Ireland day 0946. Wednesday 01 May 2024- Cairngorms 3 *

Ireland day 0946. Wednesday 01 May 2024- Cairngorms 3

Today’s summary	After a leisurely breakfast, drove over the Lecht to Nethy Bridge. Saw a Golden Eagle en route. Lunch at Nethy House café and then drove to the Osprey centre on Loch Garten. Saw a female on her nest and an intruder male who she saw off adroitly. Waked down to Loch Mallachie in the evening. Another fabulous day
Today’s weather	Thick mist south of the Lecht pretty much all day, clearer to the north. Hardly any wind. Appx 9c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Loch Garten Osprey Centre

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

The day dawned grey and misty, so some urgent googling was required to establish what direction we would need to travel to see an improvement in the weather. It was determined that our best bet would be to head to the north of the Lecht hills, which we duly did once we had finally completed our late-running breakfasts.

So by the time we pitched up in Nethy Bridge, it was already lunchtime(!) so we dropped into Nethy House café (for sale, incidentally, as a going concern for about £850k) and enjoyed a substantial and varied repast. On the way over the hills, a huge golden eagle swooped down over the road, a magnificent sight which cheered us on our way.

After lunch, we drove a little further to Loch Garten to call in at the Osprey visitor centre. Totally worthwhile, as we were able to see the female (Asha) on her nest in the distance (through the telescopes and binoculars and webcams in the hide-cum-visitor centre) as she successfully fought off the attentions of an intruder male (KL5) while her mate (Brodie) was away fishing.

A quick drive back over the Lecht and a relaxing dinner in the evening back at base.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Essential start to the day	Mr Tufty enjoying his nuts

Woody the greater spotted woodpecker	Lunch!

Intruder male osprey sniffing around the female incubating her eggs on the nest in the tree	Down by Loch Malachie. In a few weeks time, it will be completely uninhabitable because of the midges

Another view of the intruder (ring label KL5), through the spotting scope at the osprey visitor centre