Heading North

Thursday 25th May. We're on our travels again. This time a ten day trip to the very North of the British Isles. We travelling by car and ferries so no carefully posed luggage shot for this blog.

First stop on the drive north is the bakery in Forfar where we buy Forfar Bridies for our lunch. We opt for the flaky pastry variant rather than shortcrust. 

Then it is about five miles to the Scottish Wildlife Trust nature reserve at Balgevies Loch. This is one of our favourite spots with a hide offering great views of an osprey's nest. There is also a 5km circular walk around the loch which we plan to do this morning. In the past we have had some great sightings on this circuit. This year the pickings are a bit slimmer but we did at least see a few of these.

The path follows a disused railway line along the north side of the loch and this will be the total railway content of this blog.  Our destination is well beyond the pale as far as rail is concerned.

Passing by the island that was home to the tree that supported the osprey nest something looked very different and we could not spot the nest. We dropped in a the hide where a chap explained that the nest tree collapsed last summer and that a platform had been built on a tall tree on the shore side. The ospreys finished raising their chick in the new nest last year and had returned this year and looked to have eggs in the nest. He showed us the new nest and it was just about possible to see the head of an adult osprey.

We moved on to the Wildlife Trust visitor centre overlooking Montrose Basin, another good birdwatching site. The main building has great views over the basin and has recently been re-equipped with high powered telescopes with a zoom function. The tide was out exposing a lot of mud and sand. There were sunbathing seals in the distance, ducks and gulls galore and on the feeders a pair of greenfinches. We don't see those very often 

We moved down to the low level hide to eat our bridies and watch nature. It was a lovely warm day but not a lot was stirring. 

Just as we were preparing to move on this chap appeared in front 

Before we moved on D decided, on a whim, to check the ferry ticket and discovered that departure from Aberdeen was at 17.00, not 7p.m. as he had thought.  This put paid to plans for a leisurely drive up the coast.

We made it on time, despite diversions in Aberdeen, and watched the livestock boarding before it was our turn.

Our inboard cabin is serviceable but not very photogenic.  Departure is on time and as we leave Aberdeen harbour D sees dolphins but the photo was underwhelming.