Christine's walking & birds blog

The longest day has been and gone, and it feels as though the year is failing. Which is silly really, because there are still two months of summer to come.

We drove to Nairn on the east coast, walking along the sands towards the Culbin Bar to look for Sandwich terns. A common tern hobnobs with some of them here.


Five goosanders went flying along the beach to the west.


We walked back against a strong wind, pausing to watch sand martins swoop into their holes in the bank at the back of the beach - these are at eye level, so you get great views of the birds in flight.  Hundreds and hundreds of starlings flew along the marshy area between beach and forest, and went down in the long grass - we could hear the rush of their wings as they passed; I reckon there must have been at least a thousand. And I made two mistakes today; hearing a bird in the trees, I was sure it was a crossbill. Greger said he thought it was a chaffinch. It finally showed itself - and it was a chaffinch. In the grassy area, a large bird flew up from the ground but disappeared immediately behind the gorse. I walked round the gorse to see if I could see it, but Greger said "It was only a wood pigeon." It was only a wood pigeon. I'm getting desperate.