Christine's walking & birds blog

Desperate for some exercise on this glum day we walked round the village, starting with the river path. A goldcrest foraging low down was a good sign that these tiny birds can survive wintry spells; and then a second goldcrest called from the trees and they sped away together.


From the very small to the very large: out on the spit, I scanned the ridge of high land across the loch and was rewarded by the sight of a very distant white-tailed sea eagle, flying up the loch and then turning north.


Two days ago I drove out Ledmore Way on an altogether brighter, crisper day, intending to stake out Loch Craggie where we saw the eagles on New Year's Day. The single-track road was even narrower, the sides white with snow where the the snow-plough had cleared a way; while passing-places, which don't get cleared, looked dodgy. However, I pulled into one on the approach of another vehicle and found there was no problem driving out again. When, across the open moorland, I caught sight of a gritting lorry approaching, I put my foot down to reach the start of a moorland track, where the road widens a bit and also has a passing place - and he got past okay without needing to slow up. What annoyed me though, was the attitude of some other motorists; if a passing place happened to be on their side of the road, I would show willing and pull in as much as I dared on my side, crunching into the heaped snow - whereas they would often pass me slowly and timidly, hardly pulling over into the passing place at all but trying to stay on the cleared part of the road. One of these was a 4x4 - that's what 4x4s are for, you nincompoop. Worse, a couple of them couldn't even be bothered to thank me - those who did put a hand up including a tradesman in a van and a farmer towing a trailer.

And then, just after I'd pulled into a forest track at the end of Loch Craggie, a small van came from the other direction followed by a flatbed truck carrying a big digger - and they turned onto the forestry road opposite, where I'd been planning to walk. (On New Year's Day, I'd been standing about where the van is when the second eagle appeared over the stumps on the hillside - probably not much more than a hundred metres away - and it had been pretty slippery then.) Anyway, while the van continued up the track, the lorry came to a standstill.


Eventually the van reversed back down, and two men got out to join the lorry driver. They produced shovels from somewhere and started to chip away at the ice. Having eaten my lunch, I opened the door and put an experimental foot out - no go! It was sheer ice - no wonder he'd got stuck.

I gave up and drove slowly back. I'd previously stopped and taken a pic across Loch Borralan to Cul Mor, with two whooper swans on a patch of open water between sheets of thin ice.


Now the swans were closer to the road and I snapped them from the car. They glided away, but were still there when I drove off. Lovely to see live, healthy whoopers after the dead one last year.


By the time I'd driven round to Knockan Crag (the track up to the loos had been cleared, hooray) the snow was beginning to look a bit thinner on Cul Mor.  However, the photo is misleading - the rocky terrain in the foreground is actually a spur of the hill - the skiers are in the corrie, beyond the spur, where the snow's lying more thickly - even so, I doubted if they could ski all the way back down to the road. I did envy them, though - it looked so wonderful up there in that lovely white world.


Six walkers were also making their way down, and every so often one of them would suddenly appear to be sitting or lying on the ground. Either they were taking part in a winter skills course, or they'd adopted my new method of descending hills - i.e. by falling down 'em.


Hope they all got down safely and enjoyed their day.