Saturday, April 09, 2016
With regard to the pink-footed geese flying north over Ullapool yesterday, an observer reported (on assyntwildlife.org.uk) 200+ of these geese over Little Assynt - so they could have been the same ones I saw. How lovely to know that someone else looked up to see them pass over. Also, c1600 in 11 skeins were seen flying past Stoerhead Lighthouse.
Today, we drove south in unpromising weather. On the edge of Aultbea we looked down on a pair of black-throated divers. Greger held his fleece over me and the camera as I took some shots in the rain.
He then retreated to the car, so he missed hearing one of the divers call - and I realised that I hadn't learnt how to switch the camera to video yet. Not that it mattered - the bird didn't call again. Down on a small sandy beach, a greenshank was picked out among the oystercatchers.
A football field on the edge of the low cliff (more a high bank, really) held at least 100 meadow pipits.
The lovely beach at Little Gruinard was empty - thanks to the rain, because the car park was full. I scoped it from the road and found: 5 greenshanks, 7 Slavonian grebes, 6 black-throated divers, 3 great northern divers, pair mergansers, pair mallards, 2 ringed plovers, 5 oystercatchers, 1 curlew, and 1 shelduck. Then the rain eased off and people headed for the beach. We drove on.
Still skirting Gruinard Bay, we pulled into a lay-by and had a short walk. Greger spotted an otter. Several great northern divers were out on the steely water, and a Slavonian grebe not quite in full breeding plumage was diving closer in.
Back at Dundonell on Little Loch Broom, the very high spring tide we'd seen on the way out was ebbing, leaving a vast expanse of sand/mud. A greenshank was among oystercatchers there; with two further individuals seen at Poolewe and Aultbea, this made a total of eight seen today. Allowing for duplications, this adds up to 13 individuals so far this year, which is probably the most I've ever seen.
// posted by Christine @ 12:43 PM 
