Christine's walking & birds blog

Looking north along frozen Loch Droma towards An Teallach, early this morning. We weren't the only ones to pull into the lay-by to snap this scene; but we soon set off again as we were heading east for the day.


On the east coast the fields were green, with snow confined mostly to higher ground. On the north-east tip of the Black Isle is Udale Bay, with extensive mudflats, salt marsh, and rough grassland.


The tide was out but on the turn, and waders were everywhere. A passing peregrine put up most of them, including these bar-tailed godwits.


Also present were redshank, knot, dunlin, and curlew. As the tide crept in the waders flew towards the RSPB hide; it's a nice hide but because it was a perfectly still, sunny day, most birders just stood in the lay-by to view the birds.


The Cromarty Firth is a busy place, with the oil industry creating an interesting back-drop. Where the firth narrows, these enormous structures looked like giants, marching in from the sea.

  
We paid our first visit to picturesque Cromarty and walked out onto a partially fenced-off, decaying stone pier to get a closer pic of one of them.


At the end of the disused pier (not in the picture) was a small group of dozing oystercatchers, redshanks, and turnstones.


Large numbers of scaup could be seen far out, while long-tailed ducks and Slavonian grebes dived repeatedly. Small flocks of gabbling pink-footed geese now and then crossed the sky.

It was such a great day that I felt guilty for being out in it. Visting a place like Udale is not the same as finding the odd wader yourself by chance out at Achnahaird, say; but it's enjoyable in a different way - a spectacle really, and perhaps more interesting for a non-birder. A bonus sighting was of a positively glowing male yellowhammer sitting in a tree; it was spotted from the car but unfortunately flew before we could stop and grab a pic.