Sunday, April 02, 2023
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.
