Natural Scotland

Birds

2010-06-29T16:17:00.003+01:00

We seem to have an abundance of sparrows up here this year. It's causing the odd punch-up on the bird feeders:

Though some species do manage to share it in peace:

Fortunately the hooded crow hasn't tried to hop on yet - he nearly breaks the fence, so I dread to think what he'd do to the feeder:

I'm trying to make more time for photography in my life, so yesterday morning I went down to the beach for an hour before breakfast, hoping to see the otter. This was the best picture I got during that time:

Not encouraging!! But today I went to the puffinry at Drumholistan and got some of my best pictures to date, which cheered me up no end:

I was amazed how close they let me get - apart from the first picture with just the puffin's head in it, these are uncropped photos.

Catching up (or What I Did On My Holidays)

2010-06-14T14:43:00.003+01:00

Work is getting in the way of photography unfortunately, but here's a quick catch-up. Went on the Scullomie to Sletell ranger walk and saw this rather fine palmate newt:

Then it was off to Gairloch for a week with Mum and my cousin. Gairloch's very pretty:

And it was just my luck that after all the time I've spent looking for otters up here, the first time I get to photograph one is when it pops up in the bay in front of me as I'm having breakfast on holiday!

We saw some very dramatic weather at Red Point:

The astonishing Torridon mountain range:

The most photographed house on the Applecross peninsula:

Great Skua:

The intrepid explorers:

Curlews

2010-04-25T17:55:00.001+01:00

Lots of them about at the moment. Spotted them at Lednagullin, Bighouse and West Murkle.

Sightings and this year's ranger walks

2010-04-23T20:48:00.002+01:00

I'm going to try and record sightings here as well so that in years to come I have a record of what I've seen, when and where. So on Wednesday afternoon I was running on Melvich beach, slowed down to climb over the rocky section by the pier which I'd forgotten was there, and saw two wrens darting about in the rocks. They were nest building and didn't seem to mind my presence at all, I got within 8-10 feet of them.

The ranger walks are starting up again for the year and it's a good program. They're finally starting to charge for them, which I think is long overdue - previously it's been a voluntary donation, but our ranger generally forgot to ask at the end of a walk. This is what's on in my area this season that I want to go to:

Friday 7th May 12-3pm Scullomie to Sletell. Coastal hill walk to the abandoned post clearance settlement of Sletell. Lots of plants, hopefully displaying newts in pool.

Thursday 13th May 12-3pm Strathy Picts, Priests and pools. Walk to see the Pictish Priest's Stone, then on to the Rocking Stone (used to call the clan) and return via a lovely bog pool system. (I shall miss this one because I'll be on holiday with Mum and one of my cousins, but I did it last year - an excellent walk but over rough ground, so ankle-supporting boots definitely needed.)

Thursday 20th May 11am-2pm Invernaver. Wonderful wildflowers and archeology. Eat lunch in the remains of a Broch with stunning views. Return along one of the best beaches in Sutherland.

Friday 21st May 1-3pm Strathy Point Sea Watch. Look for whales and dolphins as part of Biodiversity Week. Telescopes provided, bring binoculars.

Tuesday 25th May 10am-3pm Ben Hutig. Stunning views, chance of golden eagle, ravens, moorland plants, returning along the top of Ben Hutig. (I did this 2 years ago, but the weather was so bad we came round the base of the Ben. It nearly killed me, but I'm a lot fitter now.)

Wednesday 26th May 2-5pm Armadale Burn. Enjoy a walk along this steep-sided river gorge, see masses of common primroses, other plants and archeology.

Tuesday 8th June 10am-2pm Watch Hill. Superb views over the Kyle of Tongue and beyond from Cnoc an Fhreiceadeain.

Saturday 12th June 12-2pm See the Point. Cliff top walk around Strathy Point headland. Sea caves, birds and superb show of sea pink. Possibly a whale, dolphin or porpoise.

Wednesday 16th June 2-5pm Portskerra to Melvich Dunes. Masses of coastal wildflowers and a bit of beachcoming for mermaids purses.

Wednesday 30th June 10.30am-12pm Puffin Watch. Join the ranger at the largest local puffin colony to view these popular clowns of the ocean. A telescope is provided, bring your binoculars and camears.

Friday 2nd July 12-2pm Strathy Point Sea Watch. Look for whales and dolphins at Strathy Point. Telescopes provided, bring binoculars.

Thursday 8th July 5-7pm Portskerra Sea Watch. Bring binoculars and look for whales, dolphins and porpoises with the ranger. Telescopes provided.

Friday 9th July 12-3pm Puffin Along to Melvich. View the puffins then enjoy a cliff top walk to Melvich Bay.

Thursday 22nd July 1-4pm Skerray's Stunning Coast. Lovely views across Torrisdale Bay and out to Island Nieve. High cliff top walk with great geology and plants.

Friday 23rd July 3-5pm Farr Bay and Bumblebees. Amble around Farr Bay with the ranger looking at plants and our bumblebee reserve. Hopefully see the rare great yellow bumblebee.

Wednesday 4th August 1-3pm Armadale Bay. Join the ranger on a bracing walk around Armadale Bay. Let's see if the dragon is roaring at the gloup.

Thursday 12th August 2-5pm Presentation and Sea Watch. Enjoy a digital presentation on whales/dolphins at Strathy Inn then out to Strathy Point for a guided sea watch.

Thursday 26th August 5-7pm Strathy Point Sea Watch. Early evening watch for whales, dolphins and porpoises. Telescopes provided, bring binoculars.

Tuesday 31st August 10am-1pm Talmine Treasures. Masses of beautiful plants including lesser butterfly orchids. Interesting geology and sea life en route to Port Vasgo.

Wednesday 1st September 12-3pm Armadale to Kirtomy. Fairly demanding hill walk passing the deserted settlement of Poulouriscaig and on to Kirtomy.

Saturday 11th September 11am-2pm Portskerra to Strathy Bay. Stunning hidden coastal walk with promontory fort and lime kilns. Fantastic views of the north coast.

Tuesday 14th September 10am-3pm Ben Arnaboll. Hill walk with fine views over Loch Hope and Loch Eriboll. Geology of the Moine, wildlife and a bit of recent history.

Saturday 2nd October 11am-2pm Scullomie to Strathan. Fantastic cliff top walk passing the abandoned post clearance settlement of Sletell.

Tuesday 5th October 10am-12pm Castle Bharraich. Interesting ruin, superb views over the Kyle of Tongue.

Saturday 9th October 11am-2pm The Borg to Dyke. Walk through the Dyke Forest and on to hill, west underfoot. Archeology and hopefully rutting deer.

Apologies for the radio silence

2010-04-19T20:06:00.003+01:00

...but in the two months since I last posted, I've barely had time to pick up a camera unless it was to shoot pictures of beads.

I saw the otter again yesterday whilst walking the dogs - you guessed it, no camera. And, worse, the dogs chased it and caught up with it, though it swam off with no apparent injuries, a ginormous fish still firmly clamped in its mouth. Today I walked the dogs in the field and then went back down to the beach with my camera. No otter, but plenty of oystercatchers:

And it wouldn't be a beach birds set without a ringed plover in there somewhere!

I think this is a female wheatear - I'm checking with knowledgeable people:

On the way back up to the house I took the opportunity to photograph my favourite sheep. This is Polly, she belongs to my neighbours and is due to lamb any day now:

I'm beginning to love sheep portraits - should I be getting worried??

Yet more deer

2010-02-08T18:31:00.002Z

In snow this time, courtesy of a car-shopping trip to Inverness.

More stags

2010-01-24T16:47:00.003Z

Between Badanloch and the Garvault hotel this time.

One of these days I'll get up there in decent light...

WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

2010-01-19T07:37:00.004Z

Four of my robin pictures have been accepted by Alamy!!!

Alamy is what I'd term a 'proper' stock agency, i.e. it pays contributors a decent rate rather than the few cents per picture the microstock agencies pay. Look in almost any women's glossy magazine in the UK and you'll probably see an alamy.com credit somewhere.

I don't actually care whether they sell or not - Alamy thinks I'm good enough. That's made my morning :o)

Adverse weather conditions

2009-12-29T13:17:00.002Z

We've got snow. Lots of snow:

That was the track up to Polouriscaig this morning. I'd gone up in search of deer (much as I wanted to drive down the Strath and look for stags, I doubt my car would have made it up the drive!), but half way up the hill more snow clouds started rolling in and I had to turn back. I saw a fox, but didn't get my camera to my eye before it had legged it, so the only life I managed to capture on film was a rather chilly sheep:

I retreated to the garden and shot birds instead. My little robin is looking considerably less tatty:

Though he's somewhat put out by the presence of another two robins in the garden - they were having a bust-up on the shed roof when I got there, but they're so quick I couldn't catch it. He was eyeing up the feeders:

Now, I've always read that robins won't eat from bird feeders, they'll only eat off the ground. My robins obviously haven't read that book:

It's been a bumper day for chaffinches as well, I counted 12 at one point:

And the trusty RSPB bird identifier tells me this is a dunnock:

Something that looked remarkably like a blue tit landed on the shed roof at one point, but didn't stay long enough for me to get a proper look at it. It'll be the first one I've seen here if it was, so I shall keep my eyes peeled.

More snow due over the next couple of days, so more garden bird photos on their way, possibly!

When you're smiling...

2009-12-09T14:59:00.002Z

Two posts in one day (don't get used to this!), but I've got some more pictures that I never got round to posting up.

There weren't as many seals around this time, the bay was calm so most of them were out at sea, but I did spend a while photographing these three - love the smiles:

Since the sandy side beach was totally empty, I went for a walk along it. Seals are curious creatures and I soon had an escort:

Or two...:

I think pupping is more or less over for the year. Now that I know what's where, I can hopefully get out and about more in October and November next year. I've heard about a pupping beach that may be closer than the one I was visiting, but I'm not sure how easy it is to get to.

The robin's been in a fight I think - he was looking very tatty:

Maybe the sparrows have been beating him up again:

Otterly fantastic

2009-12-09T14:43:00.002Z

Sorry for abandoning you through November, but it's my busiest month and I barely got time to pick up my camera other than to photograph beads.

No pictures in this post either, but I wanted to report some progress in my quest to photograph otters. I have a veg patch with a view - it's in our bottom field, so it looks out over the bay. On Sunday morning I was happily getting on with digging it over (my neighbour kindly drove two tons of well-rotted manure down there for me over the summer and it needs to go on) when something caught my eye in the water. It was a flat calm day and the tide was high and there were two otters fishing in the shallows. I watched them for about half an hour.

After lunch today the sky was blue and all the work that really, really HAD to be done was done, so I went back to my manure-spreading. The veg patch is in the bottom corner of the field, next to our fence. There's a steep bank and our neighbour on the other side has fenced about 20 feet of flat ground off for vegetables before there's another, flatter, bank. In this flatter bank is a large rabbit hole, which the dogs always go and investigate when we're down there. Today I saw what I thought was a cat sitting in the grass beside it. My brain was telling me there was something odd about the shape of its head, so I looked again - and saw the second otter emerging from the hole! The first otter bounced off past the neighbour's gate and down to the beach and the second one disappeared back down the hole - so I think we may be on for cubs next year!

Early mornings

2009-10-25T13:01:00.003Z

I was up at half past five this morning (though to be fair to the dogs their body clocks were saying half past six), so decided to make the trek over to John O'Groats to the grey seal beach.

Glad I did. Grey seal pups are one of the cutest creatures alive.

And the beach was just packed with seals:

They're by no means tame, but by staying low and moving slowly, you can get very close without spooking them:

The focus is a little bit off on this, damn it, but I couldn't resist keeping it:

And I never knew seals could boggle, but this one's eyes are almost out of its head!:

The males get very, very aggressive at this time of year, but there wasn't much fighting going on this morning, the worst of it was a bit of handbagging:

And how's this for a goofy grin?:

I spent about two hours there and would have stayed longer, despite the rain, if it wasn't for someone coming over the top of the dunes with a camera and marching straight up to the seals, who promptly disappeared into the water. 100+ seals all galumphing off a beach in under 2 minutes is an impressive sight though.

