Saturday, June 28, 2014
We're just starting our second week in a chalet at Ardmair, and have come home to do the washing. The bungalow looks like a building site but Greger's pleased with the way the work is going. He's caught my cough and has stuffy sinuses; meanwhile I'm still not quite over it, so we're a right pair. My biggest fear is that the builders and the plumber will catch it - and the latter is off on holiday soon.
The main wildlife event in the chalet came mid-week; unable to sleep, I got up at 4 am. Going into the kitchen I caught sight of something small and dark shooting along the skirting board. Blimey, I thought, that was a blooming big spider. It seemed too small to be anything else.
But it was a shrew. After much skirmishing I trapped it in a plastic container and put it outside. I settled down to have an early breakfast, and heard a faint rustling noise. There in a Waitrose bag in the corner was the shrew! Or a shrew, anyway. I caught it again and took it a bit further away, releasing it in the long wet grass.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Cul Beag
Having two cars here offers new possibilities for walks. We've been up Cul Beag ("Cool Bayc") before (just the one top) in a loop from the Achiltibuie road. Today we parked my car on the Achiltibuie road and drove back to a lay-by on the A835 in Greger's car, in order to traverse the mountain from east to west.
We clambered down the bank to this remnant of the old road and then followed a stalkers' path across increasingly boggy moorland, lingering for a while above Loch nan Ealachan where I'd recently seen a distant reed bunting. Had it moved on? No, eventually it flew up in display (Later: do reed buntings have a display flight? Well, it flew up anyway!) and gave me a new species for my hill-walking list. Foraging from fence-posts was a willow warbler with noticeably bright legs. But we weren't lucky with the red grouse or heron I saw here before.
Faint, plaintive calls advertised the presence of golden plovers; this one was standing guard, well over a hundred metres away.
Cushions of sphagnum moss and yellow tormentil made splashes of colour. Frogs were everywhere; less expected was a small lizard, which shot under a rock before I could snap it.
A golden eagle was spotted circling in the distance and when it landed we took some optimistic shots.
A steep climb brought us to the lower top of Meall Dearg, where we ate lunch. Greger walked a few paces off to take a photo and came back to report two ptarmigan flying off down the hill. They often don't go far, so I went to peer over the edge.
A small noise like a whimper made me look to the right to see a female bird, perhaps warning an unseen chick. I took a couple of pics and retreated.
roadway.
We saw two more female ptarmigan with chicks, both practically on the path and neither appearing particularly bothered by our presence.
As we crossed the col with its tiny lochan, a ring ouzel flew over scolding. Finally we got to the top of Cul Beag and spent some time admiring the view. From the summit cairn we followed a crumbling, slippery path down a very steep slope where walking poles were a definite asset.
Measuring the long drop to the col on the photo with my school protractor (yes I still have that, and a set square and a pair of compasses) it's 30 degrees; but this can only be approximate because of relative position, and in any case Greger says he's sure some parts were more like 45!
Back on the road we walked with shaky legs towards the nicest sight there is after a day in the hills - your car! You just feel so grateful to it for still being there, and not getting pinched or blown up or something.
As we drove away, I got cramp in my ankle (never had it there before) and a common sandpiper flew in front of the car and down to the loch. Later: Why do we do it? I don't feel as if I can ever go up a hill again!
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Ghosts
I found myself on the east coast yesterday, with the intention of spending the morning birdwatching and the afternoon shopping. We'd taken a room in a Travelodge, and then got up at 4.30 am for Greger's Gatwick flight. I returned to the lodge with a rotten headache and went back to bed for an hour and a half.
It was nice to visit Nairn again, although the beach was much busier now with all the holidaymakers (and loads of dogs). From the east side of the harbour I watched this kittiwake for some time.
My shopping trip went wrong because I'd assumed the Inverness shops would stay open late on a Friday night. They all shut at six - except for Hector Russell, and I wasn't in the market for a bespoke kilt. So I had four hours to kill before Greger was due to land. I bought a burger and sat in my car in the Inverness retail park, finishing The Ghost by Robert Harris. A really good read; and the movie was good, too.
The return flight was delayed, and we finally left the airport at 11 pm. The drive west was quiet, and in no time at all we were passing Inchbae Lodge and climbing to the Dirrie Mor. Then the fog rolled in - or we drove into it. I tried to maintain speed while straining my eyes for the red deer Greger had encountered here before at night; and with one or other of us calling out "There's one!" or "Several deer on the left!" as ghostly animals loomed through the mist, we got across, turned onto the home straight, and reached home in one piece.
Today I took an afternoon stroll up the quarry road. At the turn of the road near the river two common sandpipers were flying around calling agitatedly, so I didn't linger.
A spotted flycatcher was still in the birch trees nearby so, hoping breeding was underway, I hurried past with no attempt to snap it this time.
In the same place where I saw it before, there was a small pearl-bordered fritillary; this was the best shot I could manage of the lovely underwing.
A new insect was the next excitement. It's another club-horned sawfly; and after looking carefully at information and photos on the web, I think it could be a female Abia sericea but I am by no means sure. There's no doubt however that it was a stunner.
Back at the car park I was looking for more butterflies when I heard a familiar song. Sure enough it turned out to be a yellowhammer - abundant enough on southern downs but not so common, apparently, in the north-west Highlands. I sometimes see them along the road close to Inverness, but this was certainly my first on the west coast.
A nice walk but it was pretty windy and cool; and I didn't hear the wood warbler. I've a feeling he never found a mate and now he's given up trying. Such a shame.
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
An afternoon walk up the quarry road brought the invisible wood warbler still singing deep in the woods on the river bank; and a spotted flycatcher. It flew towards me, probably checking me out. A second bird was seen deeper into the trees, so I walked on feeling a bit guilty. Hope they don't desert the site.
A fritillary danced along the bank in front of me and landed for a few seconds before a second one disturbed it and they both disappeared.
It looked smaller than the pearl-bordered fritillary I saw a couple of weeks ago, so I hoped it was the....yes, the small pearl-bordered fritillary. Because I didn't see the underwing I assumed there was no way of identifying it.
But there is. Comparing today's picture with those I took of the PBF, I realised that there are differences in the upper wing. The excellent ukbutterflies.co.uk (with usual prefix) confirmed my observations and added a couple more; so I'll put this down as my first small pearl-bordered fritillary.
Wednesday, June 04, 2014
With Greger deep in structural discussions with builders (despite his cold), I took advantage of a sunny though windy morning and walked up the quarry road.
The wood warbler was singing but remained hidden. Further upstream I saw my first spotted flycatcher of the year. Cuckoos are still very active, and as I turned to walk back down I heard the bubbling call of a female; exciting, because this was a first for me.
A noticeably large fly was busy around a particular tree which I identified later as a goat willow. The clubbed antennae point to its being a sawfly, but goodness knows which one.
Later, after much research: wanda.uef.fi shows a sawfly resembling mine, and the only other one I've found so far with a dark area on the trailing edge of the wing. It's identified only to genus level as being a Trichiosoma sp. Another photo on the site shows a larva curled up on the underside of a leaf of Salix caprea - goat willow. But many sawflies apparently use more than one host plant. It's possibly T. lucorum or T. triangulum.
A female golden-ringed dragonfly was patrolling the woody verges along the road.
Back at the car I could hear siskins calling, and a green-veined white butterfly was my last sighting
before driving down the hill and home.
