Goose walk

We were up stupidly early for a Saturday to join some fellow bird nerds on the shores of Loch Lomond to try and catch the geese ending their roost on the loch. It was more successfull than last year's walk, the weather was lovely and we got to slowly watch the hills come clear whilst listening to the very loud geese out of the loch.  As the sun came up, you'd hear a whoosh then a big V of geese would appear against the hills and if you were lucky, would fly right overhead.

It's pretty special being directly underneath a big flock of geese as they fly overhead and they make a cool 'zip' noise with their wings.  We didn't spot any of the white or green fronted geese, but there was one lone snow goose who was flocking with the others who stood out pretty well against the hills.  Apparently it's the lone snow goose amongst the thousands of geese that spend the winter months on the loch, the ranger said it liked to hang around the other geese, but was always a bit apart, a bit like it was trying to convince the other geese that it was a goose too.  

The way in the light was very different from the journey there in the dark, we got to go along the new boardwalk which links the car park to the shore.  It runs through some stunning wet grasslands, and there was lots of roe deer hanging about.  All of us guests were quite happy to see the deer but the RSPB staff and volunteers weren't as enamoured as they eat the new shoots of the plants which the birds need to thrive.  We though they should bring back wolves.  They do have permissiosn to re-introduce beavers at the site which will be super exciting. 

As per usual we met some lovely folk and I had a good natter with a chap from Northern Ireland on the way back and we shared out favourite Scottish places, plus stories about curmudgeonly Yorkshire pub owners and I learnt a bit of Northern Irish geography.  Plus we'd done over 9000 steps before 9am!

On the way home we stopped at Braehead to get some cook books from Waterstones and stocked up on shampoo from Lush.  Couldn't resist getting lunch from the Cadzow bakehouse before heading home for a nap.  It's been a beautiful day up here, sunny and very spring like.

Edit: Should mention that the blip was taken in the pre-dawn light.