Right place, right time

2009-10-18T12:05:00.002+01:00

There are precious few places in the world where you can be standing on your back door step at 10 o'clock at night, letting your dogs out for their last sniff round the garden and listening to red stags roaring in the hills all around you. Since I'm lucky enough to live in one of them and I happened to be awake at half past six this morning, I thought I'd jump in the car and drive the big square from home to Tongue to Altnaharra to Syre to Kinbrace to Melvich to home again in search of deer.

I must have seen about 300.

Unfortunately many of them were at that time where it's dark enough for them to still be feeling comfortable near the road, but not quite light enough for the camera to get decent results. Still, by 9am the shots were getting acceptable:

Remember this guy? Look at the last but one photo in this post and then compare - I think it's the same stag and that missing antler is just the way it grows each year.

And then I found this chap, with a herd of 12 hinds. They were happy enough to let me photograph them for a while:

But after five minutes they decided they'd had enough and took off in the most photograph-friendly fashion you could imagine!

I just wish they'd done it in better light! I spent three and half hours driving around in the pouring rain only to get home and find sunshine...

A trip to Inverness

2009-10-11T10:30:00.003+01:00

I prepared for this one. I got the big lens out and kept my camera on the passenger seat all the way down the Strath Halladale road. What did I see? That's right, absolutely nothing! Two buzzards, which were little more than pinpricks in the sky, and a hedgehog which had hidden in the undergrowth by the time I'd stopped and jumped out of the car.

So it was more in hope than expectation that I set out from my hotel room early the following morning in search of the dolphins that can often be seen from the sea walls. As it turned out, I got a bit lost and ended up at Carnac Point instead, which is just to the west of the Kessock Bridge. No dolphins (surprise, surprise) because the tide was too low, but I had fun watching this grey heron:

They're not the most aerodynamic of birds:

Preparing for landing:

Landing gear engaged:

Touchdown!:

I attempted an artistic shot of the Kessock Bridge - this was my best effort:

I went up the Crask road on the way back. I had my camera on the front seat again, just in case there was a spectacular sunset over Ben Loyal, but the long lens was in the back because I thought with my luck there was no way I was going to see anything. Wrong. This was a couple of miles south of Altnaharra:

It's the rutting season for red deer and this stag was walking his hinds up the hill towards another group. I couldn't see the second stag, but I could certainly hear him - the two were roaring at each other:

That was that, or so I thought - it was so dark by the time I left the passing place I was pulled into that I had my headlights on. But no, a few miles past Altnaharra I found these two young red deer - and this is where I thanked Canon for image stabilisation! These shots were taken at 390mm focal length with a shutter speed of 1/60th and the only support was my elbows braced against the car window.

Catching up

2009-10-02T18:11:00.003+01:00

I finally got round to editing the photos stacking up on my hard drive!

The robin is back in the garden and having singing competitions with the robin next door. If you think the perspective looks a bit odd, you'd be right - he was sitting on top of a telegraph pole!

Back down at fence-post level:

The rabbits have been stuffing themselves in preparation for winter:

And we had a surprise next door - one of the Shetlands foaled (no-one knew she was pregnant!):

The dogs are enjoying the last of the good weather on the beach:

The seas are picking up and soon it'll be winter again...

I saw an otter on the beach on Wednesday and nearly saw it again this morning - there were fresh prints in the sand and if I hadn't stopped to go 'Ooooooh, foal!' I'd have probably seen it again.

Polouriscaig revisited

2009-08-23T18:40:00.002+01:00

Last Friday was the ranger walk to Polouriscaig, the abandoned post-clearance village in the hills behind Armadale. I went there last summer and hadn't been back since, so I awarded myself the afternoon off, taking just my short telephoto kit lens with me. (You can see what's coming, can't you...?)

It was an absolutely gorgeous afternoon for a walk:

The heather was in bloom, turning the hills purple, and mushrooms were sprouting up left, right and centre:

It had rained heavily in the past two days and frogs were making the most of the streams of water running down the track:

Polouriscaig itself is just four houses set in a valley, this being the most complete:

After a good look around the village, we sat on the hill behind to catch our breath and a merlin flew past, so engrossed in her pursuit of a meadow pippit that she flew within 15 feet of us and we were treated to a spectacular aerial display as the pippit tried to escape. The ranger said that it was incredibly rare for them to come that close to humans - and, of course, I didn't have my big lens! Still a privilege to see it. I don't know what happened to the pippit, they dropped out of sight.

On the far side of that hill and over a small moor there's another house which I didn't know about. It's not as well built as the others and it's almost gone, but the view from it was spectacular:

The mound you can see in the bottom right of that picture is a huge red granite rock which must look amazing at sunset. Next summer I may just take a tent up and photograph it at sunset (I'm not even going to attempt the trip back in the dark, it's a 2-hour walk and I'd be lost in about two seconds flat!)

It was at this point that the rain clouds caught up with us and we all got soaked. It blew over pretty fast and made for an amazing view towards Strathy Point lighthouse on the way back (that's Hoy, one of the Orkney Islands, in the background):

The ranger says that in October and November deer gather in the first valley over the hill - I shall go and have a look.

Apologies...

2009-07-29T16:37:00.002+01:00

I know it's been over a month since I updated, but I've been swamped with work (this is actually a good thing!) and haven't had a chance to get out with the camera.

However, we've had some of the other half's family staying after a wedding and on Sunday we took a trip down Strath Halladale. This chap and some of his bachelor friends were on the road between Kinbrace and Syre. It was chucking it down, but I managed to leap out of the car and grab a few shots without getting the camera too soggy.

I seem to be going through a bit of a black and white phase, by the way.

Strathy Forest

2009-06-21T13:39:00.003+01:00

Smokey and I went for a walk into Strathy Forest yesterday, because I wanted to see if I could find the rocking stone again.

You stand on top of it and wobble from side to side and it makes an immense noise that, before the forest was planted, you would have been able to hear all over the valley:

Both times I've been in that forest I've been lucky and seen deer:

She and her two friends disappeared sharpish - Smokey was so excited by the smell that he ran the entire length of the loch and disappeared into the forest after them. Thank goodness for whistle training, but it made for one tired hound:

And my best wildlife photos from the afternoon? Taken less than 20 feet from the main road, where there are golden plovers nesting right beside the track!

An hour in the garden

2009-06-04T18:15:00.004+01:00

Inspired by Springwatch, I thought I'd try to get some pictures of the wildlife around the garden at the moment.

I started with the starlings in the letterbox. They're still feeding madly - caterpillars for breakfast again:

Then I headed down the fields and had to take a couple of gratuitously cute rabbit shots:

In our bottom field we have a skylark nesting:

And the sheep are, as ever, a joy to photograph, though I wish I hadn't taken this one through sheep netting - I'll have to shoot her again on a sunny day:

Then I topped up the bird feeders and settled down to see what turned up. This is my shot of the day:

It got busy:

The sparrows brought their three fledglings down from the kitchen roof - here are two of them stretching their wings, though I think they look like they're about to burst into a rousing music hall chorus!

Lots more bird pictures if you click on any of the above to go through to my Flickr account, but I'll leave you with this picture of Dunnet beach taken last weekend. Remember all those shots they show on the news of beaches so packed that every square inch of sand is covered with towels? This is what the most popular beach in the area looked like on the hottest Sunday afternoon of the year so far (about 25C):

We counted 18 families on its two-mile stretch :o)

Terned on

2009-05-27T16:22:00.003+01:00

After spending the afternoon in Strathy Forest on a ranger walk (didn't have the camera, so of course we saw deer!), I got home just in time to jump out of the car, grab my camera bag and head down to the beach with Mick and Smokey. The otter, predictably, failed to put in an appearance, but I think this picture of two Arctic terns has to be on my shortlist for favourite shot of the year :o)

We watched them fishing for a while and although I didn't get any shots of the spectacular dive they do, I did get these:

Smokey was content to hunt down and kill those lethal tennis balls:

And finally some shots from Borgie Glen on Sunday. Not the best light, but definitely a place to go back to on a summer evening or in the snow:

It's all about luck

2009-05-25T18:26:00.003+01:00

Because I'd done the last three dog walks by myself, I was all prepared to let Mick take Smokey out on his own this evening, especially since he was going back up on the hill. But then he stuck his head back through the kitchen door and said because the tide was out he was going to go down to the beach instead and I changed my mind and went with him.

We walked along at the water's edge and saw the sand appear to bubble as the waves washed over it. Lugworm holes, lots and lots of them. And that was when Mick saw the otter.

It took me a good five minutes to see it, I was looking too far out, but it stayed in view for easily half an hour, swimming between waves, diving through them with a flick of its tail.

Did I have my camera with me? Of course not :o) But I shall go down tomorrow at the same time and look again. Maybe I'll be lucky...

Note to self: seen approx 5.30pm, low tide approx 2.45pm.

Seawatching

2009-05-23T09:00:00.003+01:00

The ranger had organised a seawatch off Strathy Point last night and we were in luck - two minke whales feeding, a pod of 15-30 common dolphins (too far away to count accurately) and a small pod of five or six Risso's dolphins which swam right up to the east side of the point where we were sitting:

A few more puffins

2009-05-20T07:09:00.004+01:00

Took these last week and hadn't got round to putting them up. Very few birds out on the rock, only seven or eight in view at any one time. They're all incubating eggs at the bottom of the burrows at the moment and then in a week or two will be out madly fishing to feed the pufflings (isn't that just the best name ever for something that's basically a fluffy ball of grey feathers??).

We have starlings nesting in our letterbox. Mick's fixed a latch to the back of it so it can't blow open accidentally in the wind and when we put our ear to it yesterday we could hear cheeping noises, so they've hatched out. I also went on my first ranger walk of the year yesterday, up the Armadale burn. Came back with a Sika deer antler found by the ranger and a headful of new plant names, most of which I will probably fail to remember again. I didn't take the camera because the sky was flat - big mistake as if I'd had the macro lens with me I'd be able to show you pictures of tiger beetles, dor beetles, frogs and a baby toad which has to be one of the most adorable amphibians I've ever seen. I'll try and get back up there the next time I have a free afternoon in good light.

O'Neill Cold Water Classic at Brims Ness

2009-04-30T16:57:00.004+01:00

Stopped off at the surfing competition for an hour to see if I could get the image stabiliser working when I'm panning moving objects - a 6 star surfing event makes for pretty good practice :o)

These guys are some of the world's top surfers and these shots are barely cropped at all, other than to straighten the horizons.

Walking back to the car, I saw a seal bobbing up and down in the shallows, no doubt wondering when he'll get his coast back!

I'm in love

2009-04-29T18:49:00.002+01:00

Half an hour of good light, topped-up bird feeders and a new Canon 100-400mm L lens - bliss :o)

I've only taken 10 shots with it and I'm already head over heels with this lens. Can't wait to try it out on the surfers and puffins!

Scottish Natural Heritage

2009-04-28T07:55:00.002+01:00

Thanks to Mike for a comment reminding me that it's Scottish Natural Heritage's Biodiversity Week coming up again and therefore there's another competition. Details are here:

http://www.snh.org.uk/biodiversityweek/photo_contest.asp

(Lens should be here tomorrow!)

gulp

2009-04-27T06:49:00.002+01:00

My piggy bank will not be speaking to me, but one Canon 100-400mm L lens plus 1.4X extender ordered and paid for - it's being sent Special Delivery today so I should have it tomorrow or Wednesday. Stand by for lots of surfer and puffin shots while I get to grips with it!

The puffins return

2009-04-25T18:20:00.004+01:00

Remember last year I went looking for puffins? Those photos were pretty terrible, so when I heard that the puffins were starting to arrive back in Caithness, I vowed I was going to do better this year.

