Christine's walking & birds blog

We went out for our walk mid-morning. It was eery to begin with as the streets were quiet and empty - but after a while a couple and then a woman alone passed us going the other way, all greeting us cheerfully and stepping out into the road to keep their distance.

At the bottom of the steps there were two people with a mob of dogs, but they went into the field, and we had the river spit to ourselves apart from a man who passed us as we were leaving.

I didn't take bins but I did have my camera, and I used that to zoom in and identify two black guillemots in summer plumage far out on the still water. As we walked along the edge of the camp-site next to the beach, a familiar call rang out and a greenshank went flying low towards the river mouth.


I grabbed a couple of poor shots, the greenshank being noteworthy as it was my first for the year and only my fourth sighting here - the first being a single on April 15 2015, then two birds on April 20, and one on April 6 2016 (no pic).

The ferry was leaving for Stornoway but I resisted the urge to take a photo as it would make us look like tourists! Turning onto the broad grassy strip on West Shore Street we returned the wave of a couple sitting outside their house in the sun - and then we began to see a few more people and one or two cars. The newsagents and Boots the Chemist on Shore Street were open, but when I asked Greger if we should get a Guardian he said he'd be happy to do without a newspaper again rather than go into a shop.

Back at home, honey bees were seen on the flowering currant bushes and a bumblebee landed on a daisy before flying a bit unsteadily up onto the windowsill. It was only when I uploaded the picture that I saw it had already been targeted by mites (or ticks?).


I'm not sure if it's an early or a buff-tailed bumblebee. The garden thermometer says it's 9.3℃ - wow, balmy days!