Saturday, January 21, 2023
From the pot-holed lay-by at First Coast I spotted a little group of dark ducks, but couldn't tell what they were through the bins - they were a very long way away! However the camera, taking the place of a telescope, revealed them to be common scoter.
Scanning the sea, I picked out several great northern divers and two black guillemots (still very white) and when I looked for the scoters again, they had vanished. I thought they might have gone round the headland towards Gruinard, so we drove on and Greger pulled in at the high lay-by. After much scanning I could see a larger flock of scoter, way below us and far out in the middle of the bay. One of my other pics shows sixteen individuals - but I think there were more.
The scoter had probably come into the bay for shelter; it was certainly a horribly windy day, and the sudden rise in temperature after the cold spell didn't count for much against a pretty savage windchill. A few miles further on, Greger was able to pull into a handy lay-by as a white-tailed sea eagle drifted over.
These were new birds for the year so I don't care how bad the pics are. If people can fill the internet with poor writing (there's far too much atrocious English, when you consider that we all spend at least ten years at school studying our own language) - then I can fill it with poor pictures.
When we arrived back in Ullapool, the ferry was still in the harbour - I don't think it sailed today. I'm toying with the idea of driving back down the coast tomorrow, hoping to see the scoter again; but the A832 (the Destitution Road) is in a shocking state, with loads of pot holes on both sides. It's not too difficult to see why, with the freezing weather we've had and now the thawing, and with showers of rain to make it even worse; and on a high parking viewpoint above Little Loch Boom, road-resurfacing machinery was standing ready for the men to continue or even start work - presumably on Monday. It will take more than a day to repair that lot; and meanwhile, I don't want to wreck my suspension for the fourth time since we came to live here. In any case, the scoter will probably have gone!
