Thursday, August 19, 2021

After a lot of research, I'm wondering if our mystery bird on the pelagic two days ago was a Leach's storm petrel. It was clearly smaller than the shearwater, so petrel seems probable; but a storm petrel presumably would have had a more black-and-white appearance. This bird was brown; trouble is, we didn't notice a white rump - although poor visibility might have accounted for this. I showed Greger a picture of a darker Leach's and he thought that came closest to what he had seen. He crossed the boat soon afterwards and saw two more - but further out, and just as briefly. I had a look at highlandbirds.scot and found that on 10th August Leach's storm petrels had been seen from the ferry. I'm nowhere near certain, but at least the sighting has made me read up on Leach's and I'll be more prepared next time for how to spot them.

Today, the Coigach area was as popular as ever, but my usual walk took me away from the busiest parts. A lesser black-backed gull and an otter were all I saw on the river, while the salt-marsh produced six curlews - my first "returners".

Another little airborne party of six surprised me as I thought they might all have gone by now - a chattering, interacting group of sand martins. 


As I watched them, a white-tailed sea eagle hove magnificently into view; it was an adult bird with a full crop, and I'm afraid my attentions probably made it change course, as it turned slightly away from me and flew across the beach, eventually vanishing somewhere towards Suilven.

Unfortunately we sometimes disturb birds simply by being interested in them.

Driving away, I pulled in as usual at the junction lay-by for a last scan of the channel, curving round the end of the salt-marsh. On the exposed sand, a small feeding group of dunlin and ringed plovers held something a little larger that I thought looked like a knot, so I walked back along the road and down past the rams' field to get a closer look. 


Well, at least I didn't disturb this bird; when I left the waders were still there, and not even the call of a redshank or the outline of a distant unidentified wader spotted in a last scan from the car could detain me. I'd been out long enough, and it was time to go home.


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