A day on the Dee

We're once again privileged to have visitors in the house.  We picked up Hanneke and Jul from the airport on Tuesday night.  After a full day of travel from Spain they were quite tired and spent most of Wednesday recovering as I was at work.  Even for a recovery day they were quite productive - checking out the Aberdeen beach (kite surfers were at work there!) and Victoria Park.  

Thursday we decided, on the advice of a local birding expert, to go to the Lin of Dee in search of some indigenous species.  Hanneke and Jul are tireless and expert birders and had a wish list of species they wanted to see - including several thrushes, some finches and the elusive dipper.  The Lin of Dee (a beautiful valley near the source of the Dee in the Cairngorms) was flagged as a good place to see several of those.

The river was beautifully clear and I always expected to see the trout swimming, although I never did.  In fact, I almost went swimming myself, seriously misjudging the slipperiness of the streamside rocks.  As always, the nature didn't disappoint and we saw several of the species we were looking for.  The dipper, however, was nowhere to be seen.

We did lunch at this wonderful little cafe in Braemar - a small town that hosts the annual Highland Games in September.  We had a great lunch of potato-leek soup and sandwiches, with a strawberry and cream scone for dessert.  It was nice because we could sit on the patio with Casey.  The waitstaff loved her.

We found the dipper (finally) sitting on a rock in the middle of the river in Braemar.  We had decided to take one last look - I think we had identified it as our last, best chance to see one.  A local spotted us looking intently at river and asked what we were looking at.  When we said we had spotted a dipper, he casually said that it was no big deal - they nest under the bridge.

We decided to make one last stop before heading home and dropped in on our homegirl Lizzie and her small country shack at Balmoral.  The Queen's estate is actually magnificent and well worth the admission and effort.  The grounds are gorgeous, and while you don't get a lot of access to the inside of the castle (it is actually a royal home for a few months of the year) you can still spend a few pleasant hours imagining what it would be like to adopted into the Royal Family.

After spotting a few other species on the grounds of Balmoral, we headed home, making a reservation at our favorite Italian place on the fly.  We had a nice dinner, although the pasta pretty much ensured that no cards or dominos would be played - two nights in a row without gaming is unusual for a gathering in our family.

We're off to the Ythan Estuary to find some terns (and possibly puffins) and then to the Strathisla whiskey distillery.  We are determined to play some type of card game today - so we're trying to take it easy ...