Christine's walking & birds blog

Two sanderling flew up the beach calling, and landed in the tide-wrack. You only have to kick this stranded seaweed to know that there's plenty of invertebrate life there, so hopefully when I left them in peace these small migrating waders had a good feed.


Three dunlin were nearby, and three curlew flew over the dunes. I went and sat on the rocks to eat my lunch hoping for the company of a great northern as usual, but the only divers I could see were seven red-throated. The air was suddenly full of the clamour of kittiwakes, and I finally got onto them as they flew over fairly high towards the north-west. I counted sixty-six.


A movement below caught my eye, and I grabbed the camera hoping that it was a sea-slater, a small crustacean that lives in crevices in the rock and which I've seen here once before. But this was a mammal, scuttling down a wet cleft before disappearing from sight.


My useless pic appears to show a coat that's dark above and white underneath; and I have a strong suspicion that this was a water shrew. This would have been a first sighting - but did I actually see it?!

Driving out of Coigach, I saw a dark falcon-like bird fly up onto wires. I couldn't stop as there was a car behind and a car coming the other way - but it suddenly hit me that it was a juvenile cuckoo. By the time I could pull over, it had disappeared.

Meanwhile, in Sweden, Greger has been watching cranes on the farm, and visiting an area to the north where a huge forest fire raged a few years ago. The authorities have decided to let it grow wild, and have turned it into a nature reserve, with boardwalks and information for visitors.

Yesterday: I walked over the dam to the ditch on the other side of Loch Glascarnoch. It was full of water this year, and some of the sundews have been drowned. Here is a great sundew (I think) showing the white flowers in bud.


The common butterwort, another insectivorous plant, seems to have already flowered; and the tiny things that have lost their lives in its sticky leaves are no longer recognisable.


It was then that I noticed a similar plant, and looking it up at home learnt it was the pale butterwort. There are two in the picture, still in flower and flanking the remains of a common butterwort.


A forest walk brought my first dipper of the year (a bit late!).


In the pine trees, a male crossbill was glimpsed feeding a fledgling. There were probably more, but they were keeping high and I didn't want to hang around underneath them - one cone had already fallen to the ground a few feet away with a dull thud. I have an idea that might hurt!