Christine's walking & birds blog

The bright sunshine and freezing temperatures of the last couple of days gave way this morning to grey skies and +3°C. Someone tweeted a picture yesterday of "pancake ice" on the Ullapool River; that would have been interesting to see, but today the water was flowing freely.

A load of soil and mud has been deposited on the open ground near the camp-site. I nearly missed a rock pipit foraging there....


.....although my first meadow pipit of the year stood out a little better.


Ten twite were busily feeding, and the insistent "tseeu" calls of reed buntings could be heard. But along the river paths I couldn't find the firecrest; a goldcrest was seen low down in gorse, and a very vocal flock of twenty or so long-tailed tits moved through the tree-tops. A treecreeper was also present.

I drove down to West Shore Street and once again, there in front of me was a little auk. It's all residents' parking there but it's a fairly quiet dead-end road, so I pulled over and took some shots from the car.


I compensated for the dull light but still failed to "get" the eye. Little auks have a way of looking at you with deep suspicion - and then paddling furiously away.