Christine's walking & birds blog

The gull was seen on the support for the new passenger boarding bridge for the ferry, mid-afternoon when the light was already poor.

The gull flew to the new walkway for the ferry and I snapped it as the ferry went out behind it. This is the old ferry which will be replaced with a posh new boat once the docking area is finished; the vehicle ramp is to be made double-laned.


You're not allowed on the harbour with all the work going on, so I walked beyond the ferry terminal and looked back at the gull, into the sun. It gave me an old-fashioned look. If it's the same one, I wonder if it recognises me from Achnahaird. Anyway, it stayed where it was.


I hope this is going to be a regular thing, the glaucous hanging around the harbour. I might eventually get a decent shot.

This is a new view for us of the Kylescu Bridge and Quinag.


A dipper was surprised feeding in a corner of a loch and went flying off a short distance, above its own reflection.


This is looking along Loch na Creige Duibhe towards the hills east of Loch More, giving us an idea for future walks. Soon after this we turned onto the return track.


We often see this effect, where white cloud seems to flow over hill-tops and ridges. The thin stream of water seen centre-right is the famous Eas a' Chual Aluinn Waterfall. This is said to be the highest waterfall in Britain, falling nearly 200m.


It's always good to top a rise and get a view of the sea, and as we did so the sun came out again in a burst of gold. Along this stretch we flushed a snipe which went winging madly away with two nasal calls.


The walk was just over 14 kilometres in length and fairly hilly. Red deer were everywhere - culling is undertaken on the estate and when it is, I don't think you're allowed to walk here. Back at the car we heard and then saw a raven fly over.

It received some aggro from the other gulls, but gave as good as it got.


I'm fairly sure it was a glaucous gull (not an Iceland) although whether it was the glauc, I can't say. A heavy shower of rain and even worse light sent me home for the day.

Today, Greger suggested a drive down the coast. Four distant Slavonian grebes were in Gruinard Bay. On Little Loch Broom, drake mergansers in breeding plumage were displaying to females and there was at least one great northern diver.

Back in Ullapool, the rain began to fall as we drove along the harbour-side. Among the large gulls drifting above the town and beach was a white winger. The light by now was almost non-existent and the rain was quite atrocious; but from what I could see the gull might be the long-staying glaucous from Achnahaird.

No doubt about it - it was a dipper.


The Greig Street footbridge is a suspension bridge; and the moment someone sets foot on either end, it begins to wobble or vibrate and continues to wobble or vibrate the whole time they're on it - making it very difficult to hold a camera still! And there was nowhere else I could get a snap from.

Then the gulls all went up, and with them (bottom right in the pic) was a possible goosander.


However, a snatched shot (just as two ladies in post office uniforms came trundling over the bridge with big square trollies full of parcels or something, bouncing the bridge, me, and the camera up and down) shows that it was actually a merganser.


We did a bit more shopping and then went to the movies. We bought tickets for an afternoon performance of The Imitation Game, with Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. It was engrossing and enjoyable, and at the end Greger needed the Kleenex.

The ducks took off and flew around several times, and I heard a soft whistling sound. Not sure if that's a vocalisation or wing noise; but in a very poor pic I can see that two females have open bills.

Achnahaird was very quiet, apart from five great northern divers far out. A redshank and a curlew were the only waders in sight, and the glaucous was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps it's the same glauc that has been reported from the Butt of Lewis recently; although I suppose there are other winterers around now as well.

The swan was on its ownsome lonesome in the Allt Loch Raa; I stopped in a passing place and clicked off a shot.


At Badentarbat there were ten ringed plover and a curlew on the beach. A raven flew across the bay (turning a half-somersault every now and then), and proceeded to do some displaying on the far side where a buzzard was sitting on a post.

Driving back out, I saw two more whoopers in a lonely lochan in the Coigach area; and going a bit further north to Knockan Crag, I recorded five more on the reedy lochan by the main road.

The sun might have been shining today but it wasn't reaching the parts where I needed it; that's a drawback of mountainous country when the sun is low. There was also a very cold wind, so apart from a walk across the cliffs to the beach, I did most of my birding today from the car.

Driving away we saw a very distant male goldeneye on a reed-fringed loch, displaying hopefully to three uninterested mallards.

By 4.30 pm it was dark. We're on much the same latitude here as southern Sweden; and the days will get shorter yet.

I walked a little way up the Stac Pollaidh path; this stonechat was one of several seen over the course of the day.


Ravens were flying and soaring over the pinnacles of Stac Pollaidh. It won't be long before they're breeding, I suppose.


But the bird of the day is a rather humble one. As I approached Ardmair, a long-tailed bird flew across the road in front of me and landed on a rock behind me. There was nowhere to pull in, but the bird was undoubtedly a magpie. First one I've seen on the north-west coast.

