A wedge of whooper swans with their undercarriages lowered comes in to land on the small lochan in Ormsaigmore, a stopping off point on their annual migration to Iceland.
A buzzard makes use of a mound on top of a rock outcrop as a lookout point for prey. Despite the wet weather, the buzzards seem to have done well this winter, perhaps because of abundant mice and vole populations.
This golden eagle was seen soaring over Ben Hiant. Identifying it was relatively easy - it has the species' very characteristic fan-shaped tail, in contrast to the sea eagle, whose tail is wedge-shaped.
We continue to worry about the falling numbers of shags and cormorants around our coastlines. This lone common cormorant was pictured off Ormsaigbeg.
A pair of herring gulls finds a convenient place to court on top of a caravan which has a view of beach and sea.
And our tame robin faces a sore temptation....
....to which he rapidly succumbs.
Sorry Jon, it's a Shag. I certainly envy you the Whooper Swans. They'll all be back in Iceland by the time we get to Ardnamurchan in a month's time.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Steve
Thanks, Steve. I do find them difficult to distinguish. Jon
ReplyDeleteI always think of cormorants being to shags as eagles are to buzzards - much bigger and much rarer and when you do see one you don't mistake them thereafter. Also, cormorants are brown (as opposed to shag iridescent green) with patches of white at the throat and round the legs which shags don't have.
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