Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Back to the wind and the rain today - but yesterday gave some respite. There was blue sky between broken white clouds. There was sunshine. And up on the high moors there was snow.
A couple of great tits were among the birches, and a hooded crow darted about up on the ridge. This female was the only bullfinch seen, but quiet, plaintive calls issuing from the trees around confirmed she wasn't alone. A wren alarm-called from cover.
Two black grouse rose from the heather up the slope, one going down again almost at once and the other flying across the track and disappearing below us behind a tangle of young pines and birches.
For a change, and because we badly needed exercise, we went through the second gate where we usually turn back and on to the small power station; a female stonechat was foraging a little way down the bank above the loch.
On the walk back we spotted a male stonechat. There were quite a few people around by now, most of them just wandering along the dam and taking pictures with their smartphones. Ben Wyvis was solid white, but most of the time it remained hidden by cloud. We drove back along the loch and had coffee and mince pies in the big lay-by. There was no sign of whoopers (a few days ago there had been six here) nor of snow buntings; but high above a distant ridge, a speck just visible with the naked eye resolved through optics into a golden eagle. A cold wind was now getting up. It was time to go home.