I knew there had to be a better vantage point to photograph from than the one I got from my foolhardy scramble down the little gorge, so I crossed over it back near the road, where it's still a stream, and walked down to the cliff edge on that side to see if I could get any closer.

And, sure enough, there was a steep slope with a sheep track at the bottom of it and landing on the sides of that slope were puffins!

I sat at the top and watched them for a bit. After a while I spotted a sheep track curving down the slope to meet up with the one below and decided to scramble down it (this involved a very undignified 'reverse all-fours' manoeuvre, but it kept me low to the ground and safe). I bottom-shuffled along a small ridge, thinking I'd sit on the end of it, only to find it ended in a 3 foot drop to a flat area where I could sit with my back to the ridge and have a ringside seat of all the action on the puffinry. And, as you can see from this shot of a very small section of it, there was lots going on:

Males clear out the burrow they've chosen and line it:

These two have paired up - clashing beaks together is called billing and is a bonding action; it's the puffin equivalent of kissing I suppose!

With so many birds zooming in and out, there's bound to be the odd collision...

Lots more on my Flickr account if you click through on any of the pictures above. This is about the limit of what this lens can do - I was having to shoot at ISO640/1000 to get shutter speeds fast enough for a non-image stabilised lens at 300mm. What with the professional surfers turning up in Thurso next week I'm being SO tempted to raid my piggy bank for that 100-400mm...

Lazing on a sunny afternoon...

2009-04-15T16:06:00.002+01:00

One warm gravel path, one very happy small tortoiseshell butterfly...

This little bird has been hanging around the garden for a while. On Monday, while I was pulling 'Orrible Purple Stuff out of the flower borders and Smokey was on the lawn tucking into a cow hip joint as big as his head, he was pottering around the bottom of the bird feeders less than six feet away from us, completely unconcerned. Not sure if it's a young chaffinch or a young greenfinch or something else though!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T09:35:00.003+01:00

The ewes and lambs get numbered in order of birth - makes it easy to see whose lamb is whose and keep track of their age:

Smokey is still loving being out and about:

And he's now allowed to do this:

A week on Wednesday he can go off-lead on the flat and I get my camera arm back!!

Reports are in that the first puffins are arriving at Duncansby Stacks. I'll go out and have a look at the stack off Drumholistan in the next few days and see if they're starting to come back there.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!

2009-03-27T12:34:00.002Z

I haven't forgotten how to blog, but we've had a new addition to the family:

and at the moment he's recovering from an operation on his leg, so I'm doing three walks a day on the lead round the village, which leaves me too worn out to even think about going out anywhere else!!

Normal service will, hopefully, be resumed in a few weeks when he starts to get back to normal...

Ranger walks

2009-03-03T19:30:00.001Z

The 2009 booklet for Caithness & SUtherland's guided ranger walks has been published. Here are the ones near me, a few of which I hope to go on.

North Sutherland
Wed 6th May: 12-3 Scullomie to Sletell
Coastal hill walk to the abandoned post clearance settlement of Sletell. Lots of plants and hopefully displaying newts in pool.

Tues 19th May: 10-2 Armadale Burn
As part of biodiversity week enjoy a walk along this steep sided river gorge to see masses of common primroses, other plants and archaeology. Shallow river ford to cross.

Fri 22nd May: 5-7 Strathy Point Sea Watch
Look for whales and dolphins at Strathy Point as part of biodiversity week. Telescopes provided, bring binoculars.

Tues 26th May: 2-4.30 Strathy Picts, Priests and Pools
Walk to see the Pictish Priest's Stone, then on to the Rocking Stone (used to call the clan) and return via a lovely bog pool system.

Tues 2nd June: 10-2 Invernaver - Broch and Beach
Wonderful wildflowers and one of the best beaches in Sutherland. Lunch in the remains of a Broch with stunning views. Steep 100m walk to Broch remains.

Fri 5th June: 1-4 Talmine Treasures
Masses of beautiful plants, including lesser butterfly orchids. Interesting geology and possibly even porpoise to see en route to Port Vasgo.

Tues 9th June: 2-4 See the Point
Bracing cliff top walk around Strathy Point headland. Sea caves, birds and a superb show of sea pink (thrift). Possibly a whale or porpoise to be seen.

Wed 10th June: 6-7.30 Amble around Lamigo
Join the ranger for an early evening walk around a local croft to see the wildflowers encouraged to grow there, including lesser butterfly orchids.

Fri 12th June: 12-4 Cnoc an Fhreiceadeain (Watch Hill)
Fantastic views over the Kyle of Tongue and surrounding area from the Watch Hill (307m) then head on to Ben Tongue.

Wed 17th June: 2-5 Puffin Along to Melvich
View the best puffin colony on the north coast then enjoy a great coastal cliff top walk along to Melvich bay.

Fri 19th June: 5-7 Seawatch at Portskerra
Bring binoculars and look for whales and dolphins at Portskerra with the ranger. Telescopes provided.

Tues 30th June: 5-7 Seawatch at Strathy Point.
Early evening sea watch at Strathy Point. Look for whales and dolphins. Telescopes provided, bring binoculars.

Thurs 2nd July: 2-5 Skerray's Stunning Coast
Lovely views across Torrisdale Bay and out to Island Nieve. High cliff top walk with great geology and plants.

Tues 21st July: 3-5 Farr Bay and Bumblebees
Amble around Farr Bay with the ranger looking at plants and our bumblebee reserve. Hopefully see the extremely rare great yellow bumblebee.

Wed 22nd July: 1-3 Tongue Rockpools
Bring the whole family and have fun rock pooling with the ranger in the Kyle of Tongue. Some nets provided, but also bring your own and wellies.

Fri 24th July: 2-5 Strathy Bay
Explore Strathy Bay with the ranger. Can we find the legendary Captain Ivy's Cave? Bring a torch and let's see.

Tues 28th July: 3-4.30 Puffin Watch
Join the ranger at the largest puffin breeding colony in the area to view the antics of these popular clowns of the ocean. Telescope provided, but bring your binoculars.

Wed 29th July: 10.30-12.30 Farr Bay Sand Dolphins
Bring the whole family and help build a sand sculpture of a pod of dolphins. See how many we can create and photograph. Bring buckets and spades.

Thurs 30th July: 2-5 Ard Mor - Bettyhill
Scottish Primrose, lots of other plants and possibly porpoise to be seen on this fantastic headland walk. High cliffs.

Tues 4th August: 12-4 Loch Meadie guided walk
Fairly demanding hill walk along loch side and on to Ben Meadie (200m). Look out over the vast expanse of wild country, return via same route.

Wed 5th August: 1-3 Portskerra Rockpools
Rockpools are not just for the kids! Bring the whole family and have some fun learning about the creatures to be caught here at Portskerra. Brings nets and wellies.

Fri 7th August: 3-5 Strathy Point Seawatch
Guided sea watch looking for whales, dolphins or porpoise from this hot spot. Telescopes provided, bring binoculars.

Tues 11th August: 10-12 Castle Varrich
Take a leisurely stroll with the ranger up to Castle Varrich in Tongue looking at the varied wildlife and discuss the origins of the castle remains.

Tues 11th August: 2-4.30 Tongue Causeway to Ard Skinid
Walk alongside the Kyle of Tongue looking at the natural history, local history and geology in this beautiful setting.

Wed 12th August: 11-1 Pond Dipping
Learn about the creatures we catch in Nelly's Pool at Bettyhill. Bring all the family and have a go. Limited nets provided so also bring your own and your wellies.

Fri 14th August: 2-4.30 Strathy Picts, Priests and Pools
Walk to see the Pictish Priest's Stone, then on to the Rocking Stone (used to call the clan) and return via a lovely bog pool system.

Tues 18th August: 2-5 Portskerra to Strathy Bay
Stunning hidden coastal walk with promontory fort and old lime kilns. Fantastic views and lots of wildlife.

Thurs 20th August: 2-4 See the Point
Bracing cliff walk around Strathy Point headland. Sea caves, birds, plants and possibly whales or dolphins to be seen.

Fri 21st August: 1-4.30 Armadale to Poulouriscaig
Exhilarating hill walk out to the deserted post clearance village of Polouriscaig. Return via same route.

Tues 25th August: 7-9.30 Simply Batty
Construct your own bat roosting box with help from the ranger and Forestry Commission Scotland. Later join us at a small local bat roost to see the midge munchers emerging.

Fri 28th August: 8.30-10 Betty's Bats
Join the ranger and use our bat detectors to find and learn about the local Bettyhill bats as they hunt for insects.

Thurs 3rd September: 10.30-12.30 Armadale Bay
Join the ranger on a bracing walk at Armadale Bay. Let's see if the 'dragon' is roaring at the gloup.

Wed 16th September: 11-1.30 Torrisdale Bay - egg case hunt
Join the ranger looking for skate and ray egg cases along Torrisdale Bay. Let's see which species are found there.

Tues 6th October: 11-1 Lochan Hakon - cup and ring stone
Join the ranger for a short walk to see the cup and ring marked stone at Lochan Hakel and hear about the Jacobite gold.

Thurs 8th October: 11-1.30 Arnabol Archeology
Take a walk along the west shore of Loch Hope to Arnabol and see some of the rich archaeological remains found there amongst the wonderful scenery.

Caithness
Sun 22nd March: 10 Dunnet Head East and West
Full day walk, drivers returned to cars. Boots, waterproofs and lunch required.

Sun 29th March: Meet 2-2.30 Have a go Orienteering
Try this popular sport using the trails and maps set in Dunnet Forest. Bring a compass if you have one or we can supply. Booking essential.

Sun 19th April: 2 St John's Point and the Haven
Walk over the headland to the ancient promontory fort and hidden harbour. Following the cliff we will reach the seal haven.

Wed 22nd April: 4-6 Wick River Stroll
A very relaxed walk along the river, taking in early flowers and other wildlife.

Sun 26th April: 10.30 Duncansby to Skirza cliff top walk
A walk along dramatic cliffs. Signs of seabirds and seals. All day walk. Wear boots and warm waterproof clothing. Bring lunch.

Wed 6th May: 11-1.30 Burials, Brochs and Bogs
Explore a landscape teeming with history, from stone age to the present, and learn about the wildlife on the way. Take lunch.

Sun 10th May: 10.30 Keiss to Freswick
A walk of brochs and castles with some natural history thrown in. Wear boots and warm waterproof clothing. Bring lunch.

Wed 13th May: 11-1 Cliffs, Cairns and Brochs
A short but beautiful walk along the cliffs and into the forest.

Sun 17th May: Ship A Hoy
Sail in the Pentland Venture to Hoy, then bus to Rackwick. Explore Rackwick Bay or walk to the Old Man, possibly seeing cetaceans, hares and skuas. £30.00 for transport.

Wed 20th May: 11-2.30 Heritage, Herring Gulls and Heady Heights
A spectacular walk to the old herring station. Enjoy a nice picnic among wild flowers, wildlife and old stones.

Sun 24th May: 10.30 Castle of Old Wick to Sarclet
Head south from the Norse castle to the herring station at Sarclet. Good time of year for seabirds. Bring lunch.

Wed 3rd June: 11-1.30 The Needle and Nests
Join us on a cliff top walk to view a spectacular natural arch and an amazing array of seabirds.

Thurs 4th June: 7.30 Puffins and More
Walk through some spectacular scenery to the local puffinry and see what else appears. Bring boots, warm clothes and waterproofs.

Sun 7th June: Swona and Muckle Skerry
Sail in the North Coast Explorer to the Pentland Skerries and Swona. Enjoy their history and wildlife. If conditions are right, we should land on Swona. Wear warm clothing, although dry suits are provided.

Tues 9th June: 2 Bees, Butterflies and Lighthouses
See if we can spot some small blue butterflies and bees on our way to the blow holes and geos of this beautiful headland.

