Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Well, today was the best day's birding I've had for a long time - pity my pics don't reflect that. Never mind. Greger stayed at home to brush up on his Spanish (his course starts again next week) and to be there for the heating engineer. Good stuff started on the main road, just before I turned off to Achnahaird, with two pairs of tufted duck on Loch Cul Dromannan.
Not a special bird back in Bucks, but they're quite scarce hereabouts so worth the stop. From the far side of the road came a fluty "Cuckoo!" followed by several more; but try as I might I couldn't see the bird. Several willow warblers were singing, and I saw one but couldn't get a pic - too many twigs in the way. A rapid series of calls made me look up to see a wader flying over, high but not fast. Judging by the length of the bill and the legs, I'd put this down as a greenshank.
Driving along the single-track road, I heard willow warbler song in several places. Walking across the salt-marsh, I heard the calls of golden plover and 33 birds flew over and around, a handful of them landing a bit too far away for photos. A largish flock of ringed plover (probably migrants) held my first dunlin of the year.
Finishing our lunch with cake and coffee, I spotted the tern fishing again. Greger decided to go home, so I walked back out to try and get a closer look. This was the car park as I walked away - just our two cars.
It won't look like this once the tourist season begins! Anyway, back at the beach, I found the tern down on the sand again at the edge of the waves.
Driving out again, I stopped to have a look at a moorland pool - and saw what was probably the budding stems of one of my favourite wildflowers - the bogbean.
