Monday, November 06, 2023
I heard the swans before I saw them - an oddly soft hooting sound rather than trumpeting - and then picked them up as they flew south, over the high land that separates Ardmair from Rhue. I took several shots and, poor though they are, they seem to show a family group, four juveniles flying between two adults. In two of the pictures the bill of the leading bird is open, so he/she was probably the one uttering the quiet contact calls.
As they disappeared over the high land between Ardmair and Rhue, I'm sorry to say that I realised these whoopers would be a first for me in Ullapool - if only I could get back there in time! I jumped in my car and drove homewards, pulling in to the long lay-by on Morefield hill - and there they were, way across the loch and still heading steadily south.
I can't put them on the one-mile list because I couldn't tell if they were over the water - which would put them within my mile marker - or closer to the rocky ridge. Serves you right, I told myself, for shamelessly chasing birds. However, I don't think I disturbed them, and they do give me an Ullapool tick as well as a first for Ardmair. Perhaps we'll see them on our next visit to Loch Glascarnoch or Loch Droma.
