Friday, January 01, 2016
A dry but dullish morning had brought out many people. Rather than start from home, I drove to West Terrace to save wear on my knee and then began my walk and the day's count. Six twite were once more on stony ground near the camp-site, and a dipper was on the river. This looks like a pair of goosanders.....
.....but it wasn't that straightforward, as there were five drakes and just the one female.
Far out in the middle of the loch were some thirty shags, with at least two cormorants among them.
A flock of oystercatchers, half a dozen turnstone, several ringed plovers, and two curlews all stood together at the edge of the waves; and a smart male reed bunting flew calling across the waste ground.
A hooded crow was feeding on a dead sheep washed up on the shore.
After lunch, Greger came with me to Ardmair, where we saw two great northern divers on Loch Kanaird and a pair of ravens flying over. It was such poor light by then that we called it a day. I saw thirty species; and Greger got almost as many by staying at home all morning and looking through the window now and then at the feeders!