Christine's walking & birds blog

I've been researching the drake at the mouth of the Ullapool River (previous post) and I see no reason why it shouldn't be a "proper" gadwall. They seem to be recorded fairly frequently over east and on the Western Isles. I initially had doubts about the bill - it looked a bit messy in its colouring and slightly on the large side (I recall male gadwalls down south as dapper grey ducks with neat black bills); however, the bodywork seems perfectly okay for gadwall, so I'll tick it for the year - and for Scotland.

I searched the harbour and the spit for yesterday's white wingers, wanting to confirm ID - but there was no sign of them.  I was surprised to see what appears to be a gadwall off the river spit.....

.....and can't quite believe it's the real thing. After all, a pintail drake turned up here a couple of years back and seemed to take up with a mallard; we saw some young later on the pond that were very approachable and looked as though they might be hybrids. I don't know if gadwall hybridise but since learning about viking gulls, I don't trust anything! Also present: Two dunlin, four turnstone, and a pair of common sandpipers.

Having spent the windy, showery morning doing domestic jobs, I decided after lunch on a quick drive up to Keanchulish, where I sat in the car for about twenty minutes listening out for a grasshopper warbler. Nothing happened, so I drove back to the village, and parked on West Terrace. There were loads of gulls down on the golf-course spit - surely there would be something good there? A scan through the bins quickly produced a white winger - amazing how well they stand out, even at a distance.

Despite the thin, misty rain and the strong wind, I walked down the ramp and across the field to the shoreline - probably a stupid idea! My hands got very cold in the wind (no heatwave for us!) and I had to keep wiping the camera lens. This white winger looks small compared with the large gulls around it, so I'll call it an Iceland gull - especially as Iceland will be a year tick!


I think it's a glaucous gull, although I'll do a bit more research - particularly with regard to the colouration of the bill. Yesterday, I saw my first common sandpiper of the year on the river spit.

We walked from home on this warm sunny day, following a well-worn path to the top of Maol Chalaisgeig - where the wind nearly blew me over! During the ascent, a cuckoo's fluty notes rang out across the river gorge, and as we paused for breath on a steep bit, a grasshopper warbler's reeling was heard from the hillside below. The reeling seemed to come from an area of grass, heather, dead bracken, pine trees, and birches; but although we stood there for some time I couldn't pinpoint the exact source of the sound (unfortunately, Greger can no longer hear it at all) and we failed to spot the bird. It was still good to hear it though, and although this is a small hill, it is still a hill - so grasshopper warbler makes its debut on my hill-walking list!

The ferry was going down the loch towards the Summer Isles as I locked my car on West Terrace this morning - and I thought "There goes my heart". But I've vowed there will be no pelagics this year until May at least, as they have become a bit of an addiction!

Yesterday, two brief bouts of reeling at Keanchulish made me hopeful of seeing a grasshopper warbler today, but there was no sign, so I drove on to Knockan as I needed some exercise. Near the bottom of the trail a stonechat flew from rock to rock.....

.....while a bit higher, a wheatear watched me from a (limestone?) outcrop.

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.