Sunday, February 16, 2020
Returning to the dam hoping for another sighting of the grouse we flushed yesterday, I was surprised to see that the solitary snow bunting (or at any rate, a snow bunting) was still around. I slowed up and walked more carefully, and it ran on at a little distance, keeping an eye on my progress but stopping frequently to feed.
It foraged in the short grass in the usual hunched-up manner of snow buntings, but now and then it would reach up to the top of a groundsel plant.....
.....and detach the fluffy white seeds.
Eventually, the bunting flew up onto the wall - when it caught light from the water and looked gorgeous - then flew back towards the road.
I struggled along the track into a phenomenal wind, glad to see both stonechats up the slope among the pine saplings. But no grouse were to be seen - and as I trudged back across the dam, the snow bunting had also gone AWOL.
I'd made good use of a short dry interlude, but as I headed back towards Ullapool great dark clouds were being driven across the sky and the rain came lashing down again. I sat in my car on Shore Street, seeing the viking gull (probably) and an Iceland gull cruising round the harbour. When the rain eased off, I walked out onto the quayside and snapped the latter as it stood, hunched against the weather, with the other gulls.
The wind was ferocious, and I was glad to retreat to my car. Snow bunting and Iceland gull, I mused as I drove home - very different, but both tough birds of the north with lovely wintry names.