Thursday, May 29, 2014
It was a beautiful morning so we drove out to Achnahaird. On the cliff-tops, a ringed plover gave me old-fashioned looks from behind a rock.
Oystercatchers started up a sudden clamour and flew to the top of the rocks.
Just as we were about to leave, I spotted what looked like a large, white-winged gull on the far side of the bay.
Meanwhile, despite not being well, Greger mowed the lawn. We can't get away with a scruffy garden here as the walls are much lower than in those we had in Taplow, and our neighbours' gardens are very neat.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Blue skies this morning made a welcome change after yesterday's weather. A walk up the hill to check on the wood warbler brought plenty of vocals but no sightings.
A fritillary was flying low over disturbed ground near the quarry. When I saw the underwing I knew it was one I hadn't seen before; and I learnt from websites that it was a pearl-bordered fritillary.
It was a lovely butterfly, and made up for the invisible wood warbler. Despite his cold Greger wanted to walk down to the Seaforth for lunch; so we did, and sat outside eating fish-and-chips and watching the world go by (quite a lot of it on Harley Davidsons).
Monday, May 26, 2014
Greger is into the second day of a bad cold and wanted to sleep this afternoon; so I drove up the quarry road to the car park and then walked the rest of the way to the wood warbler site.
The bird was singing, and this time, I caught a glimpse of him. He was quite deep into the trees but I saw him briefly creeping about in high branches, singing, and then darting after an insect. I left him still singing.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
It was time to get the bikes out, despite the cold, grey weather. I set off first up the quarry road to see if I could relocate yesterday's wood warbler. I couldn't, so instead I snapped the arrival of Greger.
We picnicked by the bridge and a wheatear foraged nearby.
We went a short distance along Loch Achall, recceing a walk we might do tomorrow. We cycled back down to the village slowly, firstly in order to listen out for the wood warbler and secondly because my brakes didn't seem to be working.
Friday, May 23, 2014
Here's a coincidence: This morning I read a warning in the Ullapool News to look out for ticks, and advice on how to deal with them once attached.
Going for a shower afterwards I noticed a spot on my leg and fetched the magnifying glass for a closer look. Yikes! It was a tick. I plunged my eyebrow tweezers in boiling water and was about to extract it when Greger offered to do it. And a clean, neat job he made of it too, pulling the tick out alive and whole. The trick is not to twist as you pull.
Here's the culprit, engorged with my blood, on a piece of kitchen towel. It was then, I'm sorry to say, squashed.
Late afternoon we set off up the hill, diverging near the top as Greger wanted to walk through the Braes and look at another house we had considered buying when we moved here.
I didn't see the bird but I held the camera up on video setting to record the song. Back at home, there was no sign of the song on any of the clips; all you could hear was the blasted river.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
On a two-day business trip to London, Greger went up the Shard. The railway, coming across the river from Cannon Street Station, leads upstream towards the London Eye. And we thought the views from that were fantastic!
Yesterday it rained non-stop here in Ullapool, and it was a bit drizzly today so we went for a drive north to Kylescu. I saw my first gannet and kittiwake of the year. Several small brown birds were whizzing around on the steep bank below, and I said I thought they were redpolls.
"Redpolls!" said Greger. "They're too dark, surely?" (Is he becoming a birder?!) And yes, this was indeed a twite.
But I also took a hopeful shot into a gorse bush where a second bird was foraging; and I'm pleased to see that that one is a redpoll.
At the Knockan lochan a greenshank was seen, while a pair of stonechats fed at least two fluttering fledglings on the bank. It was freezing cold today, and we were content with lay-by birding, some of it from the car.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Yesterday, late afternoon, I walked up the quarry road and Greger met me from the hill-path. He had seen a nice bright stonechat, so we went back that way. I felt a bit bad lingering to photograph the stonechat because a female was also now present and they were alarm-calling. But they're going to get very disturbed if they're nesting there, because it's right next to the path.
So I went back today. It was the first really warm day we've had, and after puffing up the quarry road I wished I'd put shorts and T-shirt on.
A rosy male redpoll touched down for a nanosecond in the distance.
At least three cuckoos were busy around the river area.
A tree pipit was singing and displaying, but was very wary.
As for the possible black grouse; I discovered today that cuckoos have all sorts of odd calls, so maybe that's what I heard. However, the habitat is spot-on for black grouse; pasture-land and moorland, with scattered trees of various sizes, mostly pine and birch. I won't give up.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Another rainy day dawned - but Greger suggested an outing anyway. We drove south as far as Poolewe, where the beach opposite the camp-site is always worth a look.
The hoarse trilling of dunlins filled the air, and there was much chasing about and raising of wings. Several greenshanks were picking daintily around the grassy islets left by the ebbing tide.
At Gruinard Bay we walked out on shining wet sand. The fare was similar to Poolewe: a ringed plover, a couple of dunlin, and various gulls. The faint laughing "cak-cak-cak" of red-throated divers grew gradually louder, and two came flying over from the sea.
We missed the bluebells down south, but they're flowering here now; and they seemed especially lovely in the drenched grass of road-side woods.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
The threatened rain hadn't come by eight this morning so I drove north to make the most of the dull but dry weather.
I'd spotted a path from the road and walked it for a short way across the drab moorland towards Inverpolly. Topping a small rise I was pleased to see a new lochan and walked towards it with anticipation.
A deer fence kept me at a distance, but a willow warbler could be heard singing from scattered birches on the loch-side; and a reed bunting was on a second fence. As I walked towards the far end of the loch a heron rose lazily and flapped off across the sky.
