Christine's walking & birds blog

Scotland

We are not only in our new home, we now have broadband again! Parcel Force delivered the last bits we needed this morning.

But first we had almost three weeks in holiday lets, the first in a tiny chalet in Laiken Forest, on the east coast near Nairn. This is Culbin Forest, an area of Scots and Corsican pines planted on sand dunes in a successful effort to halt erosion caused by the removal of machair long ago.  

From the main road to Inverness we would often see flocks of pink-footed geese flying high. There must have been several hundred of them.

After a week in the tiny chalet at Laiken Forest we moved to the caravan on the west coast and found a couple of pink-footers with greylag geese, in the sheep field opposite the camp-site.

Arriving a month earlier than ever before gave me a second Ardmair tick in the shape of a redwing.

The twite was on the path outside the caravan and was snapped through the window.

If I find myself pining for the Eton Wick flood, I can always jump in the car and drive to this lochan. On one lovely bright day it held a black-throated diver, a common sandpiper and two calling greenshanks. 

We took time out from unpacking boxes for a trip to Achnahaird. As we sat enjoying the sun in our favourite rocky cove, a whimbrel suddenly alighted just below. When it kept still it was not easy to see.

Taplow

Even mundane tasks can bring their rewards: standing at the kitchen sink this morning doing some hand-washing, I noticed a flurry of activity in the garden - and a blue tit flew across chasing a firecrest.

A bit later we were both in Greger's office when a firecrest appeared in the holly tree, just outside the window. It was clearly interested in foraging under the gutter, but again, one of the nesting blue tits put paid to that. 

It's a waiting game for us now, as far as moving is concerned. Our buyer's buyer's solicitor is holding things up, so we don't know if we're going on Friday or not.  I went out for a walk round the village, and visited the Old Priory Garden, along the footpath near the Oak and Saw.

I always thought this tangle of woodland was private, but it turns out it's not, and the usual people in the village are clearing it and making it a bit more formal again. Hmmm. Well, they're also putting bird boxes up and there's still quite a bit of undergrowth; but from outside later, I saw someone wandering through it with a dog. Blooming dog owners - they can't leave anywhere alone. However, dogs are probably less of a nuisance than cats; we chased one we've never seen before out of the garden yesterday, where it was crouching on the shed roof and staring intently into the ivy where blackbirds are possibly nesting. 

Still, I have to say there was plenty of activity in the Old Priory Garden this morning. My first willow warbler of the year was singing and foraging in the blossom, and a blackcap's song was heard. Wren, chaffinch, dunnock, and blackbird were around; and I saw a buff-tailed and a tree bumblebee, and one each of peacock, brimstone, and orange tip butterfly.

A pair of buzzards was displaying above; from their head movements, it seems the birds keep their eyes on each other as they circle around.