Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Greger said he was just going to be telephoning people today and that I should go out and enjoy the sunshine. My first stop was at Loch Cul Dromannan on the A835 north of Ullapool. This little lochan next to the road is much photographed (sometimes by people who seem to forget that they are on a fairly fast road with hardly any verges). The trees along its bank provide shelter from the wind, so that often the landscape is reflected in a mirror-still image.
Today the draw for me was a bunch of goldeneye ducks - four females and one male.
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.
// posted by Christine @ 9:36 AM 
