Its a bit Groundhog day here with pretty much the same options day after day. We did try the coast one day and had some success with the Brent Geese but that was an exception.
The Dippers are moving closer to getting breeding underway - they are now seen feeding together as a pair. No doubt there will be a sting in the winter;s weather before Spring arrives.
At the woodland hide  the Jays have been heard each visit but are not approaching, could be the more flappy nature of the hide since the wind and weather has taken its toll.
This bathing Blue Tit made me smile; presumably a female with such a large skirt.

For almost a week now we have had no car. This has restricted the options for photography but not eliminated them. The Dippers are only a long walk away; with them we have seen Grey Wagtail and a male Kingfisher so all three UK birds associated with streams. I have taken some video of the singing Dipper.

The other "easy" option is to feed the ducks. We don't have a pond within easy reach and there's not  a great variety on the river but as well as the ubiquitous Mallard we have Goosander. Ducks outnumber drakes so I have shown the wonderful drake opposite.

Our local lochs have been ice free this winter so we visited one to look for wintering ducks and water birds on a recent sunny day. We were not disappointed with good numbers of Tufted Ducks, Mallards, Goldeneyes and Pochard as well as a Scaup and a Smew to get 2012 off to a good start. The Moorhens seemed to be displaying already, as were the Great Crested Grebes, despite still being in their winter plumage, and some of the Mute Swans were showing off too.

Later at the coast we found a flock of uncommon Pintail and Wigeon taking shelter in a bay, whilst a roost of Dunlin, Sanderling and Ring Plovers braved the windy beach. 

A number of Short-eared Owls have been wintering together on the East Coast. Rather excitingly they have been emerging before dusk, giving us photographers a fighting chance of a picture. So far, six visits but nothing terribly pleasing but we carry on.
At a different site I found a Field Vole feeding in the snow.At first I thought it must be close to death but an approach resulted in it scurrying into cover then returning five minutes later. It was such fun; it squeaked when I put a hand near so I desisted. The link is, of course that without the Vole there would be VERY few Short-eared Owls in Britain, in fact all our Scottish Owls depend on them not to mention other birds like Red Kite and Kestrel. Long live the vole.

Winter seems to have arrived during the last few days with the first real frosts. The Pinkfeet have been coming into Loch Leven in the evening to roost with the Mute and Whooper Swans, and the coast has attracted one or two Black Redstarts.
Visiting a local stream today, we found Dippers feeders avidly, and this one was very tolerant of people and dogs on the footpath. He even sang with great gusto for a few minutes - whether he was defending a territory or singing for a mate we don't know but we certainly enjoyed listening in. 

Moth are one interest that you can carry out throughout the year. Although the numbers fall off in winter there are also specialities which we have recently trapped such as Pale November Moth and Winter Moth. 


There are always birds to be found so to test our fitness, we headed up and up on Thursday into Munro territory, After a bit of a struggle we found a pleasing 12 Ptarmigan. Their plumage is heading towards the winter plumage with the grey Autumn plumage still partly present. Like this male in the picture they were calling quite a lot, in fact the calling helped locate the feeding party of seven and the loafing party of five.

There have been a few highlights on the migration front over the past week or so.
 At the end of October there were Woodcock and Sparrowhawk flying in off the sea along the East coast, and even a Dusky Warbler found. The numbers of geese have been climbing, although there has been little good weather to photograph them at dawn or dusk. The Whooper Swans have started arriving, and just a couple of days ago a Firecrest took up residence in a coastal garden (see opposite). 
Amazingly there are still Red Admirals flying around.
Will we be getting Waxwings this year?

At last our trip targeting the passage of Cranes through Hungary has been and gone. With 90,000 in the area and around 30,000 roosting at the lake where I spent a cold night there were bound to be opportunities. Alas, the weather let us down at the lake but the picture opposite was taken on the first day where Cranes came to drink in the afternoon.

Other thrills were the roost of 30 Long-eared Owls in "our" village, the bickering of the Pygmy Cormorants, the stream of Hawfinches coming to drink and bathe and the three photo sighting of Sparrowhawk and the one Goshawk. More pictures can be found on our trips page.

Only really at the coast there is much happening and even there its is fairly normal stuff. In my bluebell woodland the Jays are full on collecting and storing acorn so I assist by giving them some extra nuts along with bath and drink water. They are visiting often. I think this is because my wood is having a good year for acorn production but not all woods locally are so good.

Bird are still changing over. The winter visitors are arriving - early swans and geese already but there are also birds that are more transient. On Wednesday we saw two adult Arctic Terns inland. 

Yesterday is was the turn of the Eastern coast and Gulls where we met up with both adult and young Mediterranean Gulls. As the name suggests their natural range is further south. Had they bred locally? I don't know although one adult was ringed. Anyway, it was an opportunity to photograph them in flight - previous only on terra firma.