Christine's walking & birds blog

The outdoors was calling and the day was mild (it reached at least 12˚C) and I drove up Ledmore way to look for frogspawn and crossbills. Frogspawn has been reported from the Assynt area, but probably at a sea-level location; I thought it was a bit early for my higher site (about 150m above sea level) - and so it proved.

However, I enjoyed a short walk (although an icy wind made me keep my hat on), and a scolding stonechat who almost certainly had a mate nearby was a cheering sight.


There was very little traffic on the single-track road today, so for long stretches I could drive along at 30 mph with an eye to moorland and forest either side and also on my rear-view mirror. I drew a blank for crossbills until, approaching the end of the plantations on the way back, I spotted a male further along the road. The little rough pull-in is now clear of snow and mud, so I reversed in and walked closer to the bird. By now I could hear that he was singing, and as I watched he flew up as though in display and then over the tree-tops to a conifer closer to me.


The trilling part of his song seemed to be echoed from behind me, and a female came flying over, trilling, circling over where the male was perching and then flying into a small spruce near the road. Mindful that they could well be breeding, I walked back to the car.

There wasn't much else about. A pair of buzzards soared and mewed above Loch Craggie, and somewhere over this "high lonesome road" between Glen Oykel and the Cromalt Hills, an unseen skylark was rapturously singing.