Wednesday, April 23, 2025
There seemed to be a handful of new wagtails on the beach at Ardmair. They were very active and wary, but I thought there was a scattering of white-wagtail features - clean flanks, pale grey rump, fairly distinct black-grey line at the nape - although I'm not sure these were all seen on one bird!
Keanchulish car-park area held at least three singing willow warblers, but there was no sign yet of cuckoos or grasshopper warblers. Back in Ullapool, I walked through the bull park to the spit and was thrilled to hear a cuckoo from the other side of the loch - exactly the same as last year, only a day later. My first sand martins of the year were swooping energetically above the grassy area and the river, and my first lesser black-backed gull in the village was with herring gulls on the end of the spit.
Two greenshanks were also energetic, repeatedly flying out low over the water in a circle and then returning to the golf-course spit. It felt warm in the sun today, but there is still a sharp edge to the wind.
