Christine's walking & birds blog

Yesterday: A white-winger was spotted then lost in Loch Broom, as the ferry returned to Ullapool after a windy, sunny pelagic. I shot hopefully into the gathering of gulls - and managed to catch it.

// posted by Christine @ 4:06 AM 0 comments

After more research I've decided to record the bee spotted on our little local hill more than a week ago as a heath bumblebee (Bombus jonellus). In the info found online, the heath bumblebee is often described as being noticeably fluffy - which certainly fits the individual seen nectaring on the top of the hill in the heather.  When Greger and I went up the hill again three days ago, we got a glimpse of something like it but I couldn't get a decent shot. However, there was compensation in a hoverfly that wasn't familiar, which I've finally identified as Eriozona syrphoides (common name bear syrph or bear fly).

As for the broken-belted bumblebee that I might or might not have seen towards the end of my hill-walk on August 30th - well, I'm not so sure. It could be a white-tailed with the central yellow hairs worn away (the lemony yellow of the bands pointing to white-tailed rather than red) while my bee certainly doesn't have the neat look of a broken-belted on the assyntwildlife website. Oh well, at least I've learned about a new bumblebee species, even if I haven't seen one yet. From what I can gather, they are rather scarce.

Meanwhile, things are livening up in Loch Broom, with feeding frenzies of gulls and gannets occurring towards high tide over the last few days. Dolphins and whales might be possible, but if I'm to spot any special gulls, I'll need them to come closer to shore. As I came away from the very windy golf-course spit, I saw this female black darter, zipping around near the allotments.

On the spit itself, just before high tide, were a few common gulls, a handful of oystercatchers, and a dozen ringed plovers; while two adult turnstone were also sheltering from the weather with ten or eleven juveniles.

// posted by Christine @ 8:56 AM 0 comments

Beinn Liath Mhor a' Ghiubhais Li

I set off on this rather gloomy morning unsure whether I would make it to the top. Most of the hills around - including mine - had their heads in cloud; and the Met Office had indicated a fairly high risk of rain. I crossed the stream easily and walked up the stony, 2-kilometre track through the plantation. There was no sign of any bird life. As I took to the saturated, muddy hillside, I was suddenly beset by midges - badly enough to take my rucksack off and fish out the netted hat. Oh dear. Either my head has shrunk, or I'd grabbed Greger's hat; either way, it immediately slipped down over my eyes and was completely useless. In the end I took it off and used it to flap at the midges while holding both walking poles awkwardly in one hand.

Eventually I left the midges behind, and even the seemingly interminable steep, wet area of long grass and heather came to an end. Next stage - the peat hags. Well, at least the ground here is almost level. This gives you a breather for the next stage, which is again grass and heather, with patches of squelchy sphagnum moss. Meadow pipits were the only birds to be seen until half a dozen red grouse erupted from the ground ahead and glided off to the left and out of sight.

Arctic bearberry, its leaves turning a deep red, sprawled characteristically across a lichened boulder.

For obvious reasons, I wondered if it could be a broken-belted bumblebee (which I hadn't heard of before my investigations online this evening); but it doesn't seem quite right for that species, and in any case white-tailed bumblebees can become a bit worn towards the end of the summer. Also, this does have a bright white tail. An adult black darter dragonfly and a colourful frog were also spotted here. As I stepped thankfully onto hard ground at the start of the track, I was besieged by black flies - not midges, larger. I scrambled to get the useless hat out of the rucksack again, but by the time I had succeeded in getting it on and pulling the drawstring tight at the bottom of the netting, it was only to find that some of the flies were in there with me. Eek! Again, I took off the hat and used it to keep flapping the flies away as I made my escape. After a while, they stopped following, and all I had to worry about was the bunion on my left foot becoming a little sore and the fact that it had begun to rain - a light shower that soon passed over. I'd been lucky with the weather - unlucky with ptarmies.

// posted by Christine @ 10:56 AM 0 comments

Two days ago I walked up the quarry road in bright sunshine, spotting a bright male common darter in the usual place....

It was warm enough to convert my walking trousers into shorts, and having stuffed the "legs" into my backpack, I set off up the hill path. When I reached the turnoff to Maol Chalaisgeig (that's a blooming long name to type for a very small hill - 301m!) I decided to go up. It got more and more windy as I climbed, and at the top it was really quite cold. I was glad to put my fleece on, but didn't bother with the trouser legs as they're much harder to zip on than off! 

A gorgeously yellow bumblebee nectaring on now-fading bell heather made me wonder if I'd found my first heath bumblebee. The yellow hair on the face apparently means it's a male.

I'm not 100% sure though; it could be a white-tailed bumblebee, although I've seen several of those in the garden this year and this one looked different. More research to be done, as usual. There was also a Sericomyia silentis - sometimes known as the bog hoverfly, although it's not the only species of hoverfly to be called that.

 

Further down the slope, a nice tawny/chestnut moth fluttered into the sparse undergrowth, but I got enough of it in the picture to identify it back at home - although it took some time. It's a chevron moth (Eulithis testata).

I was pleased to find that I coped okay with the walk, and Greger (having had another, shorter, bout of his cold) decided he would do it today - in fact, we agreed to do it together. However, we woke up to grey drizzly weather that didn't invite walking anywhere, so I sat down to write this blog instead. The question is, will we get up a sizeable hill this summer? I would love to do a hill-walk for its own sake, but there is also the possibility that this will be the first time since we came to live here that ptarmigan doesn't make it onto my year list. And that would be tragic. :o( 

// posted by Christine @ 7:04 AM 0 comments

The first birds we saw on our walk, between the dunes and the farm, were swooping house martins and swallows, and a young wheatear on the remains of a wall.

The brief call of a curlew drifted up from the machair, and as we made our way down Greger spotted three waders flying past. Two black-tailed godwits and a curlew were keeping company - although a bit later we would see a flock of nine curlews - possibly all juveniles.

We had been aware for some time of small bees flying past us across the beach, and although I couldn't manage to snap one, I caught three of them by chance here, at the top of the frame.

I've seen bees on the beach once before, and they had turned out to be Colletes bees (probably Colletes succinctus); so I knew I should look for their nests up on the cliffs on the far side of the beach. In fact, these bees were heading in that direction. Sure enough, there was a great deal of activity already, with males waiting outside the excavated nesting holes in the sand to mate with emerging females. This was a fairly substantial aggregation, but apparently they can be much bigger! I retreated carefully, fearful of treading on either the bees or the striped snails which speckle the ground here like tiny white flowers.

Good to see proof of successful breeding! 

// posted by Christine @ 1:22 PM 0 comments

Quite a lot of skua activity was seen from the ferry on Monday. Flocks of kittiwakes were attracting the attentions of Arctic skuas, but two of the skuas were engaged in some quarrel of their own. Eventually they both settled on the water, and one seemed to give up and fly off; but seconds later it returned - presumably to have another go!

Back at home I got a second helping! I was standing in the garden enjoying a spell of sunshine when the herring gulls sounded the alarm. An eagle flew lazily over towards the loch followed by a second individual, both of them circling for a while before flying on, when I lost them behind the bungalow.

I failed to get a photo of the first eagle, or even see it well - but as far as the one above is concerned, I can't match it with either of the eagles I saw at Ardmair. I think it has a ring on the right leg. 

// posted by Christine @ 9:35 AM 0 comments

A painted lady in the garden today had the pristine appearance of an individual bred here this summer, compared with the raggedy appearance of the one I snapped back in May which was almost certainly a migrant.

.....the tall sickle fins and pale colouring suggesting Risso's.

// posted by Christine @ 1:31 PM 0 comments