get close enough to these wee birds they tend to freeze & try & blend in with the tree, this one did just that. Only problem was it did it with a twig in front of it which slightly ruins the shot, but that’s photography.

Well I put the mockers on it by saying winter is on its way last blog. A small amount of snow last night but temperatures went down to minus ten & has been below zero all day. Must admit this is a cracking day with the weak sun showing off the snow on the hills & trees, plus of course (my usual enjoyment) loads of birds & animals about.

This first shot shows the view from the house across towards the farm, the black spots are in fact Geese who have an uncanny knack of wakening me predawn as they fly over the house, always the same route, so these fields must be in a line from their overnight roost.

This is the drive up to our house that as the only permanent resident still fit enough to clear it, I tend to clear sufficiently that an emergency vehicle can reach us, because, as you can see, it is fairly steep.

This is my bird feeding station, which as you can see the Red Squirrel uses a fair bit, the box to the right of the squirrel is its box full of peanuts & can be funny when they go in it as sometimes all you can see it’s tail hanging out. Below the squirrel is a peanut feeder, Black Sunflower seed holder & 3 Niger feeders. The log on which the squirrel is sitting is hollowed out & filled with a scoop of seeds daily. Up the tree on the left is an apple holder which we can spike an apple to for just a bit of variety to the birds diet. The v shaped stand on the Silver Birch is for the jar of Peanut Butter that they consume in three days. To the right of that you can see part of my hide that I sit & photograph the wildlife in. Very often the birds will sit on the roof wile I am inside waiting their turn on the Peanut Butter.

Print about 2″ long

Again print just over 2″

This set a big bigger at 3″.

So the last 3 shots I would like you to guess what animal these footprints are from & I will try & remember to give you the answers in the next blog, or you could send me your answers.

Went for a great cold frosty walk & took a few photos as usual, trying hard to get a different angle on shots than normal. This one is of the Castle taken through the trees from about 400 yards away, okay I never got the entrance in, but the windows & roof structure is what interested me.

Normally when people visit the Castle they take a photo of the drive from the entrance end, this is taken from the opposite end. I think it shows the straightness of the drive better & the density of the trees that line it. To the right of this shot is the enclosure where the Red Deer I kept, these seem to have no real purpose but to be there for the tourist, one stag & a bunch of does, one of which posed for me to get this shot.

One of our favourite small (level) walks is around Loch Dunmore (where the Enchanted Forest is held), this week as the temperature has hovered below zero the Loch has started to freeze over, but the ever present pair of swans are strong enough to break the ice around the edges & them and the Mallard take advantage of this. Being close to the edge makes them much easier to photograph & the next few shots are my attempt to do just that. The first one shows the classic love heart pose that Swans enjoy showing us. Sorry you have this shot repeated, but have not got the technology to remove it.

Thursday we experienced a decent snow fall but that didn’t stop my misses from doing her daily 10,000 steps, where I at present have damaged the soft tissue in my knee, so took the car up the glen to take the few shots below. Nice & sunny but bitterly cold, but SWMBO was well wrapped up. The second & third shots are of the two Munros together & though not heavily covered in snow do make some attractive shots for photographers. The buildings in the second shot are of a working farm, which must be hard work at this time of the year.

Hope to get a few more shots like these as our Winter settles in.