Thurs 11th June: 10 Moths Matter
After a slideshow in Seadrift join us in emptying out our traps set in Dunnet Forest the night before.

Sun 14th June: 10.30 Whaligoe to Lybster
A coastal walk linking two historical herring harbours. Good lookouts for seabirds, seals and cetaceans. Full day walk, boots and warm clothing essential.

Tues 16th June: 2 Do the Butterfly Walk
Join the ranger in a walk to monitor the local butterflies and spot the rare
small blue butterfly.

Wed 17th June: 11-1 Blow Holes at the Blow hole.
National Whale and Dolphin Watch. Learn about the whales and dolphins of the Caithness coast. Visit a blow hole and help with the national survey by sea watching on a beautiful cliff top.

Thurs 18th June: 10.30 Duncansby to Skirza cliff walk.
From these cliffs we have a good chance of spotting Minke whale as well as seeing the seabird colonies, seals and striking cliff scenery. All day walk. Wear boots and warm, waterproof clothing. Bring lunch.

Tues 23rd June: 7 Holborn Head Highlights evening walk
This cliff top walk passes blow holes and stacks where you can see coastal plants, seabirds and possibly dolphins. Stout footwear, arm clothing.

Wed 24th June : 6-9 Coastal Treasures of the Wick coast
Experience the sights and smells of an amazing seabird colony set amid the beauty of the East Caithness coast. Discover sea stacks, natural arch and caves along the way.

Sun 28th June: 10.30 Lybster to Latheronwheel
Half day walk ending up in pretty Latheronwheel. Warm waterproof clothing.

Wed 8th July: 11-2.30 Battle Site at Altimarlich
Follow the Wick river to the ancient battle site. Enjoy the wildlife and sights along the way.

Wed 8th July: 2pm Dunnet - Beach, Dunes and Forest
A walk on the beach through the dunes and into the local community woodland to get to know this fascinating area and its varied habitats. Good places for butterflies.

Fri 10th July: 11 To the Mermaid's Lair
A cliff walk along Dwarick Head to the place where the local mermaid claimed her revenge. Beautiful scenery. Bring a light snack.

Sun 12th July: 10.30 Dunbeath to Berriedale
Half day walk on a relatively unexplored section of the cliffs.

Wed 15th July: 2-4.30 Dunbeath Strath
Enjoy the beautiful birch and hazel woodland, meandering river and abundant wildlife which thrive in this sheltered strath.

Thurs 16th July: 2 Duncansby Head circular walk
From these sculpted cliffs look out at the breeding seabirds and discover specialised plants.

Tues 21st July: 7 Holburn Head Evening Highlights walk
This cliff top walk passes blow holes and stacks where you can see coastal plants, seabirds and possibly dolphins.

Wed 22nd July: 2-4 Castles and Crabs
Enjoyable shore walk passing a traditional harbour and 16th century castle ruins looking at shore life, plants and birds.

Thurs 23rd July: 11 To the Mermaid's Lair
A cliff top walk along Dwarick Head to the place where the local mermaid claimed her revenge. Beautiful scenery. Bring a light snack.

Sun 26th July: Opening Munsary walk
Details to follow.

Wed 29th July: 7 Dunnet - Beach, Dunes and Forest
Evening walk on the beach through the dunes and into the local community woodland to get to know this fascinating area and its varied habits.

Wed 5th August: 2-5 Walk around Watenan
Enjoy a landscape rich in archaeology and wildlife.

Thurs 6th August: 2 Northern Cliffs (Drumhollistan to Sandside Bay)
Enjoy this beautiful coastal scenery and the plants and birds living on the edge.

Tues 11th August: 7 Holburn Head Highlights evening walk
Details as before.

Thurs 13th August: 2 St John's Point and the Haven
Walk over the headland to the ancient promontory fort and hidden harbour. Following the cliff we will reach the seal haven.

Wed 19th August: 7 Dunnet - Beach, Dunes and Forest
Details as before.

Wed 26th August: 11-2.30 Secret Village of Badryie
A fascinating circular walk by Loch Stemster taking in the abandoned crofting village of Badryie, Achavanich standing stones and burial cairn.

Sun 6th September: History from the waves
Discover the history and archaeology of this fascinating part of the north coast and see it from the eye of an invader travelling by boat. Cost £21.00.

Fri 18th September: 11-2 Cliffs and Forests
A nice circular walk taking in the views from the cliffs and the forest. Bring packed lunch.

Fri 18th September: 11-3 The Village on the Cliffs
Come for a walk along the cliffs towards the village of Badbea and view the village from a different angle. Rough walking in places.

Sun 20th September: 10.30 Berriedale to the Ord
Full day walk on these east coast cliffs. Warm waterproof clothing and boots.

Sun 27th September: 11-1 Badbea, the Story
Follow a special guest on a tour through the abandoned village and hear the story around it.

Wed 7th October: 11-1.30 Burials, Brochs and Bogs
Explore a landscape teeming with history from stone age to present and learn about the wildlife on the way.

Sun 18th October: 2 Staxigoe to Ackergill
This is a good time and place for migrant birds passing Castle Sinclair, Girnigoe.

Wed 18th November: 2-4 Corbigoe Coast
Cliff top walk to view a spectacular natural arch and possibly grey seal pups.

Back on the beach

2009-02-26T16:07:00.002Z

I didn't go out yesterday afternoon because we had 50mph gusts rising to 70mph later on and I didn't think it was a particularly wise idea to go scrambling round the countryside when it was hard enough standing up in the back garden. So to make up for it I took a wander down to the beach today (OK, so I wanted to check the rabbits were leaving my garlic alone, the beach was sort of incidental!).

Our neighbour used to take his boat down to the beach behind his tractor and it makes a useful path for getting down to the main footpath:

It was a good day for skies (and I'm still loving Lightroom's ability to add an ND grad filter onto pictures!):

And the wind was coming off the sea and pushing the Armadale burn back up the beach:

Normally I try not to split pictures in half with the horizon, but when it's a reflection you can just about get away with it:

And just to prove to my family that I've finally succumbed to genetics and started gardening - a weeded bit of border:

As you can see, there's a lot more to do...:

And that's before I start on the veggie field - the tiny little brown strip in the top left of the field is a 10ft x 4ft bed!:

The garlic is coming on nicely though :o)

Loch Meadie

2009-02-18T17:29:00.002Z

Today's afternoon expedition was to Loch Meadie. I'd checked it out on the map and there was a farm track running alongside it and a layby to park in, so I packed up my camera rucksack (including tripod for once) and set out.

We'd had the most amazing stripey sky all morning, which was just starting to pass:

I didn't see a single piece of wildlife all day, though I heard a couple of birds. Not sure whether it was the time of year, the place or the fact that the tripod clanked loudly - probably the latter! So I became a landscape photographer for the day:

Until the sky went flat grey and I had to turn to lichens:

and water:

I'm having a play with Lightroom 2.2 at the moment and so far am very impressed. Not quite got to grips with it yet (I've had it less than 24 hours), but I'm finding it a lot more intuitive than Photoshop Elements.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

2009-02-10T17:33:00.005Z

Gosh, two posts in one day - don't get used to this! But we had about 4" of snow in 45 minutes this afternoon, so I had to go out really, didn't I?

First stop was the bird feeders. I topped them up and was rewarded by a number of hungry visitors including this robin:

and a ~~young sparrow~~ dunnock (thank you caithness.org for the correction!):

Next door's pig is not so impressed with the snow:

And to be fair to him, we did have rather a lot in short space of time:

Just compare this shot with the sunrise one earlier today:

Oh what a beautiful morning...

2009-02-10T08:58:00.002Z

Sorry for the lack of posting, but last Wednesday's outing was cancelled due to extremely cold weather and me being a wuss!

Have a picture of this morning's exceptionally beautiful sunrise instead:

(3" deep snow and slippers are not a good combination!!)

Big seas and little bays

2009-02-01T17:58:00.003Z

Once again I've been tardy in my blogging - I do apologise. The pictures have been put up on Flickr; I just haven't got round to writing about them.

Anyway, just over a week ago OH and I went for a walk along past Thurso castle to see if the shipwreck he remembered from when he was a kid was still there (it wasn't). The sea was big and the wind was up:

which made it foamy:

The birds, as usual, were completely unbothered by it all:

although I did see an oystercatcher absolutely legging it out of the way of a wave, which was very funny. Sadly the picture was out of focus!

Wednesday's trip out was closer to home. At the far end of the village there's a track to a deserted village called Polouriscaig. It's quite a walk to get there (for an unfit photographer carrying a bag of gear anyway) and I was considering just walking to the top of the second hill, which is about two thirds of the way there, but then saw on the map that the burn at the foot of that hill led down to an inlet marked Port Mor. The contour lines on the sides were very steep, but it looked as if the burn itself went down a much shallower slope, so I decided to go and take a look.

I was right:

The burn was lovely; lots and lots of miniature waterfalls:

The climb down really wasn't too hard at all. There were a couple of points where I had to stop and consider my options (as in 'Do I attempt to follow that sheep track or do I turn round and go back?'), but pretty soon the bay was tantalisingly close and I was hoping against hope that there wasn't a vertical drop for the last bit like so many of these places have:

Fortunately the slope down from that grassy bit on the right was quite gentle and I made it all the way down to the beach:

My thigh muscles did not thank me for the climb back up!

Westerdale and Loch More

2009-01-21T18:10:00.004Z

Since I had to go into Thurso to pay some cheques into the bank, I thought I'd take the opportunity to come back via Loch More. On the way there you drive through Westerdale, which is the site of this mill:

There's another derelict building opposite it, which I wanted to explore, but getting to it involves hopping over rocks in a river and since many of them were still covered with ice (at 3pm!), I decided to leave that one for another, warmer, day.

This is Loch More bothy:

When it's been raining, the loch pours over the dam you can see on the left of the picture, but today it was disappointingly low. The light was lovely though:

And on the way back I saw a sparrowhawk hunting over the fields:

Target practice

2009-01-17T18:02:00.003Z

Normally it's seagulls who use human belongings, like cars, for target practice. Today I got my own back and used them - these are the three best from a session at Thurso Harbour, trying to get to grips with the camera's autofocus system.

We're due some really strong winds over the next few days and possible something called thundersnow, which is when you get a thunderstorm and a blizzard at the same time. Could be interesting. Anyway, it was starting to whip up this afternoon and despite the tide's best efforts, I did not get wet taking this photo!

Sandside

2009-01-14T17:48:00.003Z

Sandside is a huge (10,000 acre) estate just outside Reay. Most of it is private, but they've reached an agreement with the Highland Council to allow public access to the beach and the harbour.

We've had high seas over the last couple of days and massive amounts of seaweed has washed up on the beach, attracting seabirds to feed. These are turnstones:

As you can see by the tin can, lots of rubbish has washed up as well.

I tried to get a bit arty by mirroring Orkney in the background with the rock in the foreground - didn't quite work!

The oystercatchers at Sandside harbour are much tamer than the ones at Armadale and Melvich, so I was able to get closer:

And, if you'll excuse the pun, I caught this one in a reflective moment:

All in all, a nice afternoon:

This is going to take some time...

2009-01-07T17:27:00.003Z

First proper trip out somewhere with the new camera today. I've still got the bug I picked up at the weekend and have been coughing my lungs up, so wildlife photography was out for the day - anything with ears was going to hear me miles away! I'll freely admit that landscape photography is not my strong point - add to that a new camera and photo editing software I'm not familiar with and the results were never going to be outstanding, but the camera is definitely feeling more at home in my hands now and I'm starting to be able to find buttons without having to take my eye away from the viewfinder, which is good.

Since I had to take the post down there, I decided to stick to Melvich for this afternoon's jaunt. I parked in the beach car park and took the path down to the river Halladale:

There was an amazing sky today. One thing this camera does far, far better than the old one is cope with high contrast, though an ND grad filter would still have helped here (another item for the shopping list!):

Surf was up in the bay:

And this is my favourite shot of the day, clouds reflected off ice in the river:

Sulk over

2009-01-06T15:00:00.002Z

Right, Canon DPP does just about run, though it's very slow, so here (insert fanfare) is the first picture I took with the new camera:

How frustrating?????

