A species truely special to Strathspey and Inverness-shire, the Crested Tit is every birder and photographer's favourite without any doubt. It resides as the emblem of the local Abernethy Primary school where my son Mattias attends and indeed, we see or hear them most days on the school run!

A very charismatic and charming bird, though never to be under-estimated as "easy" to see well!  It very much depends on the time of year and weather,they can suddenly vanish from a site where they've been showing well for weeks or on some days just seem to be everywhere, calling loudly. Call is undoubtedly the best way to find them, I probably find 90% of Cresties by hearing them first in the forest. In winter they frequent the local feeders and can be very approachable, there are many sites locally where you can get fantastic views as they forage with the other tits. By Spring they can become incredibly elusive once nesting and seem to just vanish from regular sites, so much more fieldwork and effort is needed to find them as they will only be at or near their nest site and call very little. If you are wanting to photograph them at this time of year, bear in mind they are a schedule one protected species and it's very likely you will be close to their nest, which does require a licence.
One remarkable characteristic of Cresties is they are very inquisitive and seem to respond to the sound of the human voice, so ironically the more noise you make in the forest the more chance of seeing one! They can often come right down to eye level feet away, though they rarely stay long and are gone back in to the tree tops in the blink of an eye. "Birds of Scotland 2012" lists them as having a population of between five and seven thousand individuals with up to two thousand breeding pairs which seems to remain relatively stable. As they nest in dead trees, Great-Spotted Woodpeckers can be dangerous predator of young and eggs, however this doesn't seem to have a significant impact on the population. They also seem quite adept at surviving even the harshest winters and can often be one of the only birds you see and hear in the forest in depths of a severe cold snap when seeing them amongst the frosted branches is something very special indeed.

Winter can bring some unusual birds to the Highlands and Moray, you never know just what might turn up. Today's date 17th Nov. has gone down in birding history for turning up megas!

For anyone wanting a good ID challenge checking any rafts of Auks may well turn up the much rarer Brunnich's Guillemot, a wanderer from the Arctic. One was seen at Burghead Harbour, three years to the day on 17th Nov. 2011 by a local birding tour group.
Sadly few caught up with this individual however as it was only identified from it's close range photograph three months later rather than at the time!!
Last January turned up an American Coot at Loch Flemminton, which ended up staying in to spring and was enjoyed by many. Already we've had the regular King Eider which is being seen around Burghead and Nairn though quite mobile. Surf Scoter is another sought after bird, with one being seen already this year it's worth checking the rafts of Scoter carefully for this distinctive bird with it's large white patch on the back of the head. Another duck long overdue for another find locally is Steller's Eider, a female was at Hopeman on 17th Novemeber 2000, maybe next time a male!
Probably one of the most unexpected and unusual mega rares to turn up was again nearby at Burghead in December 1994. A local birding group checking out a flock of Redshanks were amazed to find a Grey-tailed Tattler amongst them, a bird which should have been wintering in the warmth of SE Asia rather than the wintry cold of northern Scotland. Finally, to prove just about anything can still turn up even in mid-winter, our home village of Nethybridge lays claim to fame for surely one of the most remarkable winter rares, in fact it was only a 2nd for Britain (though the first was on St. Kilda!). An unusual bird seen and photgraphed at a local feeder turned out to be a stunning Evening Grosbeak, rather lost from where it should have been wintering across the other side of the Atlantic.