Sunday, February 25, 2018
While Greger stayed at home with a resurgence of his cold, I drove north and then east, and walked here. The hill with some snow lingering is Meall an Fhuarain, which we climbed in March last year. I walked up this forestry road (which we used for our descent on that occasion) for some much-needed exercise. From here the hill looked close enough to "pop up" - but I well know how much tedious, boggy ground lies between! I just walked up the road and then turned.
It was a beautiful day, though very cold. Buzzards were almost the only birds in evidence - but I did have one thrilling encounter. I had stopped to scan a distant plantation when a small sound made me turn - and out of the ditch behind me flew a snipe species. The sound was not the rather nasal squeak I associate with snipe - and getting my bins belatedly onto the bird I could see that the bill wasn't long enough for snipe. For once, I managed to remember the call, which I thought of as something like a muttered "Eh!" or "Ech!" But did Jack snipe call when they were flushed?
I wasn't quick enough to get a snap, so next best is this view of where it happened; the bird flew out of the ditch on the left. Conival and Ben More Assynt are in the background.
When I got home I looked up Jack snipe in The Birds of the Western Palearctic and read this: "Call of flushed birds, rarely uttered, a low and weak 'etch'." That seems to fit with what I heard - and that "rarely uttered" would make the sighting something even more special. Not 100% sure though.
The sparrowhawk was spotted from the bedroom window this morning - over the washing-line, through a few intervening twigs, and beyond the chimney pots.
P.S. An oystercatcher was back on its breeding territory, and on the same loch, a male goldeneye was having a snooze on a boulder.
// posted by Christine @ 10:28 AM 
