A Tale of Two Bridges.

 I start in Bamber Bridge where I went on Cuerden Valley Park to collect an SD card from one of our camera traps. On the way there, I saw two fungi, Dead Man's Fingers and Blushing Bracket.    

                   

   I actually got excited when I saw the results of my camera trapping. A dog fox being very interested in a vixen. Sadly I couldn't download it here. My day got a bit more colourfull when I spotted a bullfinch on the feeders by the cafe on the Park.

 

The following day I visited Wymott pools to try to spot a Little Owl. I was unsuccessful, but did manage to add Meadow Pipit and Heart's Tongue Fern. Which brought my list for the year to 183.

Then north to another "Bridge" This time Nethy Bridge where I spent a few days with Heatherlea, the bird watching group. Friday had an excellent start where we saw Black Grouse males on the hillside. Our attempt at finding Red Grouse was unsuccessful, but at least I added Juniper and Bilberry to my list.. We decided to go to Loch Garten RSPB reserve. Here we had good views of Crested Tits, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Brambling, Treecreeper, Siskins, a Red Squirrel and Chaffinch. I must confess the best thing was a Coal Tit sitting on my finger eating food from my hand. Crested tit pictured.

 

Travelling south past Kincraig we viewed Loch Insh where Pintail were a surprise. Other ducks included Teal, Mallard and Goldeneye. From here a loop anticlockwise via Kingussie took us to the viewpoint looking over Insh Marsh. Photos here were hard since most of the birds were over the hills and distant. Using our telescopes we were able to identify Golden Eagle, White Tailed Eagle, Goshawk, Hen Harrier and Raven. A little closer were Grey Heron, Greylag Geese, a mixed tit flock feeding, Brambling and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Year total for flora and fauna now 204