At Badentarbat the water was sheltered and much calmer. The bird life consisted mainly of ringed plovers, rock pipits, and shags.

Hearing a sort of gruff bark, I looked up to see five grey geese flying south and clicked off a shot, thinking they could be interesting as I didn't recognise the call. It's a rotten photo but good enough to show they were white-fronted geese.


I drove home as the light drained from the landscape. Stonechats (at least four pairs) flew from the roadside onto bushes as I passed. Near the turn-off for Rhue a lovely blue-grey raptor was sitting on a fence-post. I slowed up but it was spooked and flew off. I had ideas of a late merlin but I think it was a sparrowhawk.

At home, we saw a male blackcap in our neighbour's garden from the kitchen window - which made a nice end to the day.

Mesmerised by the blazing then slowly collapsing bonfire, we were all taken unawares when the fireworks began to erupt from the left.  There was a smaller display at the house across the loch; but the Ullapool display was splendid, with a sky-filling grand finale of white light. We felt a bit mean about the couple of quid we'd each put in the collector's bucket, so before we went home Greger went and put some more money in.

I took this snap of the "rubbish road" a couple of days ago, with the Stornoway ferry coming in.


Today I saw a goldcrest, while a treecreeper was a nice surprise, and a flock in the tops of the trees gave me my first fieldfares of the winter. But no firecrest. On the other hand, no second goldcrest, either. The firecrest reported in Gairloch seems to have vanished from birdguides, but instead there is one reported from Loch of Strathbeg, Aberdeenshire on the same day I saw mine. I can't be 100% sure, but it looks as though I might have let my first Scottish firecrest slip through my fingers!

Meanwhile, there were 29 eider duck in Ullapool harbour - five of them adult males in breeding plumage. And Greger's brother phoned from Sweden with the news that there are 500-600 whooper swans on his neighbour's fields!

After my walk on the cliffs I drove to Badentarbat beach where I found my old friend the glaucous gull, patrolling the edge of the waves with other assorted gulls. At least ten ringed plovers were on the beach. This is when the drizzle started.


Driving home and approaching Ullapool, I glanced to my right to see a bird hovering in the wind and made a U-turn in a lay-by as soon as I could. I've seen buzzards here, but this looked bigger, and I thought there might be an outside chance it was a rough-legged buzzard. As I sat waiting to turn out of the lay-by a raven drifted over and looked down at me, making muted but protesting little mutterings that always sound as though the world's being put to rights. I drove back up the hill and had a look round; there was no buzzard in sight, but the ravens were flying round the tree-tops below me, being fairly vocal. Next minute I saw this, high above Loch Broom.

A white-tailed eagle was being escorted or chased along the loch by ravens.


I watched the group of birds as they veered away from the loch and disappeared eastwards over the Rhidorroch estate. White-tailed eagles in flight are funny, lumbering things; they make me think of a big unwieldy truck that, once in motion, chunters along quite steadily but is difficult to stop.


I turned around again in the recycling centre, driving a short distance along the road to see if there was anything about in the plantations. A coal tit was busy in a nearby pine. This was joined by a goldcrest - definite goldcrest with biscuit coloured underparts. Then there was a bird that seemed smaller, brighter and quicker than the goldcrest - I caught a glimpse of the face and for a split second I thought "Was that a firecrest?" I never got another look because the goldcrest chased off the second crest; but I did click off this useless shot. Is that a firecrest in the centre, reaching or flying up towards the top-left corner of the picture?


I don't know; but looking at the birdguides website, I see that a firecrest was reported today in Gairloch. That's not a million miles away - in fact Gairloch and Ullapool are on the same OS map.

As we walked back to the car a couple came towards us with two dogs. One of them - a large black thing - raced towards us, barking and growling. Its hackles were raised, which signals aggression (not sure how many dog owners these days even know what hackles are) and it circled us, still barking. It raced back to the couple and the woman made a fuss of it as if it had done something clever. Greger returned their greeting as they passed us - I think I said "F*** off!" I'm ashamed of myself sometimes, but I get so angry with people like that. And there was no apology for the way their animal had behaved.

Never mind. Birds. From the car park I scanned the bay and got onto three male long-tailed ducks. They were quite stunning. Greger also liked them, and we walked along the cliffs in the other direction to a headland, where I tried some highly optimistic "photography".  They were about a third of a kilometre away, so the snaps fail to convey what super views we had of them through the scope.



Two common scoters had left the bay (the drakes raised their tails as the scoters flew over them) but they soon returned, landing on the water a little closer to me than the ducks.


Back at the car park, a juvenile gannet came close in and a stonechat was alarm-calling from a rock down by the sea. It only began to rain as we drove home, so we were lucky. A lazy but nice afternoon.