A week in the Highlands (part 1)

Great stuff - see my comments on blog!

Nice blog Paul,I first visited that part of Sutherland in the early '70's when taking part on my mountain leader winter qualification but we were not carrying much birding gear then as we were wild camping,fascinating area like most of the North of Scotland.

Brilliant blog Paul, was it complicated to set up?

Welcome back Paul from your holiday in my neck of the woods [or coastline] as the case may be. Sorry I never heard the car horn peep as you passed through the village of Reay!! Stunning photos, I love the close ups of the raven. We really do take for granted where each of us lives because we are used to our own surroundings but seeing photos from home, in the beautiful weather that we have had for many weeks, brings this home. Mind you since Sunday we have had awful rain and winds from the tail end of "Bertha", a bit brighter today, so you picked the right week to visit. Thanks for sharing.

Brilliant blog and photos Paul and the osprey is great.  How easy is it to set up a blog?

I did enjoy that post Paul, the raven shots were supurb as were the stonechat, but those views are mouthwatering.   We have just had my hubby's brother here from Barrow who says I must get up there sometime to see their wonderful countryside.   So one day maybe we will make it even further to enjoy the birds and Scottish wilderness.

Thanks folks for all of your very kind comments.

Catlady: We passed through Reay on the Monday morning whilst on our way out to Dunnet Head. I specifically went without breakfast, and after ‘beeping’ the horn several times and banging two dustbin lids together, a ten minute wait produced no smells of cooked bacon and eggs, nor the sound of a whistling kettle, so we, (or more specifically, I) was forced to actually buy breakfast further on along the road; (the bill is in the post to you as we speak).!! You’re spot on with the weather though, we couldn’t have asked for a better week in that respect and I also agree with your sentiments about local birds, it can be too easy take them for granted at times.

In regards to setting up the blog, I have to admit that a friend of mine helped me to do it, although in all honesty I think I could have done it myself as it wasn’t really that difficult. I tend to worry about websites wanting too much personal details, but other than a few basics, you can add as little or as much about yourself as you want. I know that it’s the same blog site used by Bob, Darran and I think maybe aiki. I’m not sure if you need a Gmail account (which I already had), but even if you do it’s really no trouble to set one up. I would say to perhaps have a look at Blogspot.co.uk (or Blogspot.com) (?) if you’re interested in the same thing. As this is my first attempt at anything like this I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get up and running and the photo loading is much easier and quicker than it is here, with the ability to load multiple photos very quickly. The workflow for creating the blog posts is similar to what we have here, and it looks like there are many ways to ‘customise’ the look of your blogs, which I’m sure I’ll be able to do as time goes on and I go in and mess around a bit with the settings. I initially started by simply clicking on ‘create blog’ in one of Bobs blogs, and this led me to create a profile. I’m not knocking the RSPB site here in any way, and I intend only to use the blogs to share my photos and days out via a link from the community forums, it’s just that I personally find it to be a long process uploading photos via this site (at times I’ve spent over three hours creating a long post). Anyway, I’m veering off topic here and I don’t want to get my wrist slapped from the Mods, so I’ll say again, thanks for all the lovely comments and I’m hoping that you’ll maybe look in on the next instalment, plenty of excitement on the cliffs and Lochs are in store; Day three saw me taking nearly 800 photos (I know, ridiculous) but there was plenty to see and a lot of the photos were of half birds, tails, wingtips and the likes, (more than one or two for the ‘bad pics’ thread), so you needn’t worry about having to set aside a full day to see them, I promise to try to keep it all to a sensible number….hopefully.!!

Paul

Hi Gaynor, I missed your post whilst writing the last bit there. Thanks also for your very kind comments, I was also especially happy at seeing the Ravens and Stonechats, (I've only ever had a few distant sightings of Ravens before this, and to see Stonechats for the first time, and in such numbers, was just a pure joy for me.) I think there are so many places up and down the UK which all have their own character, beauty and selection of birds and wildlife that you just have to pick a spot and see what you can find there. This is the second time that we’ve been to this particular area, and the weather this time just made it so much easier to get out and about for long periods of time. I’m sure you’d enjoy coming up here for a bit of birding and relaxation, but remember to bring the midge repellent; they take no prisoners when they decide to come out.

Paul

Smidge That Midge!!