2009-01-06T13:14:00.002Z

My new camera did indeed arrive yesterday afternoon, although not with the postman. I'd had my headphones on, transcribing stuff for a client, so when he couldn't get an answer, he left it with my next door neighbour who kindly popped over as soon as he saw me put the lights on for Mick's arrival home.

It's lovely :o) In fact, it's lovelier than lovely. It was bought in Japan, but the seller has kindly printed me an English manual and thrown in a converter for the charger and two spare batteries.

So why isn't this post full of sparkly new pictures then? Well, firstly it's rained here all day. Secondly I have a lurgy and I'm not up to doing mammoth walks to get to really inspiring scenery. Thirdly I've just tested it out by taking some pictures of the various seashells scattered round the house and its RAW format can't be read by my version of Photoshop Elements. The most frustrating thing is that the Canon 50D was added into Adobe's RAW files at version 4.6 and Elements 5.0 is only compatible up to 4.3.

Can we say AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?????

So my options are:
1) Buy Elements 7.0 - the cheapest software option at about £80, but neither my PC nor my laptop have the processor power required to run it so I'd need a new one.
2) Buy Lightroom 2.0 - medium priced software option at about £228, PC will require a memory upgrade.
3) Buy CS4 - hugely expensive software option at £558, but this PC could just about run it (though it would be extremely slow).

I don't think I can even run the new version of Canon's own RAW conversion software which comes with it - I'll try it in a bit, but unless they've improved it dramatically, it's a very clunky tool.

Currently running with the 'soddit it's only money' option, which is a new laptop and Lightroom 2.0....

Found the culprits!

2009-01-05T14:08:00.002Z

New camera may arrive this afternoon, so fingers crossed...

When I took the wheelie bin up the drive this morning, the robin that lives in the gorse bushes at the side was happily chirping around and quite content to sit on a fence post 10 feet away and watch me lugging a full bin around very noisily, so when I went to get it back in at lunchtime I thought I'd take the camera up with me.

Could I find the little blighter? Could I heck. So I went down to the bird feeders by the garden gate and discovered the reason I've found them on the ground a couple of times, even when there's no wind:

Still, they don't seem to be scaring off the chaffinches (I counted 6 today) who just sit on the gate and wait for the starlings to finish:

A frosty walk

2009-01-02T16:46:00.004Z

Happy New Year!

No, the camera hasn't arrived yet, but I've been wearing my boots around the house for nearly a week and thought the time had come to test them out on something a bit more lumpy than carpet.

I chose to go up the Campbells' farm tracks, which follow the Armadale burn and lead up into the hills behind. There were a couple of robins in the gorse near the gate at the foot of the track:

Further on up the hill I could hear a crow going absolutely berserk at something. It's a noise I've heard them make before when there's a buzzard about, so I scanned the sky but couldn't see anything that looked like a predator. Squinting into the sun, I located the crow circling over a small mound a couple of hundred feet away but still couldn't see anything that might have alarmed it. Until I got the camera out, that is:

Most of the rest of the walk was in the shadow of the hill, so not enough light for good pictures, but I did take these:

If I remember right, the mounds are evidence of settlement - I'll have to look on my map (which I've temporarily tidied up and can't find!). It must have been a pretty good place to live: sheltered with water and decent grazing plus the sea just up the road for fish.

And I think my ringed plover obsession of last year is being replaced with a buzzard obsession - here's another one:

One of my new year's resolutions is to take every Wednesday afternoon off and explore a new bit of the area, so that'll mean at least one post a week and hopefully lots more. I'm looking forward to it :o)

Watch this space...

2008-12-30T13:14:00.003Z

I caved.

One slightly used (200 shutter releases) Canon 50D has been bid for and won on eBay. It's only in Aberdeen, so if by some miracle the seller can get it to the post office this afternoon it might be with me tomorrow, but it's more likely to be Saturday/Monday now (2nd January is a bank holiday in Scotland instead of Boxing Day).

I got it for £130 less than Jessops wanted and £70 less than the cheapest online price I could find, but it's still a large enough amount to make me a bit 'Omigod I don't believe I just spent that!' So I'm going to use it with the lenses I already have for a bit, rather than splash out an even larger amount on the 100-400mm L lens as well. That way I can see what improvements (she says, being optimistic!) in the pictures are due to the camera body and what gets changed by the lens.

New camera, new boots, new year, new photos - 2009 is going to be fun :o)

Staggering

2008-12-28T17:19:00.004Z

Today we headed down to Inverness so Mick could buy me some new walking boots for Christmas. The first decision of the day was which route? The A9 coast road (the longest distance, but the fastest road), Strath Halladale (medium distance, single track) or Strath Naver (shortest distance, very bendy single track). We plumped for Strath Halladale as a balance between miles covered and using a road that had been gritted and were glad we did. This is the view we pulled over to take a photo of:

Mick had turned to look at the view in the other direction and was making a strange stuttering noise behind me, which eventually turned into "Stag!" And so there was - a young red deer stag with his lady:

But nothing could have prepared us for seeing this, just 50 feet from the road:

There must have been 15 or 20 of them, quietly grazing, completely unbothered by us watching from the car.

One of them had lost an antler in the rut:

A bit further on we saw a buzzard by the side of the road, happily tearing a rabbit to pieces, but it had taken off by the time I got the camera out.

I dropped into Jessops in Inverness to have a look at the camera I'm intending to buy and see how it felt in my hand - I've held the next model up from the 50D and because my hands are tiny, find it awkward to hold, but the 50D is fine, fortunately :o) They had the 100-400mm L lens in stock as well and I asked if they could do me a deal if I bought both together. The ticket price was £1,850 in the shop and I knew I could get them online for about £150 less than that - or £250 less if I was prepared to take a second-hand lens in near mint condition. Unfortunately the best they could do was £20 off, so I thanked them for their time and left it.

Then onto Tiso, the big (and I mean big! It has a rock-climbing wall and several types of terrain on the floor for people to try out gear on before they buy!) outdoor shop on the outskirts of Inverness. I never thought I'd own a pair of blue boots, but they were the ones that fit best after I'd walked over their rocky path a few times and they have fantastic ankle support, so I've absolutely no excuse for not getting out and about with my camera next year!

We went back via Strath Naver, seeing another three herds of deer (mostly does, not near enough the road to stop for) and got up it just in time to catch the sunset:

A common Thurso species

2008-12-27T09:01:00.002Z

It struck me the other day that there's one species often seen in north coast waters, particularly off Thurso, that I haven't blogged about yet, despite photographing it several times.

Often mistaken for a seal, due to their black pelts, the Thurso Surfer is a hardy creature that will brave the waves even on Boxing Day if the surf's good:

North Light reckons he counted about 24 out on Christmas Eve and we saw 15 or so out yesterday.

Following on from my last post...

2008-12-12T10:21:00.002Z

With the moon on my left and the sun on my right,
To my brother, good morning, my sister, good night.

8.50am, back doorstep:

Approaching mid-winter

2008-12-12T07:52:00.002Z

Moon-rise over Lednagullin (the village - well, more of a hamlet really - on the other side of Armadale bay), taken 3.10pm yesterday afternoon.

Lucky day

2008-12-05T15:28:00.003Z

Ever since I drove past Dounreay last week and saw a buzzard happily devouring a freshly killed rabbit not 15 feed from the road, I've vowed to take my camera bag with me EVERY time I get in the car. I nearly forgot it today and very nearly didn't bother to go back into the house for it.

I'm glad I did. I have other shots taken today, but I'm so unbelievably chuffed with this one that it's going to have a post of its own! Nothing done to it other than cropping out some telephone wires from the bottom and a touch of sharpening when converting the RAW file.

Cold day

2008-12-02T16:03:00.003Z

I wouldn't want to be on Orkney right now:

I had to go to the post office at Melvich today, so instead of turning the car round in someone's driveway, I went round the loop to see if there were any oystercatchers at Portskerra. There were:

And this is why I want that new camera and bigger zoom after Christmas; the bird is sharp but because I only have 6.3MP, I can't crop in to get the shot I want without the picture going grainy (this was only ISO200):

As I went back to the car, I spotted someone looking for their lunch:

And this is my favourite of the day:

Snow

2008-11-29T18:08:00.003Z

I do apologise for the lack of activity on this blog recently. There are several reasons for this, but the two main ones are that a) I'm a retailer and this is silly season and b) my walking boots have big holes in. Both situations will be resolved by the end of next month as my lovely other half is buying me new boots for Christmas!

In the meantime, here are some pictures of last weekend's snow and this morning's sunrise:

An hour on the beach

2008-11-13T13:43:00.003Z

And not my beach at Armadale for once. I was on my way to Wick to start off the Christmas shopping and took a small detour to stretch my legs on Dunnet beach:

It's a really ginormous beach that swings round in a big curve from Castletown to Dunnet. This is Dunnet Head, which is the most northerly point on the mainland:

Today, even though it was lunchtime, I had it to myself :o) (There are some benefits to freezing cold weather!). Well, not quite to myself.

A bunch of ringed plovers (and something else, which I haven't identified) were hanging around digging for food:

There was a solitary curlew doing his best Meryl Streep (French Lieutenant's Woman) impression:

A Greater Black-Backed Gull was fishing for some lunch:

And finding some:

And I just hung around by the water and practised my panning shots :o)

I have to say, I'm really pleased with these. They might be grainy - I had to push the ISO to get the lens speed up - but I think I'm moving from pictures that record something towards pictures that show something, if that makes sense?

In search of Scotland's Haven

2008-10-31T17:45:00.003Z

Apologies for the lack of posts - the weather's been lousy and I've been busy, but today we had some sunshine scheduled, so I awarded myself the afternoon off and went in search of a place called Scotland's Haven, which is supposed to be one of the beaches that grey seals go to pup at this time of year.

All the best expeditions start off with an omen of some sort and one turned up at the top of my drive:

I stopped off in Reay. Every time I've driven through it in the past few weeks there have been pheasants in a field just outside the village. Were there today? Were there heck! I did find these two on a garden wall though:

James at the post office had told me he'd heard there were seals at Ham and since it was on the way I stopped off. Jackpot! Not pups, but plenty of seals. This fellow saw me standing on the cliff top and sounded the alarm:

So I lay flat on my stomach and spent the next hour watching the seals:

This one amused me. He'd been eyeing up this rock:

...and since none of the senior seals seemed to want it, decided to haul up:

...only to be foiled by the seaweed!:

Lots more seal pics on Flickr if you click on any of the pictures.

I reluctantly heaved myself up out of the heather and headed on down the coast. I didn't actually know where Scotland's Haven was, just that it was between East Mey and Gills Bay somewhere. I turned off the main road at what I guessed was about the right place and 500 yards down the lane found a parking spot with a pedestrian gate next to it, so pulled up and went to investigate.

Half an hour's walk across a peat moor later, I was in the right place - but there were no seals! They must be somewhere else this year. The light was beginning to fade (it's a location to photograph in the mornings, after midday it's heavily in shadow), so I headed back for the car, stopping only to photograph a tanker heading to pick up the gold at the end of the rainbow:

Somewhere over the rainbow...

2008-10-12T08:15:00.002+01:00

...there's a photographer who knows how to use their camera, unlike me! Guess which muppet forget to double check her ISO setting and took these on ISO 800...?

These very grainy rainbows were taken on the Black Isle, looking over the Cromarty Firth. As I went over the bridge, it developed into a full bow, but unfortunately there was nowhere to stop. You can get an idea of the size of it from the second picture though.

Back to ISO 100 for this morning's sunrise though. 7.34am , my back doorstep in Armadale this morning.

