Grouse Galore!

After having amazing views of Red Grouse last week we decided to head of to the spot again this week. Here is a shot from last week to show how well they showed.

Red Grouse

 

Pretty much as soon as we arrived we spotted a male and female feeding at the side of the road so we got out of the car and started heading towards them. Suddenly we couldn't see the female but it turns out she was only about a metre away hunkered down in the heath. It is amazing to see how camouflage she was.

 

Red Grouse

 

It was fantastic to get so close and see all the stunning colours. After that little beauty we moved on to more of a marshy area were we came across an amazing Lapwing nest! It was a fantastic little nest, in total it had 4 eggs in it. Just a little while after we had left the nest we spotted a summer plumaged Golden Plover lift of and fly over some hills in the background.

 

After that we decided to have a good walk through the heath to hopefully spot something a little different. On our way through we spotted lots more Red Grouse and tons of Meadow Pipits in the heath. A while later lots of Curlews were passing over our heads which was nice to see. After having a good hours walk around we hadn't found anything to unusual until my Dad found something amazing! He had found a Red Grouse nest!!! This was a brilliant end to our day, what a great nest to find! This nest had a total of 8 eggs in. Me and my Dad were extremely pleased to find our first Red Grouse nest.

 

As we were driving out of the spot my Dad spotted a Red Grouse sitting up perfectly on the heather. It was about a metre away from our car! It sat sitting there for quite a while, it didn't hardly seem bothered that we were even there!

 

Red Grouse

 

On our way home we came across a field with tons of wildlife in it. There was around 50+ Linnets, a few Hares, Red Legged Partridge, Pheasant, Mallards, Meadow Pipit, Lapwings and quite a few Jackdaws.

 

Hare