Christine's walking & birds blog

Walking up the quarry road, I counted 20 singing willow warblers between Ullapool and the river bridge. A lovely deep humming sound made us look up into a tree (willow? poplar?) to see numerous bumblebees nectaring on the catkins/flowers. They're either buff-tailed or white-tailed - or there was a mix of both.


On the river bank, I caught a glimpse of a pipit down by the water; it flew off, but I suspect it might have been a tree pipit. I wasn't doing very well on my IDs so far - but two sand martins flying over us gave me a definite tick for the daily walk list. In the distance, beyond the cattle grid, a mistle thrush and a wheatear were foraging on sheep-cropped turf.

The tadpoles were still in a writhing mass in the diminishing puddle; I think these are frog taddies, as toads' are black. Some still show external gills, which are later absorbed (I'd thought these were only found on newt tadpoles, but this is not so).  If the fine weather continues there's a risk this puddle will dry out and they will all die.


A pair of buzzards circling in the cloudless blue sky were the last birds of the walk.


And their far-carrying calls not only made up for the absence of any cuckoos - they also followed us home.