Thursday, May 20, 2021
A new sign has appeared in the car park at Achnahaird.
There wasn't much to see - several dunlin with the ringed plovers, and a solitary golden plover. But down by the sea, two sanderling were my first of the year.
I walked back to the car park and set off across the moorland. The cliffs in this direction are much higher than the ones towards the beach (seen in first picture), and I was pleased to spot a fulmar planing across the rock-face in display. I watched to see where it landed and could soon pick out a few birds on ledges (they were probably at least two hundred metres away). Pink sea-thrift is coming through, and I think the white flowers might be sea campion, but I'm not sure.
I scanned the sea for some time but saw very little, then returned to the road over the cairned top of Cnoc Mor and drove across the headland to Badentarbat. As I ate lunch in my car, four dunlin flew up the beach and landed a few feet away. I didn't dare open the window, which generally creaks a bit, and took the first picture through the glass.
A common sandpiper was being bullied by an oystercatcher. Two curlews flew over calling, and a couple of bonxies cruised around. Back at the junction lay-by I noted four pink-footed geese bathing in Loch Raa and a distant greenshank wading in the river. Eight wader species for the day, so not bad; but it was hard work walking, thanks to a strong icy wind from the east. When I got back to Ullapool it began to rain, and the Iceland gull was swooping restlessly over the harbour.
// posted by Christine @ 2:12 PM 
