Bird Watching on The Black Isle - this piece written by Bob Swann of Highland Birds (www.highlandbirds.scot, 2023) provides some excellent information. As he notes, the winter months provide some excellent opportunities.

Easter Ross (covering The Black Isle)

The Highlands offers superb scenery. Heading north from Inverness up the A9 you cross the Kessock Bridge upto the Tore Roundabout, keeping a look out for soaring Buzzards or Red Kites, and then strike east along the A832 and you will eventually arrive at a large car park at the head of Munlochy Bay. It’s another good spot to watch Kites. In late autumn the fields around here can have good flocks of Greylag Geese. Continue along the main road and you will eventually reach Fortrose. From the centre of town turn right down to Chanonry Ness. In winter you can get excellent views of Long-tailed Ducks, divers and auks. Waders such as Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Turnstone often feed around the point. In summer it is an excellent site to watch Bottle-nosed Dolphins.
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Moving on
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Moving on from Fortrose you reach Fairy Glen (see above) just past Rosemarkie. There is a small woodland RSPB reserve with a path leading up it from a car park. It has a wide range of the usual woodland passerines, including Spotted Flycatcher and Dippers also breed along the burn. The A832 continues north to Cromarty, passing through plantations and then large open fields, which can hold large numbers of geese. Although these flocks mainly comprise Greylag and Pink-footed Geese they are always worth checking for scarcer species. Once at Cromarty, park at the harbour and walk east along the beach. In winter you can get excellent views of Long-tailed Ducks, Eiders, divers and Red-breasted Mergansers offshore.

Waders and ducks

From Cromarty you can head back down the B9163 along the south side of the Cromarty Firth. The RSPB hide at Udale at high tide, you will witness large flocks of Oystercatcher, Redshank, Curlew, Dunlin, Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit all assembling to roost on the saltmarsh, as well as large numbers of feeding Wigeon. It’s also an excellent spot to see geese in late autumn and spring. Carry along the road to to Newhall Point. This gives you good views of the north side of the bay. The hawthorn hedges are very good for winter thrushes, finches and buntings and, as you pass Newhall Point, it’s worth scanning the firth for Goldeneye and other ducks.

Seawatching

Head for Portmahomack and Tarbat Ness just north of The Black Isle. This is a good place for seawatching, especially in late summer and autumn after north-easterly gales. Huge numbers of Gannets, Kittiwakes and auks, with smaller numbers of shearwaters and skuas, can be seen. It’s a particularly good spot for Little Auks after strong northerly winds. It is also the best autumn migration site in the area. Warblers, Redstarts, Pied Flycatchers are regular with the occasional rarity like a Black Redstart, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Red-backed Shrike, Wryneck or Richard’s Pipit.
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Ducks and whisky

As you pass Glenmorangie distillery at Tain (always worth a visit!) the road comes close to the south side of the Dornoch Firth. From late September to December this is an excellent area for ducks with several thousand Wigeon and hundreds of Teal and smaller numbers of Pintail feeding just off shore.
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Summary

Easter Ross is a superb birding area at any time of year. In a fairly small area there are a wide variety of habitats supporting a large number of species. Even on farmland many species, like Grey Partridge, Skylark, Linnet, Yellowhammer and Tree Sparrow, which are in decline elsewhere, still remain abundant. Bird watching at any time of year will not disappoint and you may well find that, at many of these sites, you are the sole birder.