Friday, May 24, 2024
Achnahaird beach looked promising but could offer only a handful of dunlin and ringed plovers, with one greenshank feeding along the river. A brownish raptor flying swiftly over could have been a female merlin, but I'm not 100% sure; whatever it was, it scattered the waders. A long-tailed duck was in the bay.
Driving across the headland, I glanced over Loch Raa and saw something that made me pull into the next passing place. A large white bird was moving about on the far side, partially hidden behind a grassy spit. The bird appeared to have a long snaky neck and a mostly yellow bill - a great white egret? I took a hasty pic and parked in a nearby gateway.
Walking back to the passing place I could see that the egret had now emerged from behind the spit and begun to fish.
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I continued on my way leaving the bird still feeding. Having spent no more than half an hour at Badentarbat eating lunch, scanning the beach, and using the loo, I drove back and parked again near the end of the loch; but there was no sign now of the egret. I went on to the junction lay-by and looked back along the loch, into the places that had been hidden from my original viewpoint - but the egret seemingly had moved on.
A sound like a car horn bibbing in the distance gradually grew louder - and two swans (presumably whoopers) flew over heading, confusingly, south-east.
// posted by Christine @ 11:09 AM 
