Dipping down to the beach at Ardmair I caught a glimpse of light-coloured birds rushing up from the roadside; and parking in the lay-by I walked back up the hill to see what I could see. And what I could see were waxwings! They were very mobile, being constantly flushed by passing cars and lorries as they fed on berries on the verge - but I think there were at least fifteen birds present.
Waxie at the seaside (Loch Kanaird in the background):
Waxie in alder:
Waxies on the rocks:
Waxies on berries:
I think this low shrub is Cotoneaster horizontalis. The bad news is that it's "listed as an invasive, non-native species on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in England and Wales" (gardenersworld.com). The good news is that we have some in our garden - so we might get waxwings here yet. The trouble is, our small rowan and our neighbour's mature one - and even the rowan out the back with the yellow berries - have all been stripped by blackbirds, redwings, etc; and I fear it might be the same story throughout the village.
The combination of MV Isle of Lewis and a dry bright day could mean only one thing - the last pelagic of the season. We didn't expect to see much this late in the year but we fancied a day at sea and we like the spacious feel of the old ferry's open decks; it does, however, vibrate quite a lot, which makes my photos even less sharp than usual! Drawing close to Stornoway we spotted the odd sooty shearwater in flight and then a group of eight or nine on the water.
The coastguard tug Ievoli Black was in the harbour; I'm getting used to the new colour, which I suppose matches that of the coastguard helicopter.
On the top, to the left, can be seen the hooded crow that flies onto the ferry when it docks to scavenge for crumbs; it did that today but seemed to find no satisfactory perch and so flew over to the tug instead.
In the harbour were three mergansers, three shags, a guillemot, a rather scruffy razorbill, and a black guillemot.
Going back, I'd just about given up hope of any more shearwater sightings when Greger spotted some in flight (about 3.30pm).
Ten minutes later, scanning a feeding frenzy of gulls and kittiwakes, I thought I saw a few dark shapes, mostly on the edges of the action. At least six sooties were present.
As the ferry forged inexorably homewards and the wind grew colder, we were treated to a bonus in the shape of several pods of dolphins. Some came leaping towards the ferry until they were so close in below us that we could no longer see them. Where do they go?!
Last week we were in Norfolk, house-hunting. We stayed in the lovely city of Norwich but our target properties were in the slightly cheaper out-of-town areas. The countryside is nice (if you ignore the absence of hills), but many of the roads are single-track, and proper passing-places don't exist. This is just a minor inconvenience when you're on holiday, but could get stressful if you live there. The idea that this farmland is actually often part of large shooting estates also dawned on us. The number of pheasants on the roads, some alive, some dead, supports this. And despite mouth-watering woods with loads of oak trees (lesser spotted woodpeckers came to mind!) they didn't appear to be accessible to the general public. I began to realise that there were no footpath signs - at least not on the roads we drove along. We've never lived anywhere where we couldn't take a walk from home using footpaths - but it seemed that one property in particular, down two increasingly narrow lanes, would make prisoners of us unless we were prepared to always drive out for our walks. It was a pretty area, but not practical. Of course, there is the draw of the coastline and its fabulous beaches; and we enjoyed visits to Cley and to Titchwell. Greger then suggested a trip to Minsmere - and once over the county boundary with Suffolk I started to see footpath signs all over the place. Taking everything into consideration it looks as though we might stay in Ullapool after all - I'll just have to buy some more thermal underwear!
