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Day 75 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023

Popped to see Seonaid this morning, we sat for a couple of hours talking about all things camino – all our other friends and family just glaze over at the very mention haha! Chatting while Seonaid made the coffee (and finding the homemade date slice for us, yum!) I was looking out of the window at the bird table which is just outside and despite the rain there were lots of Goldfinches.

Day 74 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023

Did our monthly BTO WeBS counts today, slightly delayed due to the poor weather of the last few days.

Loch Bee: Most numberous birds were c390 wigeon and c340 Mute Swans. A good count of 82 Whooper Swans spread out over a fairly wide area. 24 Goldeneye, 100+ Tufted Duck, 3 Shelduck, c60 Mallard, c80 Teal, 23 Redshank, c70 Oystercatchers, 65 Dunlin, c60 Golden Plover, 3 Greenshank, 6 Buzzards, 2 White-tailed Eagles and a male Hen Harrier.

A colour-ringed Oystercatcher was photographed and we found out later in the day that it was originally ringed by our friend Chris at Dawlish, Devon, on the Exe estuary, 4th February 2018. It was seen the following year at Larne Harbour, Co. Antrim, 17th February, 2019. Possibly seen at Askernish beach in very poor light on 16th February 2023 by Bill and now our sighting today.

South Ford: I was surprised to find c112 Barnacle Geese along with several groups of Greylag. Out on the estuary the waders were starting to gather again as the tide dropped, c300 Bar-tailed Godwits, 110+ Grey Plover, c140 Dunlin, 17 Curlew, 4 Knot and a single Ringed Plover. c115 Black-headed Gulls were in the area near Hebridean Jewellery.

Colour-ringed Oystercatcher
Teal

Day 73 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023

I was woken with a start during the early hours of this morning, “wow“, I thought, “that rain is heavy“. It was absolutely hammering down. It wasn’t until I got up and looked out of the window that I realised that it had been hail not rain!

After seeing the size of the hail I checked the van and the house roof for damaged tiles but there didn’t seem to be any thankfully!

Day 72 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023

An absolutely awful day weather-wise, getting so fed up of bad weather and the cold and winter, the only thing I did today worthy of a photograph was popping to the Co-op for some supplies. Poor MisterT, as i’m still not able to lift heavy bags, he got the job of packing the shopping into the van and taking the trolley back!

I wasn’t laughing, honest…

Day 71 / 365 – Photo a Day Project 2023

Part way through the morning a friend from North Uist phoned, I was chatting merrily away to him and suddenly he disappeared. “Hmm strange“, I thought. Phone rang again and he was on his mobile, “we had a power cut” he said. After we’d finished chatting I thought, “time for coffee!” I headed into the kitchen and was met by silence, total silence. I realised not even the fridge was running and that we also had a power cut. We are not usually off for long but I really needed coffee and my camping stove was handy on the worktop, ready for taking on a wee jaunt so I fired it up and made a brew.

The power cut was island-wide, from Lewis to Barra and also part of Skye and lasted a few hours. I don’t know what the problem was.

My trusty, and fairly old, Trangia stove, it runs on meths and though heavyish for taking hiking is a joy to use and very efficient. I treated myself last year to a fire starter which has a bone handle and was made by my friend Ani from Cast of Antlers Crafts