Monday, April 13, 2015
We agreed that today was too dull, cold, and windy for hill-walking so we went for a drive and some lay-by birding instead. A year ago tomorrow I saw my first wheatear at Ardmair; so we stopped there on the way north and had our spirits lifted by this bright individual, one of at least two on the beach. Hooray! Lots of meadow pipits and skylarks were around as well.
An osprey was spotted drifting and hovering over a loch, and we were able to pull off the road to watch it. Unfortunately it was already flying away from us, and eventually we lost it. A magical encounter with an elegant bird.
Two pairs of black-throated divers were seen on separate road-side lochs, and two greenshanks were seen on two separate road-site lochs - one of these a breeding site from last year.
The wheatear and the osprey were lovely, but I'm not going to say spring has arrived, because it blooming-well hasn't. The wind is bitingly cold, and it's also a bit depressing to hear that England is about to have a heatwave. A repeat of last summer?
// posted by Christine @ 11:21 AM 
