Christine's walking & birds blog

It was sunny but windy on the Coigach peninsula, where a pair of common scoter gave slightly closer views than those I saw earlier in the year.

I spotted my first great skua of 2023 having a bathe in its customary place from the car; bonxies were hard hit by avian flu last year, so every one I see will be a bonus. On our few trips out here during the winter, I noticed great black-backed gulls bathing here in Loch Vatachan rather than in the loch where I'm used to seeing them. Today, the skua had its bathing quarters to itself - but as I drove past Loch Camas an Fheidh I was amused to see a number of great black-backs spiralling down to land on the water where they usually congregate. Not like them to give way!

Greger's driving down to Farnborough once again for this year's Fully Charged show; but the unfettered birding I planned to indulge in today was brought to a halt by rain. I was all prepared with a full tank to go anywhere, but I didn't see any point in using up petrol to drive somewhere where it was also raining; so I stayed local and paid a visit to Ardmair, walking along the beach to the spit. Around twenty sand martins were hunting low over the camp-site, the beach, and the sea, often zipping past me very close.  Now and then two would converge and fly together for a while, their harsh calls becoming more urgent - pair-bonding, maybe. One had landed on a rock for a preen.

The air was also full of the sound of twite singing and the daft cooing of Eider. A great northern diver was in advanced summer plumage and two black guillemots looked black and dapper. A screamy call from the waterline announced the presence of dunlin, and one flew over to forage on the grassy area above the stones - my first west-coast dunlin this year.

Also present: two or three pied wagtails, at least ten meadow pipits, and two wheatears. As they suddenly all flew up twittering, a dark shape glided by low and landed on a boulder. The sparrowhawk was my first at Ardmair.

 Lousy pic, but my first cuckoo of the year.

Seen and heard in Strath Kanaird while looking in vain for a grasshopper warbler.

I knew it was a bit early for a pelagic, but the weather was so beautiful I couldn't resist it. My first gannets, fulmars, and puffins (two pairs) of the year were seen, and a porpoise fin was glimpsed quite close to the ferry. Out on the Minch (photo taken at 11.55 am) I noticed a substantial amount of splashing near a distant fishing boat, and snapped away without much hope of getting anything while wondering vaguely if it could be a whale. The only useful image was this uncropped picture, taken at full zoom.

 Ben Rinnes

This Corbett is described as being in both Moray (local government council area) and Banffshire (historic county). Its elevation is 840m but the car park is at about 300m, so the full height isn't climbed. However, on this bright but extremely windy day it was a bit more than a walk in the park; and the best thing about it was the granite tors which outcrop on the summit and the flanks.

Some early spring returners cheered me up today, with sand martins busy round an established nest site above a river, and a pair of greenshanks on a nearby loch. The presence of ten or so restless goldeneye provided a seasonal overlap, the males throwing their heads back in display; and as I watched them, a now-familiar clamour made me look up to see about 40 pink-footed geese flying north.

Stopping for a while in the lay-by at Ardmair I watched a close-to-shore great northern diver whose summer plumage was well advanced, but failed (as ever) to produce a nice crisp shot.

Yesterday's wheatear was still around, despite the number of people on the beach.

A beautiful day - almost warm! I left off hat and gloves, anyway. A walk round at Ardmair brought my first twite of the year - three or perhaps four birds. I sat on a boulder for about ten minutes listening to their singing. 

The dolphins were too far out for even their splashing to be detected with the naked eye. This was my second sighting of dolphins at Ardmair this year - I'd never spotted them from here before.

I drove to Rhue hoping to see them again, but the car park was full - so I parked in the big passing place back along the road and followed the steep track up to the masts. It's a very small hill but it gives a great view over Ardmair; the camp-site is now open and today held several camper-vans and a caravan.

But I didn't spot the dolphins again. Back down at the car, I heard the harsh churr of a mistle thrush, and looked up to see what I thought were two birds; belatedly I realised that the second bird was a sparrow-hawk - not swiftly chasing the thrush but flying along just behind it. Then the sparrowhawk seemed to go up a gear and was diving down in pursuit of something - but both birds were lost against the brown, heathery hillside and I saw no more. Was the hawk "hiding" behind the thrush in order to approach the meadow pipits - the only other bird life around at the time? More likely, I suppose, that it had had the thrush in its sights all along and had begun to shadow it before launching an attack - it all happened so quickly that I can't be sure of anything. However, I did see one mistle thrush - alive and well - before I drove away.

Yesterday:  Beinn Liath Mhor a' Ghiubhais Li 

Although not really hill-fit I wanted to see ptarmigans, so I made my 8th ascent of this Corbett from the Altan Wood side. Labouring up the final pull before the summit I heard a dog bark and looked back to see two people crossing the peat hags below. I'd have no chance to see ptarmigan with a barking dog around, so hurried to gain the summit plateau for a good look round first. It was lovely to be there again.

As for ptarmies - it wasn't to be. I sat on a rock for lunch, a little way down the slope where we saw a pair last year - but nothing. Wearily I set off down, passing the couple at a distance; I hadn't heard the dog again and I think it was on a lead, which was good. 

There is a new fad of Munro-bagging dogs - the Guardian, which is dog-mad, being just one of the newspapers to report favourably on this idiocy. It's bad for wildlife (which the Guardian doesn't give a dam about), and it's sometimes bad for the dog, depending on its breed and abilities. I've seen dogs that are okay up the hill, and I've also seen plenty that clearly don't want to be there. In the Lake District last year, two dachshunds had to be carried off a hill by mountain rescue, along with their owners (although one particular website talks of "their dog parents", FFS!) What kind of fool takes a dachshund up a hill for a walk? I don't know what these people have for brains. I don't know what sort of people equate dogs with children. I do know that the fewer dogs I see up mountains the better. Oh - first rant of the year, I think. About time too.  P.S. A poor bird-list for the walk: two meadow pipits, three red grouse, and a heard-only golden plover.