Bird News

We were very sad to come across the remains of a raptor up on the Ormsaigbeg common grazings yesterday.  There's no suggestion that it died of anything but natural causes, but we wanted to know what species it was, so asked our local expert, the Raptor.  His researches led him to the identification of a female kestrel.

There have been at least one kestrel around all winter, and we photographed it hovering near the house back in October, link here, but we've not seen one recently.

The Raptor has also sorted me out on water rails, with the news that he's seen them in Kilchoan.  He says, "This one was snapped in my garden eating bread with the wee birds on 04 January 2010 during the very cold winter where we had frost for weeks on end. I also saw one running across the lane in front of the house just a couple of weeks ago."

Dave King tried to post a comment on the water rail entry but, like so many before him, was defeated by Google's comments system.  He writes, "The BTO Bird Atlas 2007-2011 shows the water rail overwintering in your grid square. The nearest breeding areas appear to be Coll/Tiree, Ardgour/Glencoe and Eigg, so they are quite close.'

Many thanks to the Raptor and Dave - I obviously haven't been looking in the right places.

Water rail pictures from the Raptor.

More Firsts for This Year

One of the great pleasures of spring, albeit a late one, is seeing the animals and insects emerge from their winter hibernation.  So it was sad to find the first slow worm in the middle of the road having just been run over by a car.  We picked it up and put it into the grass in the hope it would recover, but its writings were painful to watch.

This is the first beetle of the year, a glorious steel blue coloured animal which didn't move as it had its portrait taken, even though the sun was out. Perhaps it had emerged a little too soon, and was suffering from the cold.

I think this may be an oil beetle. It's about 25mm long.

The year's first crane fly took up station on our sitting room window yesterday evening and, like the beetle, seemed very reluctant to move - well, he did have a very fine view down the Sound of Mull on a lovely sunny evening.  However, by that time, the midday 17C had fallen drastically, so he may also have been too cold to move.

This may be the caterpillar of the drinker moth, Euthrix potatoria.  Whatever it is, it was far more active than the crane fly or beetle, having found a prominent position on a bunch of grass so it could take full advantage of the late afternoon sunshine.

Lastly, the human animal is also beginning to emerge, congregating in floating hotels called cruise ships.  We've seen the Hebridean Princess a couple of times recently, but she's a small, select cruise ship compared to this one, the much larger Marco Polo.  She's usually the first big cruise ship we see each year, and she's picture here from the top of Beinn na Seilg anchored off Tobermory Bay.

The 'Mythological' Water Rail

The Diary today ate humble pie.

Having, for some very long time, scoffed at the idea there might be a resident water rail at Achosnich, describing the bird as 'mythological', the long-sought after photographic evidence has finally arrived.

There shouldn't be any water rails at Achosnich.  It's way outside their general distribution - see RSPB site here, which states categorically that the species is "absent from upland areas", and Achosnich also lacks the sort of lowland wetland/lake environments favoured by the bird.

The BBC Nature site, here, describes it as an, "oddity among British birds", not least for, its "pig-like squealing, and a fondness for impaling wrens with a spear thrust of the beak".  The site continues, "They are unpredictable and noisy, yet reclusive."

So, apologies to Mr Richard O'Connor of Achosnich, though the matter could have been sorted much earlier had Mr O'Connor made a habit of taking his camera out with him when he fed his birds, rather than hurrying back to the house to collect it each time the rail appeared.

Photo courtesy Richard O'Connor, with thanks.

Out on the Sound

This morning's early mist rolled away to give us a glorious morning, with hardly a breath of wind to ruffle the waters of the Sound of Mull.

By ten o'clock the sun was bright in the sky and was soon joined up there by some high cirrus and....

....increasing numbers of 'planes, until the air space over Mull looked dangerously crowded.  Everyone seems to be rushing everywhere except the creel boat, at bottom left, and....

....a kayaker, who spent the night at Trevor's campsite and was out early on the water, along with....

....several shags - I'm still uncertain of my differentiation between shags and cormorants, but this one does have a shag-like crest.
 

Soon afterwards Nan MacLachlan contacted us to say that a pod of dolphins was playing in the bay between the pier and Mingary Castle, and shortly afterwards they came along the coast and gave us....

....a fine display of acrobatics off Ormsaigbeg.  It's very difficult to estimate how many were in the pod but it must have been at least thirty.

They moved off westwards along the coast, though one turned back and seemed intent on giving this cormorant a few worrying moments.

A little later a gaggle of over thirty whooper swans drifted in towards Kilchoan.  We hadn't seen them arrive so they may have landed far out on the Sound during the night.

As they came closer to the shore they began to form a circle, gently paddling round and round in the sunshine.

Ella MacDonald

A memorial service for the late Ella MacDonald, wife of Rev. Ian MacDonald, will be held at Kilchoan parish church on Tuesday 7th April at 2.30pm.