Monday, September 08, 2025
Surely the windy weather we've been having lately would have dropped some waders at Achnahaird? I set off through the dunes, and had the machair to myself apart from half a dozen curlews, until "Is that a ruff?!" In fact, there were two.
.....until this flew over, when it disappeared!
Oh well. Other waders also took to the air, but after a zoom round, these landed pretty much where they'd been feeding before. There were knot, turnstone, sanderling, ringed plover, and a handful of dunlin.
It seemed that the machair was the place to be, because as I plodded across the wet sand towards the sea I saw nothing. Reaching the low cliffs I paused at the top to look back across the great expanse of sand uncovered by the falling tide.....
.....and noticed, through the bins, that three waders had landed to the right of the people walking at the water's edge. They were clearly godwits, and given the extent of the red underparts I think they have to be bar-tailed godwits. I was too tired to go back (still not completely recovered from that blasted virus), and this hugely cropped photo will have to do.
Returning to Ullapool, I parked on West Terrace and looked out over the loch. I was watching dolphins leaping near the far shore when all the gulls on the golf-course spit went up with shrieks of protest - and there, directly above me, were two adult white-tailed eagles.
I enjoyed my day - as did Greger. He went to Inverness to do some shopping, but the important thing for him is having a long drive alone during which he can listen to his latest Spanish audiobook. He's having a rest from crime and has turned to horror - El Silencio de los Corderos!
Saturday, September 06, 2025
Day 21 of the flu for me, which makes it seven days longer than the usual dose. Greger wanted to go on the ferry and I'm probably no longer contagious, so off we went. The weather was bright and warm as we left Ullapool and we had high hopes. 50 minutes in, Greger pointed to three birds flying south-east and I clicked off a couple of pictures. I had to wait until I'd uploaded the photos at home before I could brighten them and confirm that these were Brent geese.
There were a few pods of common dolphins around and I saw my first porpoises of the year. As we approached Stornoway the wind got up and there were a couple of showers of rain. We'd forgotten that on Saturday there's a longer turnaround time, and as I didn't feel like walking, we sat in the terminal until reloading. The return trip was colder but slightly less grudging with its sightings, and yielded up a Minke whale, more common dolphins, two or three probable Arctic skuas chasing kittiwakes, several bonxies, and two Manx shearwaters. The Brent geese were a first for the ferry; they were the third first this year after the Risso's dolphins and the basking shark - so they're in good company!
