Sunday, October 29, 2017
Saturday: Greger stopped along the Destitution Road (A832) on this very windy day to take pictures of the dramatic cloudscapes with his phone.
A couple of redshanks and a dipper were the only birds of note on the beach at Poolewe.
Today I went for a forest/moorland walk; the wind had dropped but it was still pretty cold - and I didn't see another soul. A great spotted woodpecker, a species so often dismissed in Burnham Beeches when I was hunting for a lesser, gains significance by being less common here and also by being one of very few birds I saw today!
Across Loch Eileag, a lonely house stands out on the single-track road that brought me here; while beyond are Canisp and Breabag.
Canisp was our first hill-walk in Assynt, back in 2005. It was a bit of a slog, but the birds were good; on a high lochan were a pair of common sandpipers and a bathing dipper, while closer to the mist-enshrouded summit were a female ptarmigan with her chicks.
On the way home today, I stopped at Ardmair. Across the bay and the loch, a large bird was wheeling above Beinn Ghobhlach. It was a sea eagle, and was always too distant for my camera as it flew north high above the sea - but the picture does succeed in showing the white tail of an adult.
The eagle swept round beyond Isle Martin and then turned back, sailing up the slope of the island and landing on the far side - with just its head showing on the skyline.
Which kind of made up for the general lack of birds on my walk!
// posted by Christine @ 3:56 PM 