A raven soared above a distant ridge, and a cuckoo was calling from further in towards the hills. Several meadow pipits were active in the heather. A pair of red grouse standing on the path ahead took flight, gliding low over the heather and vanishing over the next ridge.
I got home just as the rain began. Obviously, we knew the weather would be cooler and more changeable up here; but it's rather hard at the moment to see that it's ten degrees warmer in the south of England.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Glas Bheinn
For our first hill-walk this year we decided on one ("Glashven") that we've done before. The picture was taken later in the summer from further north. The hill is situated conveniently close to the road, and our traverse took us from right to left, along the edge of the corrie, round the corrie and down.
A raven on the skyline ahead was our first wildlife sighting; and a colourful frog hopping downhill was the second.
Some distance away to the right a ptarmigan peered at us over the rocks and then went flying down the slope, croaking.
Soon after this we saw a wheatear; and then we were making our way across the stony plateau to the summit cairn.
This is looking south-east to the Munros of Conival and Ben Mor Assynt.
We walked round the corrie rim under clearing skies. Tucked in under us on the extreme left is the corrie lochan, which I scanned briefly for life without success. Little did I guess what treasure it held.
As we dropped down steep slopes towards the lochan I scanned again, and sure enough there was something on the water. Two black dots eventually materialised into red-throated divers.
I kept looking back as we set off again and the divers were still there, lazing about, preening, and occasionally diving. We've seen plenty of red-throats on the sea, but encountering them in this lonely place was special. The lochan lies at 525m.
Meadow pipits were the only other identifiable birds. We had a soaking from a shower of rain but the day ended fine. A good start.
Monday, May 12, 2014
It was a beautiful day, warm in the sun but still nippy in the shade. We walked downtown to do our shopping and I waited on the harbour-side while Greger went into the bookshop.
As usual, herring gulls were loitering with intent around the wooden seats where people eat fish-and-chips, with hope in their hungry hearts. Two great black-backed gulls were also there, but were more wary.
When I got too close, this one just hopped down onto a lower light where it couldn't be seen. Out on the harbour several shags were diving and a pair of eiders sailed serenely between the boats.
Thinking Greger had been a long time, I wandered up to the bookshop. Looking in, I could see he had the place in an uproar, with two people searching everywhere for a certain book which he said he'd seen there just the other day. Eventually it was established that it must have been sold without being taken off the system; but more copies would be coming in soon.
And the book? "Who Owns Scotland?" I don't know why, but that made it somehow funnier.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
I went for a short walk through the town today, and down onto the beach near the camp-site. There were both linnets and twites on grassy areas above the beach. Several swallows were seen. One guillemot and two black guillemots were in the harbour.
Two terns spotted on rocks will have to go down as commics because at that point the sky darkened and rain pelted down, followed by small hailstones. As the storm moved away I set off back home, absolutely wet through. A cuckoo startled me by flying up from the ground ahead; she flew across the river and landed in a gorse bush.
Meanwhile Greger had been for an exercise walk up the hill behind the town and out to Loch Achall; I had intended to go with him but changed my mind at the last moment. He had no rain at all. Typical.
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Yesterday: On a grey, coldish, drizzly morning I drove north to see if a pair of wigeon had remained on a reedy lochan visible from the road overnight. I couldn't see them, so I drove a short way down the Achiltibuie road where Greger met me with coffee after helping the plumber at home.
A hundred or so pink-footed geese flew calling over the hills of Coigach towards the sea.
Beyond Stac Polly the sky was clearing; it looked so inviting. Greger had more stuff to do at home but generously suggested I go out to Achnahaird.
So I followed the geese, driving along the single-track road from dreariness into summer. The light rain gave way to sunshine; skylarks were singing and wheatears seemed to grace every stretch of fence and wall.
I found thirty or so of the pink-foots on the machair and the sand; the rest were at the far end of a tiny lochan.
The only waders seemed to be ringed plovers and oystercatchers until I spotted a solitary dunlin along the channel of Allt Loch Raa. Beyond the dunlin, a pair of mergansers was diving.
Walking back to the car through the sand dunes I flushed several twite. They flew off grudgingly ahead of me but never went far; and I finally snapped two on the cliff-top against the backdrop of the sea.
My first terns of the year were over the bay; they were distant and will have to go down as "commics".
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
After a morning of domestic stuff, we drove north to Lochan an Ais once more and ate our sandwiches in the car, looking over empty water. A black-throated diver came flying in and landed on the far side of the lochan.
All along the fenced parts of the road, stonechats can be seen hunting from posts. This windswept male was making use of the telegraph pole and cable in the lay-by.
He looked as though he was contemplating launching himself over the lochan far below, but he just quietly slipped out of sight.
From further along the path we could see he hadn't gone far.
Back down at the car, I looked up to see a raven cruising along the skyline.
Monday, May 05, 2014
After being in for most of this grey day, Greger suggested a spin out late afternoon. Stopping in one lay-by, I caught sight of a blue-grey raptor powering across a distant lochan and then across the brown moorland, where I lost it. Almost certainly a merlin.
Further on were two black-throated divers.
On the way home we stopped in another lay-by. On our last trip out this way, Greger had pulled in to close the car door. Glancing in the wing mirror, he saw an animal crossing the road behind us which he couldn't place. He felt it was cat-shaped but larger, so we've narrowed it down to otter - or wildcat! Nothing today, unfortunately.
***
The weather was much nicer on Friday, when we walked from home up this path behind the town, where the entire hillside is a blaze of gorse.
We walked as far as Loch Achall on the Rhidorroch Estate and sat on a grassy bank in the sun eating our lunch.
Nearby were at least three wheatears and four golden plovers. The walk was also enlivened by loads of willow warblers, several cuckoos, and a small flock of lesser redpolls.
