Christine's walking & birds blog

There was a flat calm on Loch Ewe, and from Aultbea a flock of what looked like scoter could be seen far out. They were probably about a kilometre away - and were more likely to be Eider in eclipse plumage. Even further out were two red-throated divers, while common terns flew to and fro and a gannet crossed the car park on its way to somewhere else.



Later, at Poolewe, I walked along the road towards the gardens and stopped to look at a family of redshanks picking about in the wet seaweed. Greger had driven on and parked at Inverewe Gardens to buy an ice-cream, and as he walked down to join me, all the birds flew off along the beach. Not in a panic or anything, just as if all the gulls, curlews, oystercatchers etc had suddenly thought "Oh well, think I'll just move on a bit" and very casually, but very definitely, left. There was no peregrine that I could see in the sky, and no-one walking out on the salt marsh; and then I saw them - two white-tailed sea eagles rising slowly and majestically above the trees of Inverewe Gardens.




The eagles spiralled up and up, sometimes drifting close together and then separating again until they were lost to view. A pretty fantastic way to end the day!