Christine's walking & birds blog

On a dazzling day at Achnahaird, I spotted what I thought were two curlews out on the salt-marsh; I was looking directly into the sun but one bird seemed quite a bit smaller than the other, and with a shorter bill. They flew down the beach, and a rapid stuttering call confirmed that one of the birds was a whimbrel. They soon returned, and I grabbed a record shot as they flew up the river.

The place was alive with meadow pipits and much lower numbers of skylarks. I still haven't seen any lapwings here yet. No wagtails looked white, and wheatears only reached single numbers - but I did see my first linnets of the year.

On the other side of the headland a large, peaceful crowd of gulls loafed just off-shore. Then all hell broke loose as they suddenly went up, shrieking and crying - and I scanned madly for an eagle. But it was a Bonxie that had disturbed them. I watched it fly over them and then double-back and go down onto the water - close to what looked like the body of an auk species.

It was all a long way out, but a clip of video I took shows the skua tearing off and swallowing chunks of the unfortunate auk. A rather dramatic way to see my first Bonxie of the year.

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In the last few days I've also seen my first golden eagle of the year.

It was being chased by a raven initially, but eventually returned, soared for a while, and then drifted away - while the raven, which had also returned, now made a half-hearted vocal protest before subsiding.