Christine's walking & birds blog

Yesterday I woke at six, and watched the dawn; it was beautiful, with a bright half-moon in a dark blue sky and the trees white and crispy with snow - and no wind! Later we went for a walk, up Ullapool Hill and down again, then along the front. The snow cover extended to the waterline, and on West Shore a stonechat was foraging.



Today was duller but still very cold. I drove to Ardmair, where there were turnstones and rock pipits on the beach, and a great northern diver on Loch Kanaird. Sitting in my car later, I saw a couple of large raptors rise above crags and slopes that were still catching the afternoon sun.


There seemed to be at least three birds, of which one was almost certainly a golden eagle. But this one appears to be a sea eagle.


However I can't be sure of anything, as the crags were about 4 kilometres away and the light was worsening. They were probably all buzzards!

What I can be sure of, however, is that the gull seen in Maspalomas was an Audouin's gull. Yippee! It was named in honour of a French naturalist, although he wasn't the "discoverer" of the species. Most birds named after someone were named after men. Oh, there is Lady Amherst's pheasant - but even she was just someone's wife.