Tuesday, August 27, 2019
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The good was a trip into the Coigach area, with three black-throated divers lounging on a roadside loch, and some welcome, if familiar, birds seen on the usual walk. At least 50 twite were near sheep pens - and a knot was on the beach with five sanderling.
Little groups of sanderling were also seen on the machair, but as they whizzed around a lot they were difficult to count - ten was the highest seen at one time. They sometimes took off, flew in an arc, and then landed closer to me; often running towards me in their feeding. At one point I had to zoom out as one approached my feet - and that doesn't happen very often. Dunlin were also present - at least 25.
The bad was a seemingly sound apple that I bit into a few days ago, the feel of crisp white flesh quickly changing into a sickening softness - fortunately I looked down at the apple and what I saw made me spit the bite out. Ugh! It's a knife for me in future.
The ugly was the head of a sharp-toothed dead fish receiving the half-hearted attention of a great black-backed gull on the harbour beach. It's probably a monkfish or anglerfish (apparently they're the same).
I found a similar head at Ardmair years ago when we were on holiday; apparently only the liver and the tail are okay to eat, so fishermen cut their heads off at sea and throw them back in. The filament that acts as a lure to prey can be seen between the monkfish's eyes, above slanted teeth that prevent escape from its fearsome mouth. Perhaps because of the picked-about eyes, and the fact that the jutting lower jaw isn't evident in my picture, this one appears more surprised and anguished than ugly.
// posted by Christine @ 12:16 PM 
