Capercaillie bird

Spent the day with Neil McIntyre photographing some of the wildlife around Aviemore.

He has red squirrels near to his house so spent a few hours first thing photographing these. They are relatively tame and used to having their photo taken. One of them is friendly enough to climb up your tripod to have the nut that is placed there.

From there we went to find the Capercaillie bird or Tetrao urogallus.
This is part of the grouse family and native to Scotland.

A huge woodland grouse, the large black males are unmistakable. They spend a lot of time feeding on the ground, but may also be found in trees, feeding on shoots. localised breeding species, found in Scottish native pinewood, a rare and vulnerable habitat, and in commercial conifer plantations. The UK capercaillie population has declined so rapidly that it is at very real risk of extinction (for the second time) and is a 'Red List' species.

Their main diet is berries, shoots and stems.

From there we went to photograph some stags.

A very good days photography and my new birthday lens and extender worked well and better than I thought it would