Christine's walking & birds blog

At last - a wheatear! This one was at the road end in Old Dornie, perching on more or less picturesque piles of boat-related stuff by the slipway.


Two more were on the sheep fields on the far side of the harbour, and a further two were seen from the high lay-by overlooking Loch a' Chaoruinn, disputing possession of a large cairn. And the winner is.....


But a walk at Achnahaird brought no wheatears, although at least 30 recently-arrived meadow pipits were running over the turf with skylarks. A great northern diver, a guillemot, and a razorbill were in the bay. Redwings were a feature of the general area, with singles and small flocks seen in several places. Only one stonechat was spotted. The scoter was still at Badentarbat, on a mill-pond of a sea. Two male eider were there with one female, continuing the imbalance in sexes that I've noted each time I've seen eiders this spring. Still, that's often the way with ducks, I believe.