Friday, August 18, 2023
Five or six redshanks and a handful of ringed plover were feeding on exposed sand/mud in Aultbea - and among them was a bar-tailed godwit.
On the way home we stopped at Mungasdale; across the bay (which held a couple of black-throated divers and a fishing tern) was an unusual sight on the west coast - grass bales, cut for hay or silage I suppose.
Gruinard Island, which has apparently been anthrax-free for some time and recently the site of a "wild" fire, is now also showing signs of cultivation.
Whether the activity will make the island less attractive to the white-tailed sea eagles that have brought many birders to this lay-by over the years, remains to be seen. On the other hand, you can if you're lucky, catch sight of them anywhere along this coast (sea eagles, not birders).
Yesterday: A trip to Achnahaird brought a wary bar-tailed godwit which eventually flew from the beach across the river to join a bunch of oystercatchers on the rocks - and a knot and a dunlin further back on the machair. On the way out, from the junction lay-by, I could see waders on the river bend, and walked down through the heather for a closer look. Three redshanks and a knot (possibly the same one I'd spotted earlier) were feeding voraciously on the far side of the river.
I think this is a juvenile knot. I sat on a boulder to take my pictures, and two groups of people setting off to walk the headland passed behind me without disturbing the waders. A white-tailed sea eagle was cruising over the hill near Polbain, being harried by, I think, a couple of buzzards.
