Wildlife

Kilchoan Early Bird found this fox wandering along the road at Laga Bay yesterday and concluded that either it was a sick rural fox or a stray city one.

Meanwhile, the Raptor has been out with his camera again looking for the unusual, and found this black cap at the Pier Road junction.  They're not common here - we've seen two in our time - but no doubt the Raptor will tell me he's seen plenty around his end of the village.

The Raptor also snapped this picture of a sanderling, which is a winter visitor and, again, not common in these parts.

A week ago ago the Raptor sent us a picture of a whimbrel - see post here - the first he'd seen here, but Polly Pullar has since reported seeing no less than fourteen at Achateny last week.  The Raptor has obviously not been looking in the right places.

Both swallows and house martins have arrived and seem to be in good numbers this year, though the western end of Ormsaigbeg is still lacking any house martins, having lost all ours a couple of years ago.  This is despite our having built a special martin nesting 'box' on the end of our house, which was occupied for a couple of years.

To make up for our lack of martins, we're certainly not short of house sparrows, a species which, a few years ago, seemed to be teetering on the edge of extinction - and they're in robust good health, making a terrific noise of their mating and nesting rituals.

The dunnock, by comparison, is a shy, retiring bird - except at this time of year, when the males chase the females around the garden fluttering their wings and cheeping sweet nothings.

Many thanks to Kilchoan Early Bird and the Raptor for their pictures.