Christine's walking & birds blog

While Greger painted the hall this morning I did housework, and after lunch I ventured out for a walk despite the rain. At the end of our road, a chiffchaff was singing; and along the river paths I heard and then saw a willow warbler. A dozen or so redwings were plundering ivy for hidden berries. Shortly after this, four or five sand martins kept me entertained for some time as they swooped and dived around the tops of greening larches on the edge of the sports field.

As I walked out along the spit the rain got worse, but I was able to see wigeon, mergansers, and ringed plovers. I walked back towards the town along the shore, seeing oystercatchers, meadow pipits, and skylarks both on the camp-site grass and on the stony beach. A wheatear was also present. At least twenty-three turnstones were huddled together at the edge of the waves.

I walked round to the harbour to see what gulls were about and watched, puzzled, as a dark bird came flying strongly towards the quay across the water. I risked the bins in the rain and realised that it was a great skua. Like the tiny martins, the skua held me enthralled as it flew restlessly around the harbour (in that respect, it reminded me of the ivory gull).


And then look who turned up.


But any thoughts of a shot containing both the skua and the glaucous gull vanished as the ferry slid away from its dock and the skua, seemingly, went with it. Besides, it was coming on to rain harder, the camera battery was low, and I had been out for long enough.