Christine's walking & birds blog

I left Greger doing his Spanish homework and drove to Achnahaird, but I'd just pulled up in the car park when he suddenly appeared - to bring me my specs, which I'd left behind! What service. I think he just wanted an excuse for a drive in his Tesla.

The beach and salt-marsh were very quiet, although a Brent goose was a nice find in the river.
And despite the heroic drive, I didn't use my specs once!

At Scourie, the inner gate of the beach road was closed, and one sign forbade camping on the cliffs while a second notice pointed out that the public toilet was at the northern end of the village. Fair enough. At least we could still walk over the cliffs, even if we had to start walking from the bird hide instead of up by the cemetery.

But there was nothing much to be seen in the way of birds. Scanning the sea far out, I spotted dolphins near the sea stack known as the Old Man of Stoer (although Greger was initially mystified as he thought I'd said "Goldfinch near the Old Man of Stoer"). Then we both said "What's that?" as something dark and finned and slightly closer to us broke the surface in a long, slow roll forward that seemed too long and slow for a dolphin.

Can't be sure, but it might have been a minke whale.

Hanging out washing this morning, I heard distant calls and looked up to see pink-footed geese overhead, flying to the south-east in a ragged V. Late afternoon, there were at least three terns fishing in Loch Broom, seen from the golf-course spit. I'm not sure if this is a juvenile common tern or a juvenile Arctic tern. More research needed, although I incline to common.

Some fins breaking the surface towards the far shore suggest porpoises - again, I'm not certain.But I do know the Sabine's gull by now, and it was there again as the rising tide crept up the river spit and made the oystercatchers and gulls shuffle up towards the beach - or take to the water.

I drove out to Achnahaird earlyish and found a space in the nearly-full car park. A walk round the dunes and the salt-marsh brought no waders, but beyond the fenced plantation a group of sheep huddled together as though afraid of something. "What's up with you then?" I asked.  Yep, I'm becoming so mad that I do actually talk to sheep. Then I saw the white-tailed sea eagle circling high and quite a distance away; with a dark tail and pale axillaries, it looks like an immature bird.

Walking down the sandy beach to the sea, I saw a bar-tailed godwit on the edge of the waves; a dog running about full of the joys flushed it, but it went down again closer to me.

A flock of large birds appeared above Cnoc Mor, heading into the bay against a strong south-easterly; I could just hear their constant calls above the wind. A lovely way to see my first returning pink-footed geese.

A dragonfly landing on the beach was probably a female common hawker.

A raptor seen briefly in the distance was no doubt, a sparrowhawk - no matter how much I try to make it into a goshawk.

Two buzzards were seen at Old Dornie. Yesterday, a walk along the beach near the golf course brought a merlin; but the majority of the kittiwakes - and probably the Sabine's - seemed to have gone.

We went to Inverness for shopping and lunch; it was fairly quiet, although not as empty as when Greger was there a couple of weeks ago. The vast majority of people were following the rules and wearing masks in Eastgate Shopping Centre and in all shops.

Back home I visited the spit, where I spotted the Sabine's hunkered down in some pretty large company.

It's quite a sleepyhead, this gull - and just after I took the picture, it tucked its head back to continue its nap. Unfortunately a dog ran down from the path and put all the gulls and waders in the air. A couple of curlews went flying up the loch, accompanied by something greyer in colour; but maybe it was just a greyish curlew. I had no chance to follow up the sighting as all hell then broke loose. The wind got up ferociously and drove rain and something like hail straight across the loch. I stood by a gorse bush but the shelter it gave was negligible, and in a matter of minutes I was soaking wet. Home to dry out clothes and optics! 

The water level at Loch Glascarnoch is very low, and I walked along the old road to the first bridge on fairly dry ground. (We'd reached this point once before, but only by plodding through some thick mud.)  

The road ran on invitingly ahead and I followed - although it disappeared in places and some sludgy patches had to be negotiated. I was surprised to find a second bridge (picture looking back, with Beinn Dearg to the right).

From my car on West Terrace I watched gulls swooping and rising as they dip-fed in the rain, spread out along the loch. During a break in the showers I took a walk out on the spit - but still got rained on. A redshank flew up the loch followed some time later by a knot. After going home for lunch and a dry-out, I returned - this time via the golf course.

Across the river as the tide fell, two or three redshanks landed near the oystercatchers, followed by four curlew; while ringed plover and turnstone found places on the growing shingle spits among the gulls. A common seal swam up the river and dived, and was perhaps responsible for fish suddenly breaking the surface in little silvery explosions.

The wind was now ferocious, but the tide had fallen enough for the long curved spit to allow the gulls to be beyond disturbance from me so I persevered; and as I scanned the closest birds I spotted the Sabine's. How had it got there?! I'd been scanning the airborne gulls until my arms ached, both in the morning and now in early afternoon, and not got lucky - and suddenly there it was on the water's edge in front of me.

I haven't really seen the Sabine's in flight properly - I just hope that if I ever see another one, it's nowhere near any juvenile blooming kittiwakes!

Another rain front swept in, almost blotting out the campers and caravans beyond the gull spit.

I called it a day. The only good thing about the weather was that it wasn't cold. In fact it was the sort of weather I used to find exciting to walk in; but trying to bird in it can be - well, very trying.

A knot was still present this morning on Ullapool golf-course spit - seen here across the river at high tide.
The water was very calm and covered in white and black dots - gulls, kittiwakes, and auks; razorbills were certainly present, but most were too far away to ID with bins. I drove round to the golf-club car park and walked down to the beach. The knot was fairly relaxed this time but I found it difficult to focus on among all the boulders.

Other waders seen: oystercatchers, 1 redshank, and 1 curlew. A passer-by told me there were turnstone further back along the beach but I couldn't be bothered to walk on. And then, after much searching, I finally found the Sabine's gull and took a shot through the long grass.

Unfortunately I wasn't as invisible behind the grass as I'd hoped and the gulls all went up as one. I left then but looking back, saw the gulls and kittiwakes resettling - although whether the Sabine's was there, I've no idea. Hope so :o(

A windy, late-afternoon visit to the golf-course spit brought, I was fairly sure, the Sabine's among the distant gulls (I had only bins and was looking into the sun).


This is one of my many desperate shots into the gulls when they took off for some reason - catching the Sabine's by chance and confirming the identity.


There were again many kittiwakes present. The knot (presumably the same one) was also still present - I spotted it among half a dozen oystercatchers as they came in to land.

A late afternoon stroll along the river brought something like 200+ kittiwake out on the loch. I didn't see them until they took off and headed for the river mouth; they settled for a while but I was (as usual) looking into the sun - so I don't know if they were preening or feeding.


After a while they took off again and flew up the loch. Presumably the same ones came back a bit later and occupied the further spit. This didn't last long, as the ferry was coming in - and its backwash sent rippling waves over the slender arm of shingle.


There were many juvenile birds with striking plumage which were flighty and mobile because they were being chased by corvids, including jackdaws - not the best conditions for trying to locate a Sabine's gull. It might have been there, but I didn't see it. I just enjoyed the spectacle of so many gulls, jostling for position as the tide steadily rose.

As I walked back to my car along West Terrace, I glanced down across the bull park to see one of the corvids chasing a wader along the waterline; this proved to be a knot. Once again, I could only grab a record shot before it disappeared.


It could be the bird I saw last week - which, I've only just realised, was my first knot in
Ullapool.