Christine's walking & birds blog

 Beinn Liath Mhor a' Ghiubhais Li

Greger felt well enough to resume his Spanish class today, so I decided to go up this Corbett for the tenth time. Seems a bit mad, but the hill is a good bet for finding ptarmigan - and I also wanted to see if I could still get up a hill (and back down, of course). A wheatear, a golden plover, and several meadow pipits were seen in the distance on the ascent. It was a warm sunny day and very hard going, but I finally reached the summit shelter and collapsed in it to eat my lunch and drink loads of water (some Fannichs in the background).

There was a strong wind blowing from the east, which decided me against walking further along the ridge. I scanned the plateau in vain and then set off back down, determined to zig-zag across the slope in my bid to see ptarmigan. A flash of white in one of the boulder fields (ramparts?) caught my eye - but I couldn't get the camera out quickly enough as a mountain hare loped off down the hill and out of sight. I sat down for a drink just before the rocks came to an end, giving way to wet grass and sparse heather. The view to the north looked as though plantations of conifers had sprouted - but they were just cloud shadows, moving swiftly across the landscape.