Christine's walking & birds blog

As often happens in the Coigach area, I found myself disappointing sheep. If you drive past fairly quickly they take no notice of you - but because they were wandering across the road as well as grazing and browsing (the second, on gorse of all things!) I was forced to slow right down. This evidently gave them the idea that I was going to feed them because the first ones I edged past started to bleat. Others further along the road took this up as I reached them; and given how individual each bleat was, it made quite a cacophony. I wish I could post a clip from my dash-cam as it was very funny. Meanwhile, here are three sheep contentedly chewing the cud - at least I didn't disappoint them.

Four Canada geese were an Achnahaird tick for me, and walking back to the car, I startled a snipe that had been close to the path; but I failed to see any golden plover or wheatears.

Across the headland, I drove down onto the grass and had started to eat my lunch when I caught sight of something on the beach that required further investigation.

This proved to be the carcass of a whale; the remains measured roughly 20ft, although they were very degraded and that probably doesn't mean much. This is presumably part of the spine.

Apparently, the carcass was first seen on March 29th and has been identified by Scottish Marine Animals Stranding Scheme as a sperm whale.

Yesterday: I walked out along the golf course and sat on the stony beach, watching the gulls clustering round a fishing boat. There was a sudden clamour and they all rose high into the sky; I scanned for a white-tailed eagle, but what I saw was a bonxie - maybe the same individual I spotted about a week ago from Ardmair - speeding in with some panache and circling the boat before settling on the water.

Once it had landed, the gulls calmed down and returned to the water themselves. Walking back past the duck pond, I heard what would have been my first willow warbler of the year singing - but I have an idea a chaffinch chased it away. I was luckier with a chiffchaff, singing nearby.

Sand martins, however, continue to remain unspotted.