Friday, January 05, 2024
I parked in the lay-by at Ardmair and walked along the road to the rough ground adjacent to Loch Kanaird - and the first thing I saw was a common scoter.
The scoter bobbed on the comparatively calm waters of the loch, preening, wing-flapping, diving, and dozing in turn, while I watched her and clicked off far too many pictures! Suddenly her whole demeanour changed; she stretched up her neck and lifted her tail, and I looked around to see if something had alarmed her.
A raptor was flying across Loch Kanaird, but I lost it against the hillside until it rose above the ridge and circled for a while in the sky.
It's tempting to think it was a goshawk (seemingly narrow hand, bulging secondaries) but I suppose it was "just" a sparrowhawk. Whatever it was, it disappeared behind the ridge and I turned back to the loch, assuming the scoter would have gone. But she was still there, back in her former relaxed attitude among the ropes and buoys and boats, and eyeing me as though we'd conspired in something.
A large white "gull" on the far side of the loch, seen belatedly as it flew towards the sea, turned out to be a gannet; this, and a pair of red-breasted mergansers, were firsts for the year.
Turning again, I caught a glimpse of two large birds gliding side-by-side over the ridge and out of sight; but they reappeared and confirmed that they were indeed white-tailed sea eagles.
I'm not sure if these pictures are of the same individual; but at any rate, one at least was an adult, and it's not too early, apparently, for them to be indulging in courtship behaviour.
What a morning. Best of all, as I walked away, the common scoter was still there; and a great tit, another first for the year, was giving a nice fluty contact call along the fence behind the lodges. Some great birds, and a bunch of firsts for 2024 - although I'm not sure which hawk to tick!
// posted by Christine @ 8:10 AM 
