A few days in the Cairngorms ... Snow Buntings, Golden Eagles and prolific Goldeneys ...

With Strathspey along with Deeside being the core breeding areas of Common Goldeneye it was good to see a female with three young at Loch Morlich as soon as I arrived on 5th July ... as I found last year in that same area every water body seemed to hold Goldeneye ... a few days later there were also family parties on Loch Insh ...

... meanwhile Spotted Flycatchers called in the treetops by the loch ...

The following day a walk up Strath Nethy seemed rather unproductive with only a family of Stonechats and a distantly alarming Merlin being of any note ... but heading down past Bynack Stable towards Ryvoan a distant raptor broke the western skyline and frustratingly dropped below the ridge ... then reappeared to show the distinctive head-on soaring profile of Golden Eagle ...

... a second bird joined it and the pair continued to soar above the ridge line ...

... coming down lower and apparently foraging for food ...

The day took another turn for the better with Crested Tits along with some Coal Tits in a mature Scots Pine between Ryvoan and Glenmore ...

Then another day of low cloud and intermittent rain made Glen Feshie a good option ... most birds were keeping a low profile but a female Stonechat was characteristically showy ...

... and a Mistle Thrush posed obligingly in the wood near the bothy ...

... while a silent Tree Pipit flew up into an old pine and was gone ...

... by the church at Loch Insh the well known Ospreys had three well grown juveniles that were being kept well supplied with fish ...

As evening approached the skies cleared ... it boded well for Ben Macdui the next day ...

As soon as the March Burn was reached little bursts of Snow Bunting song could be heard coming from the rocks and boulders on either side of the track ...

The males perched up on prominent rocks to deliver their song ... and looked spectacularly bright in the sunshine ...

... a male and female chased around among the boulders ... and more song ...

... the sonogram shows the jerkily random structure of the short motifs ...

The next day was back to business as usual with showers and cloud but at Moor of Feshie a Tree Pipit flew silently into an old pine and posed watchfully to give nice views of its bold face pattern and white belly ...