Tuesday, November 15, 2022
The first thing I saw on looking out the back this morning was a little group on the very top of the big ash tree - three waxwings and a redwing.
At Ardmair, 2+ rock pipits and a male stonechat were on the beach below the camp-site. Loafing gulls on the spit included kittiwakes, both adult and immature, and quite a number of black-headed gulls. At least three great northern divers were far out, with one showing remnants of summer plumage; and slightly closer in were three black guillemots.
Back in the village I turned into the road leading to the medical centre and sat in my car opposite two rowan trees, waiting for scattered birds to return. I wasn't sure if the waxwings had been among them, but it seemed like a good bet. Half a dozen blackbirds reappeared almost immediately, then came singles of redwing and fieldfare. At last a waxwing zoomed in and I clicked off a shot through the first raindrops.
It's now two-thirty and unrelentingly dreary - no wind, rain steadily falling, and visibility so poor that it might as well be completely dark. I'm in for the rest of the day.