A visitor on the beach

2008-10-03T11:27:00.004+01:00

We're starting to get some Weather here now and the seas have picked up further:

I went down to the beach this morning and found this fellow considering his/her options:

Rather sensibly, it decided that discretion was the better part of valour (it was hailing at this point!) and settled down in the shallows:

There's a lot of foam washing in:

And the Allt Beag is running faster, deeper and wider than I've ever seen it:

(no, I didn't try crossing it! That's the *smaller* of the two!)

Typically the weather cheered up as I climbed back up to the house:

And I discovered that we do have hedgehogs round here, though sadly this one appears to have succumbed to the weather:

EDIT: I've been informed by m'learned friends on caithness.org that it's not a goose, it's actually a first year Whooper swan. Live and learn!

Tides

2008-09-21T13:42:00.001+01:00

As autumn approaches, the seas start to pick up and the flat, Caribbean-like bay we've had all summer is now something a little bit wilder. We're predicted a 14ft swell tomorrow and one of my neighbours told me that he's seen the end of the point disappear under spray before now. Here's a couple of snaps from yesterday of a pair of oystercatchers flying low over the waves:

$£(%&(%$%&(!!!!!!!!

2008-09-20T09:44:00.003+01:00

Please insert your own swear word into the title.

I saw an otter yesterday.

Did I have my camera with me? Guess!

To be fair, the Somerfield car park in Wick is not the place one would expect to see an otter, but as we got out of the car we saw something swimming very fast against the current in the adjacent river that definitely wasn't a duck. We followed it upstream for a few minutes, got close enough to ascertain that it was an otter, not a rat or a water vole, and then it dived and was gone.

I'm in love

2008-09-18T08:44:00.000+01:00

Sorry for being so quiet recently, things have been busy. I've finally got round to joining Thurso camera club and went to my first meeting on Monday night - a lovely bunch of very talented people :o)

I've been thinking about a new camera for a while now and had more or less promised myself a new one once my flat sale completes. Yesterday Canon announced the successor to the 5D and now I know what I'm going to be buying:

http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_SLR/EOS_5D_Mark_II/index.asp

This is such a huge leap in spec. from my 300D - I'm getting excited already!

The results for the Scottish Natural Heritage Biodiversity Week competition have been announced and I didn't make the top 30 - a shame, but there are some really fantastic photos there. Do go and have a look:

http://www.snh.org.uk/biodiversityweek/galleryF.asp

Whirlwind week

2008-09-08T20:36:00.004+01:00

Mum flew into Inverness last Monday and was greeted by the best weather Scotland could offer - bright blue skies with little fluffy white clouds. But as we travelled north, the storms from the south started to catch up with us and overtook us at Golspie:

On Tuesday we went to Lybster for lunch and then on up the coast to John O'Groats to book our ferry tickets. There's a big clump of pampas grass near the pottery there and it was covered in sparrows, all munching on the seeds:

Wednesday was Orkney, a whistle-stop coach tour of the sightseeing highlights. I was hoping we'd see some sealife on the ferry, but apart from a brief glimpse of a common seal's head, nothing breached the surface.

Orkney was fabulous - I think I'll have to go back when I'm not tied to a coach tour schedule and don't have 40 other people traipsing round the same place at the same time. We went to the Ring of Brodgar:

and St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall:

We spent Thursday recovering and didn't go too far, but we did go to Strathy:

and to Castlehill:

(infrared filter used on that, I like the way it makes the grass go soft).

On Friday we went west, past Torrisdale Bay:

and on to Talmine:

Today we went down Strath Halladale and saw grouse, buzzards, deer and, best of all, a golden eagle - shame that none of them stopped long enough to be photographed!

It's all about the light

2008-08-31T15:06:00.003+01:00

Apologies for the lack of updates, it's been a busy week. However, the good news is that my Mum's visiting for a week, starting tomorrow, so we'll be out and about with the cameras every day.

I've finished reading the first Joe Cornish book and one of the points he made that struck me was that there's no such thing as bad light, there's just the wrong light for the kind of picture you're trying to take.

So when I was sea-watching on Strathy Point yesterday afternoon (saw bugger all!) and the sky was overcast, I remembered what I'd read and instead of grand coastal vistas, tried thinking in more pastel tones:

Then the clouds came in and I got something a bit more dramatic:

Food for thought, anyway.

Last night

2008-08-23T12:27:00.003+01:00

Just to show you how good the light is up here at the moment - these were taken last night from the field below the house. No filters, no Photoshop.

And I'm splurging on a piece of new equipment - thanks to a generous Amazon birthday voucher from my brother, I'm going to order a Lowepro Mini Trekker AW, a rucksack that takes a digital SLR camera plus three or four lenses and a tripod. It'll be better for my back when I'm walking, because the weight I carry will be central rather than on one shoulder, and it'll leave both hands free when I'm climbing hills and rocks rather than having to catch the shoulder back as it swings round when I wobble a bit.

My boyfriend got me two Joe Cornish books that I wanted as well, so watch this space as I read, learn and attempt to apply...

Fancy a shag?

2008-08-22T16:29:00.002+01:00

I had to use that as a title sooner or later and today I have a picture that gives me an excuse to! Juvenile shag at Thurso harbour:

I was also very amused by this gull (it's a juvenile, but I'm not sure which species - trying to find out), which didn't spot the wave coming in behind it:

Melvich and Strathy

2008-08-20T18:15:00.004+01:00

A couple of shots of Melvich beach from Monday afternoon - nothing special, but they do show the amazing weather we've been having up here:

Yesterday I finally went on my first ranger walk - I had about 10 marked that I wanted to do, but work, lack of car and weather have all conspired against me up until now. It was too overcast for photos, but I went up to Strathy Point and walked round it with a group led by the North Sutherland ranger, Paul Castle. Very, very interesting - I now know what a primula Scotia looks like (small and purple), can tell the difference between a cormorant and a shag (the shag flies low over the water - the black birds in my last Strathy Point post are actually shags) and can identify black-backed gulls, great skuas and kittiwakes (I think...). They're nearly all over for the year, but there's an all day walk on 13th September to go up Ben Hutig looking for golden eagles and mountain hare, and then another one in October in Strath Halladale to watch the red deer rut, so I'm definitely going to try and get to both those.

Mean 'n' Moody

2008-08-18T11:29:00.002+01:00

We went to Borgie Forest yesterday to get some wood - Mick's permit started on Saturday, so we thought we'd go down there and suss it out. The only wildlife seen was a weasel (which we nearly ran over when it shot across the track in front of the car) and a dragonfly so big that Mick said if it came in through the window, he was getting out! The world's first carjacking by an insect?!

Since it was a nice day we drove on round the coast to Tongue and parked up by the causeway for a stroll on the beach. It was a bit too hazy for landscape photography, but Mick jumped at the offer of some Top Gear-esque shots of his Jeep. These are the best two:

Notes to self...

2008-08-14T14:33:00.003+01:00

...after a useful conversation with Julia today.

Primula Scotia (Scottish Primrose - very rare) can be found up on the headland. Take the path to Polouriscaig, then turn right after the first gate and walk to the end.

There's a peregrine falcon up on that hill as well as the buzzards.

Whales have been seen in Armadale bay for the past few years. They usually pass by between 22nd and 24th August.

Oh, and Margaret at the post office says that if I want to start doing postcards, she'll sell them for me there, so I think I'll get a small number printed up and see how it goes :o)

Strathy Point

2008-08-12T16:36:00.004+01:00

Sorry, no lovely sunset pictures - the sky was flat last night. But today has been absolutely gorgeous, clear skies, sun and not too much wind, so I awarded myself the afternoon off and went to see if I could spot anything in the sea off Strathy Point.

Of course, British weather being what it is, a grey cloud turned up just as I got there. Which is why these cormorants were all hanging around on a rock rather than fishing:

Nothing in the sea, so I decided to walk slowly along the fence by the cliffs to the lighthouse and then back up the road, hoping that something would show up. And it did:

He was swimming around by some rocks and just at that point there was a stile over the cliff fence and a path. So since there was very little wind, I decided to be intrepid and hopped over it. The path led down to a wide ledge where I could sit and watch the seal in comfort:

But there were boot prints leading further down the path. I had a look and saw that the rocks below the ledge could be easily climbed down, almost like a ladder. Ten minutes later and I was seated on the pyramid-shaped rock at the centre top of this picture:

I'd spent a good quarter of an hour watching it to make sure the waves weren't getting anywhere near it first :o) I unpacked my camera again, sat there and waited. The seal popped up about 10 feet away, saw me, boggled, dived and wasn't seen again! This was the only shot I got - bear in mind the ones above are all heavily cropped in. This one isn't cropped at all:

Fabulous view from that rock though:

And this is what's at the end of the point - the lighthouse. It's a private house now and was up for sale at about the same time we found our house. Quite glad we didn't buy it, it must be a nightmare out there in winter:

Armadale sunset

2008-08-11T09:02:00.003+01:00

At 9:10pm last night I looked out of the living room window and saw a pink cloud:

This is usually a sign that there's going to be a superb sunset behind the house, so I went out to have a look. And sure enough...

The moon had come out:

I went inside to get my coat and a shorter lens and set off towards Port a'Chinn, the colours deepening as I walked:

And as I watched from the road by the Salmon Bothy, the sun finally set:

No filters on the camera, no Photoshop magic - that's really how it looked. If the clouds are anything like that tonight, I'm going to Strathy Point about 8.30!

A chance encounter

2008-08-10T18:04:00.002+01:00

One of Mick's brothers has been to visit today, bringing one of his daughters and two of his grandchildren with him. The elder grandchild, Amy, is mad about whales and dolphins and over lunch at the local hotel in Melvich I stupidly said "Next time you're here, we'll have to go down to Strathy Point and see if we can spot any."

Mistake, especially when she found out that Strathy Point was on the way back to the house.

So we drove down to Strathy Point, parked in the carpark and instead of walking all the way up to the end by the lighthouse, went across the field to the cliff edge, with me crossing my fingers all the way there'd be something to look at, because she was so excited about seeing a dolphin.

Luck was on our side - not dolphins (although we saw what was either a pod of dolphins or a school of porpoise way out to see), but a basking shark, circling lazily by the cliffs looking for fish and surrounded by diving gannets. Except we had to tell Amy that it was a baby whale, since she's absolutely terrified of sharks! She was thrilled anyway.

Of course I didn't have my camera with me, so no pictures, but I'm going to go back on a fine day - I've never seen gannets dive before and it's quite spectacular :o)

Armadale airport

2008-08-07T08:05:00.003+01:00

At least that's what it seemed like on Tuesday! Never seen so many birds taking off and landing:

And I saw my first stoat! I'm pretty certain it was a stoat and not a weasel, though we didn't see the tail - but we both went 'Ooh, look, a stoat!' instinctively. Unfortunately I'd put my camera away and by the time I'd got it out of the bag and fired it up, the stoat had whisked back into the long grass. But now I know where to look for it, I shall keep an eye out.

Old joke: What's the difference between a stoat and a weasel? A weasel is weaselly recognisable while a stoat is stoatally different...

Photography club

2008-08-05T02:47:00.004+01:00

I went out to Crosskirk last night with Thurso Photography Club. The weather was pretty horrible, a flat grey sky and drizzle, so we stayed out for an hour and then gave up.

Because of the lack of colour, thanks to the light, I had to think about what would make a good black and white photo. These are my three best attempts from the night (and if you click on any of the pics to go through to Flickr, you'll see the fourth as well, which is another dead sheep!). The building is an old snuff mill.

One to enter

2008-08-02T19:17:00.004+01:00

The September issue of Outdoor Photography landed on the doormat this afternoon and guess what their 'If you only do one thing this month' competition is this issue?

Beach abstracts!!

The brief is:
To celebrate our coastline, this month we are challenging you to send us your beach abstracts. From still life shots of shells to colourful seaweed and marbled rocks we want to see the best of your local beaches.

