Christine's walking & birds blog

Three times yesterday I swept the snow off my car, although it was clear I wasn't going anywhere. There was more snow in the night, and by this morning it was probably 10-12 inches deep.

It was very pretty out the front.....

...while out the back, by standing on the bed, I could get a view of a snowy Beinn Ghobhlach.

The redpoll is still in the garden along with chaffinches, greenfinches, goldfinches, blackbirds, dunnocks, robins....and a solitary redwing.

Greger drove to Aberdeen yesterday. He'd booked a night away so that he could get into the Tesla centre for a new heater early this morning; this way, he'd be able to get home in daylight. Unfortunately, the parts hadn't all been delivered, so it was a wasted journey. I think he quite enjoyed it though. He's had all-season tyres put on, recommended by several other Tesla owners and which proved very good; and he followed a gritting lorry from Loch Glascarnoch to Ullapool, which made him feel extra safe! He got home about two in the afternoon, and was quite surprised at the amount of snow we'd had. He carried on shovelling where I'd left off (I now have a bad back!) and cleared enough to get the car just inside the driveway.

Two days ago, he dropped me down at the harbour and took a picture before he drove off. I scanned the gulls carefully, mindful of the sleety cold day in January 2015 when he dropped me at the harbour and I discovered that the Ardmair ivory gull had relocated; but no such luck today.

I walked round to the camp-site, seeing black guillemot, guillemot, and a drake goosander; and stood for a while watching and snapping three otters, diving and fishing in the loch.

They were being remarkably successful, diving every few minutes and seeming to find plenty to eat. I think this prey item could be a rockling.

Viewing photos of otters on the web, I was surprised that so many people find them "cute". I mean, I like to see them, but I've always thought they're rather ugly. People tend to approach wildlife these days from the perspective of being pet owners. Well, just don't think you can stroke them - check out those teeth!

There's a video on YouTube of a Beluga whale playing "fetch" with a rugby ball near the Arctic Pole, and all the comments I read (until I couldn't stand any more) gushed about how intelligent they are, and what a wonderful thing that a wild creature should do this blah-blah-blah.... I don't think this is a wild creature being spontaneous at all; it's much more likely to have had encounters with human beings who've taught it to fetch objects, probably with the incentive of a fishy reward. Russians, perhaps?

First rant of the year. I could've done the Post Office. I still might.