Christine's walking & birds blog

I left home early this morning to leave parking room for the guys coming to start connecting the solar panels up. At Achnahaird it was practically high tide, so I walked round the other side of the dunes - and spotted my first wheatears of the year. 

As I walked back to the car park across the low cliffs, the sound of pink-footed geese came faintly to my ears, grew louder, and eventually faded into the distance without my clapping eyes on the birds at all! There didn't seem to be anything much on the water, but another sound - a sort of peevish wail - alerted me to a pair of red-throated divers out in the middle of the bay. Two more skeins of vocal pink-foots approached from the south; they flew quite low and seemed to contemplate landing - but in the end I lost them against the fierce sun.

Across the headland there were two more wheatears at Badentarbat, sparring in a ditch. I sat in the car having lunch, and watched a buzzard hovering. A few minutes later, some gulls making a fuss made me look up to see several of them mobbing a raptor. Assuming it was the buzzard I didn't pay much attention to begin with - until I realised that the mobbers were great black-backs, which made the raptor a bit bigger than a buzzard!

The sub-adult white-tailed sea eagle flew strongly past my car and vanished over the moorland towards Ben More Coigeach.

On the way out of the area, I'd planned to pull in by the plantation to listen out for snipe; but there were loads of sheep lounging around there, and when I stepped out of the car they all ran towards me bleating piteously. They thought I was going to feed them. I felt a bit rotten about that, so I got back in - at which the bleating died away. If you want to know what disappointed sheep look like - well, they look like this.

However, I got a second chance a bit further along the road. Driving with the window down, I heard a distinct bit of a snipe's chipper call, rising from the moorland leading down to the loch. I parked when I could and walked back, without much hope of seeing the bird but wanting to hear the call again. But it must have been close to the road because it suddenly erupted from the grass and bog myrtle and zig-zagged away into the sky. Fortunately, it had already turned and was coming back towards the road as I set off back to my car, so I stopped watching it. And then I heard the thrilling sound of drumming (or thrumming, which suggests something less percussive) so I stood by my car and tried hard to locate the bird in the air again - with no success. (What the snipe does with its tail feathers is also called winnowing - which is rather nice.) 

From West Terrace, I could see that there was a white-winger on the golf-course spit - an adult this time. As I made my way down there, I heard the welcome sound of chiffchaff song from the boardwalk area; but I headed for the gull first. It looked nice and snowy, and appeared larger than the nearby herring gulls.

Its legs also appear to be a darker shade of pink - although I'm not sure if this rules out the regular viking. I don't know how many viking gulls there are, but I assume that they don't all differ from pure glaucous gulls in the same way.  In another very poor shot, the gull is spreading its wings and there does seem to be a darkish streak running across the secondaries, although the primary tips appear to be pure white. Dunno. I'll do more research when I have time.

Heading back to the boardwalk, I heard two chiffchaffs singing and managed two pics - possibly of the same bird.

Two days ago, the most interesting animal I could find during a short walk on the beach was this dead one - known variously as lesser spotted dogfish, small spotted cat shark, and rough hound. Some people hyphenate small and spotted as though it's the spots that are small - but I reckon the small refers to the shark itself. I think the tiny dark creature crawling over it is a kind of springtail (Anurida maritima); I first saw these in a rockpool at Rhue (blog post September 26th, 2014).

Yesterday, we drove south for a walk at Loch Glascarnoch - and collected the magnificent total of two pied wagtails and a raven. We pulled into the car park at the end of Loch Droma so that I could check for toads - and yes, they were here again (March 30th last year). I counted 50 individuals but there were many more.

Greger stayed in the car and read the paper. He is not a man for frogs and toads - although he doesn't mind newts. From the car as we drank coffee I spotted a male stonechat on a distant fence - and two buzzards flew over.

This morning, I had my second shingles jab. Later, I drove to West Terrace and walked round the spit. I'm glad I did, because there was a white-winger on the golf-course spit. Given the size of the gull (and its bill) I would say this was a glaucous gull - probably first winter. 

