Christine's walking & birds blog

The temperature hardly got above 3°C today, but the wind chill was savage - much like the rest of the UK, seemingly. However, the day was often bright and sunny and we had no snow. Our first gannet of the year was seen near Second Coast.


A flock of 120+ barnacle geese were on the sloping fields at Mungasdale; they took off for no discernible reason, flew around a couple of times, and landed back in exactly the same spot.

On the road rising out of Mungasdale I looked back and spotted some golden plover in an awkward place. Greger pulled over onto a narrow grassy verge, and I snapped a few shots into the sun. Can't resist golden plover.


Driving back above Little Loch Broom, we slowed at the sight of a rounded dark blob on the road ahead, which was a species of snipe. It stood up, hesitated for a few seconds, then scurried into the undergrowth before I could do anything sensible with the camera. And despite several seconds with it in full view, I still can't say whether it was a common or a jack snipe - although I lean towards the former.