Sun Sets on an Excellent Day

Although it didn't start that well - after yesterday's Breakdown the battery was flat again this morning, so after a couple of comical efforts to bump start the car a neighbour came to our rescue with jump leads.

The first twenty minutes of our drive towards Cumbernauld was a wee bit nerve racking, as we tried to ensure the car didn't stall. However once we were on the motorway we relaxed a bit and the car started perfectly all day.

We were on our way to attempt to find the Taiga Bean Goose flock on the Slamannan Plateau. We'd looked for them in previous years but never successfully, however this year's search was greatly helped by spotting a 4x4 pulled over at the side of the road and a man scanning the field with a telescope. The man in question proved to be most informative. He voluntarily monitors the Geese and told us of their habits of frequenting different areas. At present they are just returning from breeding in Sweden and were therefore in this particular field where they "meet up", later on in the season they'd still be in the area, but probably not this field. This year the first group of 70 had arrived back on 28th September and this has now grown to just over 200 and hopefully would grow to exceed 300. Although there is a small and diminishing flock in Norfolk, this is the main UK flock.

We then moved on to the RSPB reserve at Loch Leven for some more excellent birdwatching plus some excellent coffee and cakes all rounded off by the excellent sunset - excellent.