Wednesday, July 31, 2019
High tide was at 7am and I was at Achnahaird soon after. The car park was full of camper vans and cars - the latter puzzling me until I realised there were loads of tents on the cliffs, with many people now breaking camp.
It began to rain as I walked out to the beach, and four curlews and three greenshanks along the river were the best sightings. On the way back a snipe species rose from the ditch and flew a little way up the slope of the field. It flew low in a straight line and soon went down again - but this might not mean anything. Snipe breed hereabouts - and perhaps they act differently on their breeding grounds.
A knot was glimpsed with a flock of redshanks at Achnahaird, and much later - when the rain had stopped - probably the same bird flew onto the exposed sand at Badentarbat.
It was associating with ringed plovers, an adult dunlin, and what I believe is a juvenile dunlin - my first of the year.
Yesterday, at least 30 painted lady butterflies were in our garden and neighbouring ones. I'm sure there were more around the village but I couldn't be bothered to go and find out.
The most frustrating thing today was that I heard a call which I couldn't place until I thought Was it a green sandpiper? I heard these often in the Dorney area in Bucks/Berks, and it's a sound and a bird that I miss. But is that what I heard today? I couldn't see anything so I don't know.
// posted by Christine @ 10:35 AM 
