Christine's walking & birds blog

There were some sunny spells between the rain and hail showers this morning.


The firecrest site was quiet although a dipper was once more on the open river bank. Back along the river path among the trees, the calls of long-tailed tits seemed promising, and a large mixed flock kept me transfixed in this spot for the rest of my walk.

There were at least two goldcrests, great tits, blue tits, coal tits, a treecreeper, a female blackcap, loads of chaffinches, and a bullfinch.


A fairly yellow leaf warbler was fly-catching from the top of a silver birch, and a similar warbler with browner plumage was nearby. I'll put them down as chiffchaffs.



I might not have snapped both birds; they were very difficult to follow. At one point I thought I was getting them both in the same frame, but my heart gave a leap when I realised that the second bird was a firecrest. There's still a firecrest in Ullapool!



The firecrest flew towards me, as though it was checking me out. I was always looking into the sun but was able to follow it for a while through my bins. It flew down from the alders, speedily investigating gorse bushes and clumps of bracken as it went on its dizzying way. The goldcrests, meanwhile, foraged higher.

Gradually the frenzy of insistent, sibilant contact calls grew fainter and then died away altogether until only the chaffinches were left. I had no idea in which direction the birds had gone, and in any case it was time to return home.

Walking back to the waste ground I saw great black-backed and herring gulls, a flyby turnstone, and a curlew on the edge of the waves. Seven twite were hard to see (and focus on) on stony ground near the camp-site.


Other birds seen: mistle thrush, song thrush, blackbird, robin, redwing, fieldfare, and goldfinch. I'm amazed to see chiffchaffs and a firecrest here at the end of November, but perhaps that's not unusual. I also thought that the twite disappeared until spring - they seemed to last year. Lots to learn! And a few minutes after I got home, it started to rain again.