Sunday, September 14, 2014
Greger wanted to potter at home today so I drove out to Achnahaird - and got onto the beach just before a man with a dog. I walked very fast to the far side as I'd spotted a smaller wader among the oystercatchers. I just had time to get a shot of this juvenile knot before the dog put all the birds in the air. They circled over the sea and settled on a narrow stony beach beyond the river.
I found the ribcage of the dead sheep that the glaucous and other gulls were feeding on four days ago. The hoofed leg had a strange sad beauty of its own.
At Badentarbat there was a black guillemot, the whitest one I've seen so far.
Great skuas don't always steal their food. A bonxie came flying inland, turned, and although I was distracted by something else, when I looked back it was rising from the sea with a fish.There seemed to be no other bird around at the time so I suppose it landed on the water and just caught one. Driving back past the Achnahaird viewpoint, I stopped in the lay-by and got the scope out for once; this was worth doing as I spotted seven golden plover far out on the machair.
When I got home Greger had completed a couple of useful tasks in the kitchen and tidied the garage, and he was sitting out the back in the sun with the newspaper and a well-deserved cold beer. He looked like a contented man.
// posted by Christine @ 9:59 AM 