They want up to 10 TIFFs on CD by 30th September, so I've got time to take more. The winner gets £50, but they usually print the top 6 - I'd really, really love to make that top 6.

Things I also need to follow up on from this issue are:

- Aberdeen University's archaeology department is looking for striking images of ancient sites in the north east of Scotland and is offering £1,000 for the best submission. www.abdn.ac.uk/archaeology/photocompetition for further details. Subjects must be over 500 years old and the top 10 images will be exhibited in Aberdeen.

- Clikpic is offering 3 readers a free 'standard' website for a year - email competition@clikpic.com with the subject line 'OP offer'.

- Arron Barnes Photography and Blair Drummond Safari Park are offering 4 places on their Go Wild at Blair Drummond experience day on 19 Oct. Send name and address to Outdoor Photography 104 Offers, 86 High St, Lewes, BN7 1XN.

- The Marine Conservation Society's annual beachwatch event is 20-21st September. Check to see if Armadale has been adopted by anyone as an MSC organiser yet - www.adoptabeach.org.uk

EDIT: I nearly forgot! I've had my first commission!! Someone locally who saw my pictures of the working hunter classes at the Caithness show got in touch to ask if I'd be prepared to go down to Dunnet Beach and photograph her and her friend on their horses and she'd pay for my time and petrol! Unfortunately she emailed while I was in Thurso at 10.30 this morning and wanted to do it this afternoon, which just wasn't possible, but I've said I'd be delighted to do it and suggested we arrange an alternative date. Watch this space!

Back on the beach

2008-07-31T20:55:00.003+01:00

Back to the regularly-scheduled programming today!

I had an attempt at some arty-farty black and white, but I'm not sure how well it's worked. These three were the best:

And I took another picture of water rippling over sand, which I like:

There were oyster catchers on the beach this evening, the first time I'd seen them at Armadale. They're a lot less spooky than the gulls, which took off the moment they saw me lift the camera, but with the oyster catchers you get closer:

and closer (guess which direction the wind was coming from?!):

and finally a bit too close:

On the way back up to the house I got macro-happy again, particularly with the insects which were out in force:

And a dandelion to finish:

Halkirk Highland Games

2008-07-27T13:37:00.003+01:00

Halkirk is one of the most traditional of the Highland Games and with a total prize purse of £21,000 it attracts competitors from all over the world - entrants from as far away as Australia, Malawi and the USA took part.

You can't have a proper Games without one of these:

And Halkirk had two, the local band from Thurso and a guest band (the ones in the picture) from Kirkwall in Orkney. The drummers do that wonderful thing where they twirl their sticks:

Every Games has a Chieftain and the one for Halkirk is Viscount Thurso:

He's also the MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (which is HUGE territory to cover - basically everything north of Inverness) and despite looking very Scottish, has an Eton accent. He's the only hereditary peer to be elected to the House of Commons having previously sat in the House of Lords and he and his wife spend all summer turning up at charity fundraisers, so despite him being a Lib Dem, I have to approve of him really ;o)

All the action takes place on an oval field. There's a 200m track round the outside for running and cycling events:

And then inside you have the field events:

That guy went on to win, breaking the Halkirk record, and then attempted to break the Scottish record (6ft 6" - all measurements are done in feet and inches, no metric here), but just missed it.

Of course, what everyone really comes to see is the traditional Highland sports. The dancing competition went on all day, with the same piper playing for 5 hours non-stop - she was an absolute trooper. Ladies, if you want to have fantastic legs, take up Highland dancing:

(Funnily enough, of all the Games photos I've put on Flickr, that one's had the most views!)

And just for Mum, who's a teacher and has the same reaction to small children as I do to kittens, here's some of the competitors for the Hornpipe class:

The heavies are the star attraction though and classes include Weight For Distance:

Hammer Throw:

Tossing the Sheaf (the bar got to 36ft):

And, of course, Tossing the Caber:

Apparently there aren't that many Games that have caber any more, due to piddling health and safety reasons, so the commentator explained how it all worked. The idea is to run with the caber to the line, with a judge running behind you (this picture is called "Come back with my caber!":

and then lob the bottom of it upwards as hard as you can:

The bottom of the caber is rounded, but the top is flat so the edges dig into the turf. If the caber goes right the way over its length then that's called a Full Toss. The judge running behind (who's in great danger if the caber starts wobbling backwards during the run-up) judges how straight the caber falls - the ideal is a straight end over end throw that ends up in a 12 o'clock position from the thrower. If it doesn't make a Full Toss, then another judge is standing at the side to see how close the caber gets to going over and the closer it gets to upright, the more points are scored.

Fascinating, eh? If you want more pictures (I took over 200!) then clicking on any of the photos will take you to my Flickr account where there are a dozen or so more.

A plover-free zone

2008-07-25T10:37:00.003+01:00

You're all going to get very bored if I continue my plover obsession on my daily walk, so today's post is not only a plover-free zone, I didn't even take a photograph of one while I was down there.

It occurred to me as I was walking back up that I'd shown you the beach, but not the path to it, so here it is:

It winds through the grass and then up through the trees on the right, which is midge city at the moment. I did try going up the direct way yesterday, over the stile on the bottom of the croft, but the cow parsley is as tall as I am and the thistles and nettles nearly as large, so I think I'll leave that route alone until it starts to die back a bit.

Lots of butterflies about though - this was the best shot I got today, as it was windy and my subjects kept getting blown 20 or 30 yards just as I'd focused:

Still in a macro frame of mind, I went onto the beach and shot ripples on the Allt Beag:

seaweed in a rockpool:

and rabbit footprints in the dunes:

In fact this would have been an all-macro post if I hadn't found this whopping great rockpool and decided it needed to be captured for posterity due to its size!

Tomorrow is the Halkirk Highland Games, so as long as the weather stays nice (it's looking promising), expect lots of men in kilts pictures over the weekend...

Back to the beach

2008-07-24T12:50:00.003+01:00

In an attempt to shift some weight, I've decided to walk down to the far end of the beach and back every morning. The camera comes with me of course, you can guarantee that the day I don't take it there'll be four otters doing a synchronised swimming display in the burn...

I've often noticed holes in the sand as I walk along the hard sand where the tide's gone out and wondered what made them. Here's the answer - they're air pockets trapped under the sand:

Up towards the dunes I saw an earwig:

And I can't go down to that beach without taking a picture of a ringed plover, can I?!

Oh what a beautiful morning

2008-07-23T10:36:00.003+01:00

It was much too nice to stay inside, so I walked down to Port a'Chinn, because I haven't been for ages. On the way I saw an enormous bird perched on a pile of stones in the field behind the salmon bothy. Got a bit closer and with the lens on full zoom managed to catch it:

I think that must be the buzzard which we've seen hunting over the hill behind our house. I tried to sneak round the house and get closer but by the time the rock pile was back in view again, he'd gone. I climbed up there to see if he was perched on a fence post, because I'd have seen him if he'd gone up into the sky, but not a sign.

The fishermen were out this morning and had left their salmon nets drying at the top of the cliff:

And just to be a bit arty-farty, here's the previous shot in black and white, which I think works a little bit better:

Then it was down onto the beach. Masses of rock pipits down there this morning:

I also found out which cave it is that goes through to the hidden waterfall and since it was low tide crawled through to have a look. It's been dry recently, so the waterfall was less than impressive, but I'll go back once we've had a few days of rain and take some pictures.

Caithness County Show

2008-07-18T18:07:00.004+01:00

Some domestic animals for you today - I spent a couple of hours this afternoon watching the working hunter classes at Caithness County Show.

I was expecting pandemonium when this jet screamed low overhead, but nothing so much as twitched an ear!

I'm in

2008-07-17T08:33:00.003+01:00

The very first post on this blog, made before we moved house, was about a photography competition run by Scottish Natural Heritage. The closing date is the end of July, so I thought I'd better get my skates on and enter if I was going to.

After much mulling over, one of the dragonfly pictures and the foxglove picture have been entered (or they will be when Outlook Express finishes chugging its way through 12MB of pictures - they wanted hi-res jpegs), so watch this space. There are an awful lot of very talented photographers up here, so if I make the long list of the final 30 I shall be over the moon and if I'm in the top 3 you'll hear the squealing from the other end of the country!

Oh, and in the course of writing the blurb to go with the entry, I discovered that the dragonfly is a Golden-ringed dragonfly or Cordulegaster boltonii - probably a female.

Results announced at the end of August, anyway. I'm going to have to pass on the Countryfile competition this year, I've got nothing good enough that fits the theme (Nature in motion).

Up the Armadale Burn

2008-07-09T15:28:00.002+01:00

I've found a cracking website called A Wild Land, which is all about the area I live in and has what look like some very good walks on it. Today I decided to stretch my legs on the first one: The Armadale Big Burn.

The website says that you can sometimes see buzzards riding the thermals and I could see one circling in the distance as I climbed up the track. A beetle caught my eye on the path and I stopped to try and photograph it, but as I did so I could hear 'Keeeeee keeeeee' coming closer all the time and ended up hurriedly switching the lens out of macro to take these:

That is as close as I think I'm going to get to a flying one with this lens - I shall keep an eye on the fence posts and see if I can get closer to a stationery bird.

As you can see from those two shots, the sky was a bit washed out, meaning it was a bad day for landscape photography, but a good day for macro. And luckily I came across absolutely the biggest dragonfly I've ever seen in my life:

Those two were taken with the lens at 300mm in normal mode, but this lens has a switch on the side of it that will change it into a macro lens between 200mm and 300mm. This was taken in macro:

I was looking out for a tributary coming down to the burn, because that meant I was getting near the broch mentioned in the walk guide. The ground started to get marshy and this little chap sprang out of the way of my boot:

I finally reached the broch and did the obligatory climb up to it:

The walk guide said to continue following the burn up to the loch at its source and, if you have the energy, to climb the mountain beside it. However, it had taken me an hour to get this far and looking at my map I could see I was maybe two thirds of the way there at best. That's the problem with taking me walking with a camera - I'll happily spend quarter of an hour following a dragonfly around.

I could see a farm track from the broch that I knew crossed the burn a little way on, so I walked down that to the water and then decided to turn back. There's a small copse of trees down there and in their shade, foxgloves grow:

I tried to get arty with the cotton grass:

And as I got back towards the road, I was rewarded with another buzzard:

Back on the beach

2008-07-03T17:55:00.003+01:00

The first thing I had to do today was get past the gate guardians, AKA next door's pigs, who'd decided to have a nap at the top of the shared drive:

Over the other side of the road, there was a buzzard hunting on the hill:

One day I'll walk up there and sit and watch for it - maybe I can get a bit closer! On the path down to the beach I was thrilled to see that the bank, which had been washed smooth in the rain, had fresh otter prints on it:

Today I crossed over the Armadale Burn and went to the far end of the beach. There are pied wagtails down there:

But what I wasn't expecting to see was a ringed plover chick shoot out from nearly under my feet and start legging it towards the dunes. I followed it with my longest lens and when it darted behind a hillock and didn't come out, crept up on it:

Melvich harbour

2008-07-02T08:48:00.002+01:00

Last night we went for a walk on the harbour beach at Melvich - not the big sandy one, but the small rocky one where the slipway is.

And we saw oystercatchers - lots of them! So I warmed up by shooting them on the rocks:

and then had a crack at shooting them in flight:

And thank you to Sasha (and Sasha's owner) for this one:

Back on the beach

2008-06-27T17:05:00.003+01:00

After being stuck in all week due to volume of work and weather, I was determined to get out this morning. It was dry but overcast and had rained heavily the night before, so I stuck on my walking boots and went down to the beach (no tales of jeopardy and mortal danger today I'm afraid!).

