Startling!

Backblip

What an amazing place Firbush is. Yesterday, the first birds I saw (apart from the swallows and housemartins zooming about) were a pair of these redstarts (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), right by the gate. It must be 5 years since I've seen one. The dull weather meant that all the photos of them were about at ISO 2000, and it's hard to make out that his tail is the same tomato-soup red as his breast.

Sadly, we had to leave at midday, as M had to catch a train and go spend the week in that there Milton Keynes :(
I noticed this morning that they have closed the main street in Killin for a week, necessitating a 60 mile detour to drive from one end of the town to the other :O