What's a Wire For?

We're very good at stringing up wires all over the countryside, and usually they're a nuisance, though West Ardnamurchan is probably exceptional in how few fences it has to impede the rambler. However fences do have a very positive use, as perches for small birds.

This is a redpoll, a species which we used to see frequently at our feeders last summer, but which hasn't appeared there at all this year, probably another terrorised by the house sparrows and chaffinches.

Barbed wire may deter the walker, but is usually there to prevent cattle from rubbing against the fence and knocking it down, but a few spikes don't worry a very smart male stonechat.

For some, the wires are a bit too thin, but the posts which hold them up serve as useful a purpose. This is a 'this year' buzzard, which has been flying up and down the length of Ormsaigbeg complaining about the poor quality and quantity of food provided by its long-suffering parents.

We had rather despaired of seeing a young buzzard this year - usually there's always one - as the hooded crows had taken over the buzzards' usually trees, so they must have reared this one somewhere secret.