Christine's walking & birds blog

But not really close as there was still quite a bit of field and a road between us. However they did eventually make their way down to the fence, although the view then was often obstructed.




It's half-term, so there were a few people on the beach. A cold and windy walk to the spit brought three ringed plovers and five turnstones.



Back in Ullapool there were plenty of gulls around the harbour but all had black wing-tips. It seems like an age since the ivory gull was here, while the glaucous is just a distant memory.


The picture below was taken at Ardmair on 21st December. Two gulls had been half-heartedly fighting over this dead fish, which one then dropped on the road. I've been trying to find out what it was, and yesterday I came across a photo of one by chance on the internet.


I'm pretty sure it's a lumpsucker fish (Cyclopterus lumpus). I had no luck searching for it on fishing web-sites because it's a deep-water species and apparently anglers don't often catch or even see one. It's of interest to Greger and me because we sometimes buy little jars of black roe - an affordable alternative to the "real" caviar of sturgeon - which are the eggs of the lumpsucker. It's so named because of the suckers on its belly, with which it can anchor itself to rocks.