Christine's walking & birds blog

A long wait in Inverness while my car was serviced and MOTd was brightened by a cold but sunny walk along the river, and birds like goosander, redwing, and this grey wagtail.


It's been an expensive one this time - over £1,000 - but then the car is 14 years old. And I'm mobile for another year.

Possible rock pipits have been seen on two hill-walks since we came to live here: on Cul Mor, 12th October 2016 at around 600 metres above sea level, and on Bla Bheinn, 2nd October 2019, at around 400 metres.

I've been a bit dubious about the ID, partly because I didn't see them that well (the first was in cloud, the second at some distance) and the pictures I got weren't good; and partly because rock pipits are generally seen as being tied to the seashore. But research has produced some interesting results.

The Wikipedia entry for Eurasian rock pipit states that "...on St. Kilda it breeds at up to 400m (1300ft)".

Birds of the Western Palearctic states: "Most 1st-year birds from Fair Isle leave in autumn, and move south to Scotland or even the Netherlands." Fair Isle breeders are apparently of the subspecies kleinschmidti - and the wikipedia site has a photo of an individual of this subspecies, which resembles my pipit even to the way it was first seen, crouching on a rock. Like any migrating bird, these presumably could be encountered anywhere. However, it was the only reference I found to this movement, with most authorities merely claiming that the rock pipit (apart from the Fennoscandian race littoralis) is largely sedentary in its habits but will sometimes move inland to rivers and lakes for winter.

My googling brought up the book Birds in Scotland by Valerie M. Thom (published 1986); and this passage was interesting: "...rock pipits....have been reliably reported at some altitude inland in recent years. They have been seen well inland in the breeding season in the Grampians, and apparently breeding at 300m asl on Skye and over 500m on Mull (R. Broad)."

Greger's trying to throw off a cough-and-cold he's had for over two weeks, so we drove to Achnahaird for a short walk; but it was a windy and frustrating day, notable more for its sheep antics than any bird sightings.

I spotted this ewe on her back in the distance and thought at first she was dead; then her legs kicked feebly and she was still again. Greger thought he should go and tell the farmer, but it was a long walk back and I said we ought to be able to right her between us. (My dad told me about this many years ago, but I've never seen a sheep in this plight until today and I thought at the time that he was pulling my leg.)


As we approached, she began to struggle with fear and baaed a little, but clearly couldn't get up. Greger put his hands under her and gently rolled her; and she stumbled to her feet. She was bloated and a bit unsteady, but she headed for a small group of ewes that had been anxiously watching. (At least, they were certainly watching, and it's easy to imagine they were anxious about their companion even if it's not quite true!)


A medium-sized raptor glided across the salt-marsh and disappeared over by the chalet and plantation; then a small wader flew high up the river to the side of the marsh. Next, a plover (probably golden) was seen flying fast above the back of the beach; and finally a small raptor dashed past before we could do anything sensible.


Merlin? Dunno - so here's some more sheep action.

One ewe seemed determined to cross the river to reach the salt-marsh, although halfway across she stopped and looked back at her mates (or lambs?).....


.....who were - yes, anxiously watching.


Once she'd reached the far bank safely the second one crossed cautiously, while the third, on finding herself left behind, threw herself into the water in a panic and part-ran, part-leapt her way across. On reaching dry land, they all shook themselves like dogs; but I only got this on video, which I can't post on my blog, so this is a screen-shot.


Next time I have a free day, I'm going sheep-watching - maybe then, I'll see some birds.

On the beach at Ardmair a few days ago.....


Yesterday I walked up through Altan Wood, flushing two female black grouse from the side of the track. A flock of fieldfare was also present.

A photo on Sussex Ornithological Society's website (sos.org.uk) yesterday cheered me up, because it was of a short-eared owl missing several tail feathers. In July last year, an encounter with an owl during a hill-walk in the Fannichs resulted in a couple of really useless pics - and I wasn't sure if the bird appeared tail-less because of my poor photography, or if it was in the middle of a moult, or even if it was indeed a short-eared owl! The photo on sos gives an idea of how truncated the bird might look if all the tail feathers were gone - as was the case with our bird. At least I can be reasonably sure now that it was a short-eared owl. Now on to the matter of the hill-walking rock pipits!

Walking out the front door, I looked up to see a sparrowhawk flying around over the village. It headed towards Ullapool Hill, and another bird joined it. I'm not sure whether they were fighting when they came together - the smaller one looks as though it's mobbing the larger one.

The two white-tailed sea eagles were drifting to the south-west, high above the road; and I was able to pull into a fairly wide passing place to get some pictures. The first has a raggedy tail, but seems to be an adult.


The second bird was immature.


The local pair had two chicks this spring.

I walked my usual round at Achnahaird in windy conditions with one shower of rain but saw next to nothing; this solitary curlew on the water's edge at Badentarbat represents today's wader sightings.....


.....and that was seen and snapped from the car!

It was about time for a visit to Achnahaird - and yet another windy walk across the beach and the machair. I'd seen the report of a buff-breasted sandpiper a few days ago and wondered if it would still be there. I didn't see it, but I did spot a distant, rather grey-looking plover which I then lost. A bit later, a plover (can't be sure it's the same bird) flew past with four dunlins and landed at the edge of the river.




There seemed to be yellowish tints like a golden plover when the sun was out, but the bulky build and the thickish bill are good for grey plover. This poor pic caught the wings being lifted slightly to reveal a white rump, which again suggests grey rather than golden plover.


An unfamiliar, attractive three-syllable call as the waders relocated to the river bank was music to my ears and also points to grey plover - but I failed to see, in the short time it was in flight, if the plover had the requisite black axillaries. This was my first grey plover in Scotland.

Bla Bheinn (Blaven)

This is a low Munro on the Isle of Skye and handily close to the road; but rising as it does from the shores of Loch Slapin (an inlet of the sea), it requires all its 3045ft (928m) to be climbed (well, give or take a metre or so as you drive up a little way into the nice new car park).

Long-tailed tits were seen as we set off beside the wooded gorge - but there was no time to look for anything else. The ridge ahead looked fearsome but like most walkers (as opposed to experienced scramblers or climbers) we were just going up the top on the left.