A week on Speyside

It seems strange when you say it was almost too hot in Scotland but it was, this seemed to have an effect on the wildlife as some species were in short supply, however the birds that did appear were all quality and a side effect was the almost total absence of midges.
We visited a number of sites,Loch Garten produced Ospreys, Crossbills(could they be Scottish?) and
Crested Tits. A visit to Lochindorb was not without incident,we spotted a pair of Red Throated Divers very close to shore, I managed one distant record shot and moved closer, when only about 30 yards away they began their territorial snake dance and rose right out of the water,it was at this point the camera battery decided to expire and the spare was back at the cottage. Whilst there we also noted their bigger cousins , a pair of Black Throated Divers and for good measure a hunting Osprey flew over.
The Northern Corries and in particular the Coire-an-t- Sneachda produced the next photographic disaster, I had just finished taking shots of a female Ptarmigan with some very small chicks and we sat down for lunch when a juvenile Snow Bunting landed at our feet and proceeded to check out our rucksacks in the panin we for got about the camera and by the time we remembered it had flown down the mountainside.
Our last main trip was up the Findhorn Valley looking for raptors, as with other sites they were lacking in numbers, but we did manage brief views of a Golden Eagle before it flapped it's wings and headed off across the moor.
All in all a great trip and a one which never disappoints.
Ian and Keith