School of Birding, Module Two, Class Two - dismissed!

I'm just back in Yorkshire after our latest School of Birding in the Highlands - the second of our new Module Two (after the first in February), and the ninth Class overall (actually tenth if we include our School Trip to the Outer Hebrides last year); Christ, where does the time go....?

 

Unsurprisingly - with the majority of the team being return clients (and folk we're fond of), and with Module Two being suitably tweaked - it was a cracking week, in the classroom for our interactive learning sessions, in the field all day, every day for high quality birding, and generally for the craic, which was particularly strong with such a lovely bunch...

A very showy Mountain Hare... (thanks Sarah for the pics!)

The weather was generally kind, and with the forecast being substantially worse for pretty much every day, we really felt like we got away it; only on the final day did we need to seek the nearby sanctuary of the vehicles, but even then, there was so much going on, most of us stayed out anyway.

.. and a very showy Dipper 

Six days, five full days in the field, and learning sessions on subjects including Patch Birding, Songs and Calls, eBird / Birdtrack, Finding Rare Birds and much more, with those days in the field being suitably rich and varied, as it always is with so many contrasting and productive habitats within striking distance.

Male and female Bullfinch

Some of the highlights? On the coast, we enjoyed finding White-billed Divers on a four-diver day, breeding plumage Long-tailed Ducks displaying and Bottlenose Dolphins frolicking; on local lochs, breeding plumage Black-throated and Red-throated Divers and Slavonian Grebes, and various Ospreys (including a new active nest, close-up and previously undiscovered); in the skies, Golden Eagles, Goshawks, White-tailed Eagles, Peregrines, and various other raptors;

Osprey collecting nesting material 

In the woods, we'd very accommodating Crossbills, Crested Tits, lots of newly-arrived summer visitors, waders on the move on freshwater pools, plus close-up Mountain Hare and much more in the various habitats we covered during the week.

Sandwich Tern - a constant passage on the coast

The camera (barely functioning as it is) stayed firmly in the vehicle for pretty much all the time in the field, and so the few photos here are opportunistic (and far from representative of the magical experiences we had with many target species!)... back up in a few weeks for the next School, which we're very much looking forward to.

Osprey and Goshawk