Christine's walking & birds blog

A wet and windy day spent indoors was brightened by the sight of a distant brambling from the bedroom window.

Actually, there were two bramblings among the chaffinches sampling the yellow berries of the rowan tree on the far side of the nursing-home grounds. I immediately filled the cleaned feeder that we haven't used since last winter and hung it out - but it was already late, and I might as well have saved it until tomorrow as darkness fell without any bird going near it.

I got my car back a day earlier than expected last week - but apparently they hadn't had the part to repair the petrol-cap cover, so today we drove over east once more to get that done. After lunch at Girvan's we walked along the river, and among the gulls and mallards there were four goosanders - a drake and three ducks.

We looked for a dipper along the edges of the river but failed to see any - maybe because it was high tide. When we collected the car I was pleased to see that they'd charged me for the part only, not for labour (we think they'd actually forgotten to carry out this repair the previous week!); and it was ready early enough for us to drive home in daylight - just.

Last week my car failed its MOT for the first time ever, with a hole underneath in front of the rear offside wheel; but the body shop couldn't repair it at the time and we drove it home, not sure whether this was legal or not (the current MOT still has a week to run). The car was booked in for four days this week, so this morning I set off for Inverness at 6.30am, hoping that there would be no police van with cameras in one of the lay-bys (I assumed that my car would be on the database as having failed its MOT). There wasn't, and I handed the car in just after eight with Greger arriving about 10 minutes later.

We drove across the Black Isle and headed for Tarbat Ness, which juts out between the openings to the Firths of Dornoch and Moray. The rain eventually stopped and we set off for a walk round the headland, with the lighthouse looking very imposing in the November sun.

In the surrounding area of maritime heath, stonechat is one bird which you can usually depend on year-round, perching on gorse bushes and scolding as you follow the path through the heather; we saw two today. The sea seemed empty at first but then we picked out a few gannets, a flock of scoter far out (with a bright white rectangular patch on the useless picture I got suggesting that one at least was a velvet), auks flying in strings across the water, and three male long-tailed ducks scudding by just below. A fisherman coming away pointed out what we'd already unfortunately seen - a guillemot standing on rocks at the water's edge with a black stain on its underparts. Whenever this happens (not that it's happened often) I feel that as a birder I should know what to do, but I'm not sure what anyone could have done; the bird was lively, preening vigorously, and we couldn't have approached it without scaring it back into the water. Maybe it would be okay. Greger pointed out a shag that had clearly not been okay - a victim, presumably, of recent severe storms. I think the dwarf shrub that looks very green against the bleached grass is crowberry.

After several days of rain and high winds, calm brightish weather called us out for a walk at Loch Glascarnoch. As we drove along the loch, a grouse was spotted flying high over us towards the Fannichs; I like to think it was a black grouse, but can't be sure. It was the most interesting bird I've seen crossing the sky for some time!

We saw our first fieldfare of the autumn (although I got mixed up and called them "farefields") - possibly thirty birds. Here, three of them share the fence with a meadow pipit and a couple of stonechats.

It was a relief to see stonechats here again, as we've missed them recently at this usually reliable site. There were a few whooper swans dotted about the bare shores of the loch, one just below us seeming to guard a second swan which had its head submerged, feeding. The mallard is one of about eight mooching about nearby.

On the road side of the loch, by the intake tower, two more stonechats and a reed bunting were foraging.

I'm pretty sure I haven't seen a reed bunting since the spring. On the drive home we pulled in at the northern end of the loch, where there were nine Canada geese.

It had been a good walk full of the chacking calls of fieldfare, but as we drove home the sky darkened and a few drops of rain began to fall. We'd been lucky.

Our drenched garden late yesterday afternoon; the rowan berries are being blown down by the wind. Hurry up winter thrushes and waxies before they all disappear!

As I drove out today, my dash-cam caught a weasel streaking across the gateway.