Sunday, January 1, 2012

VERY MODEST START!

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
An' I'm feelin' good

And so, in time honoured fashion, I set out to commence battle and start a new year list!  Whilst dawn broke clear, and with promise, even to an odd shaft of sunlight here and there, the entirety was somewhat different. Down at the coast the SW wind was whistling in the wires and the sea decidedly robust with large breakers coming into the bay. Nothing appeared to be on the move other than a few Shag, but a pair and three single Fulmar were on the usual breeding cliff on Eilean Mhic Coinnich island around the corner from where , last year, the Gyr Falcon had so often perched. No such luck at present  and , shortly after , the pattern for the day set in when, at the point I was farthest from the car, it grew dark and absolutely threw it down for quite a time..

Eventually I returned home after seeing a few routine species ( Barnacle Goose, Grey lag Goose, G.B.B.G., Herring Gull, Rock Dove but little else ) to both get changed  and see how things turned out. " Mixed " would be the most charitable way of describing the rest of the day, so I was content to have a couple of walks out from home over the nearby grass moor to the coast  and toward the conifer plantations in the other direction. In the end a modest list of birds was seen including Chough, Raven, Hooded Crow, Buzzard, Fieldfare but nothing else of particular note. The ground is absolutely saturated at present and outwintered cattle are having a miserable time of it besides it being a difficult job getting fodder out to them. The forecast holds out little hope for improvement with another promised bashing from high winds mid week.

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