Thursday, July 31, 2014
I got another trip to Achnahaird after all. Greger was restless mid-afternoon and as fed-up as I was with dull grey weather. So we left home in drizzle and, as often happens, found it was dry on the coast. The three men in a boat were fishing on one of the freshwater lochs.
Some pretty big waves were breaking on the beach, and two great northern divers were fishing in the shallows. This one dived constantly and came up with what looked like a completely different species of fish each time, although I have to admit I don't know what any of them were. (Later: another picture shows a pale brown flatfish which could be a common dab.)
Greger spotted the bees among the dunes. There must have been a couple of hundred of them, buzzing about low over the sand, where there were dozens of tiny holes. I'm fairly sure they were northern colletes bees (Colletes floralis); info from wr-en.co.uk/sea-and-coast.asp. Later: they could be C. succinctus as the northern colletes bee is found more on the Western Isles.
Scanning through the 'scope in a last try for a glaucous, I failed to find it on the cliffs - but as I looked back towards the beach, where the common gulls were making a racket, I saw a white-winger (probably glaucous) flying along the edge of the waves and then landing on the rocks.
The gull then took off again and flew towards us, glancing down at a couple of campers as if hoping for a titbit.
It flew low over the water and disappeared behind a large rock right in front of us. We looked at one another. "It must be there somewhere," Greger said. I risked a step to the sideways and there it was. The gull stayed long enough for Greger to have a good look through the bins while I took some pics. After a while it continued its flight seawards.
// posted by Christine @ 1:03 PM 
