Christine's walking & birds blog

Yesterday: Despite a mixed weather forecast, Greger suggested a pelagic - and in fact we had a fine day at sea, a bit windy but dry throughout and sometimes sunny. The trip out brought goodish numbers of auks and kittiwakes, quite a few fulmars, and several adult and immature gannets. A pair of buzzards circled over Rubha Thuilm (headland of the rounded hillock, I think) as we approached Stornoway harbour - where they still haven't fixed the pedestrian walkway.

Going back Greger spotted both a solitary Manx shearwater.....

 .....and a skua as it flew low over the water, converging with the ferry.

Three rubbish pics - but they'll help me remember why this was an Arctic skua. Otherwise - it was a poor trip for wildlife. Greger had a glimpse of dolphins, but neither of us spotted any whale activity, while a small passerine could not be identified (I had the feeling that we shouldn't really look at such birds through our bins, as this might deter them from making a possibly life-saving landing on the ferry). Back in Ullapool harbour, a white winger was heckled briefly by a herring gull. It might have been the usual viking - I was too tired to investigate.

 A test to see if all Greger's hard work getting the Applemac updated has been successful:

These were two of seven black-throated divers which flew down into Achnahaird Bay on Friday. As I drove around through Polbain and beyond, my dash-cam picked up a merlin before I saw it....

It then swept down the slope evidently, because I spotted it as it crossed the road and went jinking out above the moorland, chasing a probable meadow pipit. I braked and had a good naked-eye view of the merlin, which was brown - so probably a juvenile. I lost both birds but then a meadow pipit landed on the ground near my car, looking rather nervous! I might have cost the merlin its meal, but it could have been worse. What struck me was the speed of the chase, and how close to the ground the merlin was flying, crossing the ditch really low and just skimming the surface of the road - thank goodness I didn't hit it.