Thursday, April 08, 2021
It would be nice to think that this white-winger was a true glaucous as I haven't seen one for ages, and the bill did look bigger, longer than the viking's; but maybe certain dark pigments in what I presume should be pure white feathers betray its origins. Don't know. It's certainly sulky-looking enough for the viking.
The gulls all went up into the air at one point and became quite hysterical; but as they often do, I didn't take a lot of notice and so almost missed the adult white-tailed sea eagle as it cruised over.
The eagle turned and came back, but more over the village this time than the loch. Still watching the gulls, I thought I spotted the 1st winter Iceland gull, and took a cockeyed picture; it was only when I came to upload the photos that I noticed the eagle in the frame, returning to the harbour once more.
When we saw the snow bunting on the camp-site a couple of days ago, in between first spotting it and then re-finding it, I thought it had the summer plumage of a male bird - basically black and white. But I'd only seen the head and neck above the grass, and then when we got onto the one I snapped and failed to see a second bird, I assumed I'd been mistaken. But later on I learnt that other observers had recorded two snow buntings - so I carried on towards the windy point (two wheatears still present) to investigate.
It was insane on the camp-site - a warmer wind than of late, from the west instead of the north - but it was very strong, coming straight across the loch and the camp-site, making it difficult to use bins and camera. I carefully edged up onto the higher level, and saw a flock of birds on the far side. Something put them up, but while the skylarks went off to one side, the snow buntings flew towards me, landing in the grass on the edge of the nearest path. I sat on the low wooden fence (which is probably against the rules) and tried hard to keep the camera from shaking.