 

A flock of ringed plovers flew in, and I thought I saw something dark with them. I failed to spot it again against the dark weedy rocks, but snapped hopefully into the crowd and managed to catch a purple sandpiper (top right).  A pale plover (bottom left) seemed to be of a size and structure with the ringed plovers so I'll have to give up any ideas of a Kentish and suppose it's just a ringed that's late getting adult/summer plumage.

By this time I was beginning to feel distinctly unwell. My arm ached, my head ached, and I was creeping all over as though I was getting 'flu. These are known side effects for the shingles jab according to the info the nurse gave me. No doubt by tomorrow I'll feel okay again - I hope the glaucous sticks around! 

Yesterday: A whooper swan was just off the spit at Ardmair - but no wheatears were seen.

Driving north, I could see half a dozen whoopers down on Cam Loch, but they were in a tight bunch and looked a bit nervy, so I didn't stop. Turning east at Ledmore Junction I was prepared for the new open vistas to the right of the road, but I was surprised to see a new forestry road to the left; are they going to take all those trees as well? Now, I like a bit of clear-fell as much as the next birder, but this is getting ridiculous - and it's not as though I can look forward to woodlark or nightjar in compensation for the possible loss of crossbills. (On the way back, I spotted the only crossbill of the day on a treetop at the side of this new road.)

This is the first mountain hare I've seen dead on the road - but I'm not sure it was roadkill as there was no blood. Beautiful creature.  

At Loch Craggie, there was frogspawn in the usual ditch but no sign yet of palmate newts. My first great spotted woodpecker of the year was heard and then briefly seen as it flew. A buzzard flew past. I crossed the road and walked up the other forestry track, hoping for snipe in one of the damp ditches there - but nothing. I drove slowly back. Where the road runs close to Loch Borralan, four goldeneye (2 male, 2 female) were in a little bay straight ahead, looking gorgeous in the sun; but when I slowed up and pulled into a rough lay-by, they took to the air and flew across the water to the far side.

Last week I collected treecreeper, grey wagtail, goldcrest, and dipper at Silverbridge for my year list. At the dam on the way back there were two pied wagtails on the wall (birds on the move, I think, as they were the first I've seen there this year) and a pair of kestrels each perching on a separate buttress where the ravens usually nest. A raven came kronking in from the south.....

.....and next time I looked, the kestrels had gone!

The men were coming today to put up scaffolding for the installing of solar panels and would require the drive - so I escaped with my (t)rusty old car and headed out into the Coigach area. 

There was a strong wind coming off the sea at Achnahaird, and walking up the beach away from it I was thrilled to spot a dark bird running on the machair in the usual place - my first golden plover of the year.

There were three plovers, this one bathed in golden sunshine - which was, unfortunately, mostly behind it!

Having spotted a sparrowhawk from the bedroom window this morning, I grabbed the camera and rushed outside. There was no sign now of the hawk, but scanning the ridge of Ullapool Hill I saw a distant golden eagle, flying south - and took a record shot of that instead.

Later at Ardmair, things looked quiet at low tide and as it was also quite windy I got back in the car. Something caught my eye - something brown moving swiftly along below the lay-by, on the grassy bank leading down to the beach. It was a red-legged partridge, running past my car about a metre away. It flew across to the sheep fields where it was joined by a second individual - both looking perilously conspicuous (at least through bins - with the naked eye, they could hardly be seen).

My first greenshank of the year was seen in Dundonell, feeding at the end of Little Loch Broom with three redshanks.

Otherwise, birds were mostly absent on our drive south. From one of the high lay-bys at First Coast, in a maddening wind and a heavy shower, I spotted something flying low across the water that looked very much like a shearwater. A few days ago, my first redpolls of the year (two) were in a flock of goldfinches and siskins in the plantations up at the Braes - feeding in larches.