The tide was out, which made it a great day to explore round the rocks and rock pools that scatter the edge of the beach. This one made me think of a giant rock caterpillar that had crawled out of the sea to drink at the rockpool:

No scrambling about on them though, because they're covered in seaweed. I think this is serrated wrack, but I'm still trying to make sure of that:

I went down to the edge of the water and watched the gulls for a bit:

The rain had swelled the Allt Beag and the Armadale Burn and they'd cut bigger channels down the beach than usual:

And then the weather started to clear. The next two photos were taken from the same spot within a minute of each other - just pointing in different directions:

Caithness and Sutherland do big skies very well:

And finally, I can't go down to that beach without photographing a ringed plover, can I? Today's mission was to get a good shot of one on the move, since they're the coastal equivalent of Road Runner:

In search of puffins

2008-06-22T13:00:00.002+01:00

One of the readers of this blog happens to be my Mum (Hi Mum!). She absolutely adores puffins, so as she can't make it up to stay with us before they leave again this year, I decided to go in search of some to take some photos.

Right on the border between Caithness and Sutherland is a peat moor called Drum Hollistan. Thanks to looking at the schedule for the excellent Caithness and Sutherland ranger walks, I knew there was a big puffinry on the coast and I had a rough idea of how to get to it, so on Friday I went to have a look for it, since the guided walk to it had happened before we moved here.

I parked in the layby on the border and squelched off down the track towards the coast. Half a mile or so later, there was the stack, just as described, with the puffinry on it:

From what I could see, I had three options for getting close to it. Look at the photo below:

I could either walk round to that little sticking out bit on the right and lie flat on my stomach (dismissed as too dangerous due to the gusts of wind that day), shimmy down a ridge to get to the green pyramid-like bit on the left (ditto), or walk down what looked like a gently-sloping valley with a couple of steep bits to get to a small rocky beach near the base of the stack. I chose option 3.

If I tell you that the picture above shows the way I climbed back up and that seemed like a stroll in the park compared with getting down, you'll have some idea of why this was a mistake!

I didn't take any pictures on the way down, I was too busy clinging onto my camera bag (which protected my camera from a 4 foot fall onto rock when I put it down on what I thought was moss and turned out to be mud - just before I was about to jump down onto the same spot) and swearing. 48 hours on my arms and legs are still aching and it's made me have a serious think about how far I'm prepared to go in search of a good wildlife photo. Thanks to my inexperience, I put myself closer to serious injury or death than I ever want to be on Friday and I don't intend to do it again.

Just to give you an idea, here's the last bit of the climb down, where the stream gets to the beach. I'd climbed down all the way from the hilltop you can see behind it.

It was a lovely spot though:

However, it didn't get me as close to the puffinry as I needed to be to get any decent shots. So I'm sorry, but these (cropped out of bigger pictures, where they appear as small blobs!) are as good as I've got for now:

Next time I have a free-ish day, I'll try either Duncansby Stacks (just up past John O'Groats) or drive right round to the west coast and take the boat to Handa Island, where they're so tame that they'll come up to your feet.

One final picture from that set and it's a bit of an optical illusion. If you look at the land, it seems that the picture is tilted, sloping down to the left. If you look at the sea on the horizon, it's actually straight.

Splosh, splosh, splosh

2008-06-19T13:46:00.003+01:00

So this morning's walk didn't go *quite* to plan.

Usually when I get to the bottom of the path down to the beach, I turn left towards the sea. Today, kitted out in my trusty wellies, I turned right, up the Allt Beag river.

Lesson one - never slide down a river bank without first checking there isn't a bramble in your path on the way down.

After I'd de-prickled my backside, I decided I didn't fancy climbing back up that way again and waded upstream to see what was there. All the crofts run down to the stream, but because the land falls away quite steeply towards the bottom, often the only visitors are sheep and I hoped there might be some exciting wildlife down there.

As I waded on, two major flaws became apparent. The first was that you shouldn't try and walk up a river the morning after it's rained all night. The second was that in my eagerness to explore I'd forgotten that my sense of balance is dodgy on land, let alone in a river full of slippery rocks and I was carrying a bag with all my camera equipment in it.

Lesson two - a stout branch is your friend, whether it's a dead one you pick up to use as a walking stick, or a live one overhanging from the bank that you manage to grab before you land on your arse in the water.

About half an hour of scrambling later it became obvious that there was going to be no easy way out. The crofts were all fenced off at the bottom and although I could get out on the bank for stretches, the way back was blocked by gorse. Nothing for it; I'd have to follow the river for the half mile or so to where it went under the main road and then I could climb out by the bridge.

Lesson three - don't jump into rivers without an exit strategy.

The only problem was that parts of the Allt Beag are quite deep and my wellies were only knee-high. I did quite well sticking to the banks until I reached a spot where two trees had grown directly opposite each other on the banks and the only way forward was in the centre. I waded out up to mid-thigh, held my camera over my head and pressed on...

Lesson four - Monsoon cord trousers don't like river water much. (Thank goodness they were £4.99 from Age Concern...double thank goodness I wasn't wearing jeans, I might have sunk with the weight!)

Past those trees I could see the road. But I could also see a barrier across the river - one of the croft owners had sheep-netted right the way over to stop his/her sheep paddling through into the neighbours. Fortunately, the sheep had decided to go anyway and forced a sheep-sized hole under one of the rails.

Lesson five - sometimes it's good to pretend to be a sheep.

Eventually I reached the bridge and was able to scramble out. After emptying my wellies out for the third time in 90 minutes, I squelched back home and jumped into the shower.

And the really annoying thing? I didn't take a single photo down there! I also lost my pedometer somewhere along the way, but at least I kept all my camera kit dry.

So to make up for the lack of pretty river pictures, here are some birds from the garden instead.

Sparrow on fencepost:

Wren - apparently they're quite rare in Scotland, it's too cold:

Greenfinch (or, to be accurate, greenfinch's bottom):

Female chaffinch:

Sparrow on wire (OK, it's not the best shot, there's too much detail missing in the black, but I love his pose):

Some live wildlife for a change!

2008-06-18T20:22:00.005+01:00

We woke up to glorious sunshine this morning, so I decided to get out with the camera while the sun shone and worry about work this afternoon. Good decision, as it turned out, because the sun went in around 11 and it rained on and off for the rest of the day. Still, I went down to Port a' Chinn again and this was the view from the top:

The rabbits were out and about (the lines across the picture are sheep netting):

and I don't know who was more surprise, me or this rock pipit when it landed on a tractor tyre about 10 feet in front of me:

I climbed back up from Port a Chinn and went down to Armadale bay to check on the ringed plover family. Thanks to the wind over the past few days, the nest had been covered over with sand and I found one dead chick. But both adults were still around and getting very agitated when I went towards one area of the beach, so I'm hopeful that the other three chicks are live and kicking, although I didn't find them. I got some better shots of the parents this time:

I also saw this bird - wasn't too sure what it was and thought it might be a juvenile oystercatcher, but turns out it's actually a sandpiper:

Poulouriscaig

2008-06-15T17:37:00.004+01:00

Poulouriscaig is a Clearances village. It was a tiny hamlet of 7 houses, built some time in the 1800s and abandoned around about 1934. This is the most intact house left of the 7:

And just to show you how different the weather can be within 100 yards of one spot, this is the same house from the reverse angle about 5 minutes later - clock that sky!

There are sheep grazing out there, but I'm not sure how much human contact they have. These were curious until I got closer than 20 feet away and then they bolted.

The walk out there is tough (for a townie!) - it took me about an hour each way even though it's only 1.5 miles away. But with skylarks singing at me all the way and views like this, which is back towards Armadale from the highest point on the track, you don't really notice the aching legs.

Now all I need to do is go up to that point at dawn with a tripod for the golden hour...

Googling Poulouriscaig to find out about it has tipped me off about a hidden waterfall through one of the caves in Port a' Chinn. Looking at the map, there appears to be a pretty big loch hidden in the hills as well, but I'm not fit enough for that walk yet.

A new location

2008-06-14T12:45:00.004+01:00

The weather's been changeable this week and I've been working, so I've not been out much. On Wednesday I turned right out of the gate instead of left and went to Port a' Chinn, which is a little cove hidden away at the far end of Armadale:

The beach is rocky and an absolute bugger to walk on, but the colours in it are fantastic:

There's a lot of wildlife around here - neighbours have told me that this is where I'm most likely to see an otter if I go in the early morning and the ripped-apart seabird I found (gory ribcage and all - it was a pretty fresh kill) would seem to indicate they're right. But the only thing I saw on Wednesday was a family of Eider ducks crossing the cove:

At the risk of becoming known as the wildlife photographer who only photographs dead wildlife, I also found two dead birds at the foot of the cliff. It was a really blustery day, so I'm guessing they got gusted into the rock and killed instantly. One was a guillemot (and I identified that and the Eider duck by myself, so I'm learning!):

and I don't yet know what this is, but I've asked on the birdwatching section of Caithness.org who were the ones who worked out the ringed plover for me:

I now have a car (hooray!) and Mick starts work next week, so I can beetle off once I'm done with work and chores and go exploring a bit more. I want to go to the Caithness/Sutherland border, where there's supposed to be a stack with puffins nesting on it, and I want to drive down to Brough and see if the seals are still there. Three orca whales were spotted by a fisherman 3 miles out from Thurso last week, but my lens isn't that powerful ;o)

The next expedition though, if the weather holds, will be this afternoon to Poulouriscaig, an abandoned settlement on the coast a mile and a half up a track from Armadale.

It's there, I know it's there...

2008-06-09T10:39:00.003+01:00

Firstly, I'm proud to reveal the owner of those eggs:

- a ringed plover. It's a pretty rotten shot, but they're not very big and they can run like the clappers!

This is where I think the otter lives:

If you look at the bank, you can make out paw prints. I've spoken to some more of our neighbours now and they say they think there is one there, but there's certainly one at the other beach at the end of the road. I haven't been down there yet, so that's next on the list of places to explore. The downside is that for the best chance of seeing one, you need to go down there around 5am or earlier, and I'm not the best mornings person in the world...

I was looking at natural patterns last night. It was about half past nine when I got to the beach and the sun had lowered over the headland. So we got stripes:

and we got waves in the sand:

Missed opportunity

2008-06-06T18:09:00.003+01:00

Another note to self: when going to the beach, even if it's only to stretch your legs and the light is no good for landscape, take the blooming camera!! I didn't today and wouldn't you know it, spotted two porpoises in the waves at the far end of the beach.

OK, so I didn't know whether they were dolphins or porpoises at first, but found this handy link, which explains the differences quite nicely.

Also seen on the beach today: the skeleton of something that might have been Daffy Duck (duck's bill, lots of black feathers still on the skull and collarbone), a couple of dark blue crab shells, part of an oyster shell, lots of gulls and whatever it is that's sitting on those eggs I took a photo of - it's NOT an oyster catcher. I still don't know what it is, but I'm trying to find out.

I'm now 95% certain that we have an otter in the burn. There's a stretch of bank with paw marks on it right next to a dug-out hole under some overhanging bushes. I'll have to get up really, really early one morning and check it out.

Today's botany lesson

2008-06-06T15:27:00.002+01:00

If you sit on a stinging nettle with thick cord trousers on, it can still sting you.

Ow.

Sunshine on the beach

2008-06-04T19:19:00.006+01:00

With weather like this, who needs the Caribbean?

We've been here three days now; the first day was foggy, yesterday it rained, but today has been glorious - as you can see:

We went down onto the beach and walked to the far end and back this afternoon. Although we didn't see any oystercatchers, we did see what I think are some oystercatcher eggs:

and, sadly, a sheep that had wandered off the cliff:

And I got to practise my tracking shots on the gulls again so that when I run into a buzzard, I stand a decent chance of getting a good shot!

Notes to self...

2008-05-21T18:18:00.003+01:00

One week to go until the moving begins, so technically this blog hasn't started yet (which means you can't read this, honest ;o), but I've heard about a competition I want to enter and wanted to make a note of it while I remember.

Scottish Natural Heritage is holding a photography competition as part of their annual Biodiversity week (19th-25th May). The theme is 'Natural Inspiration' and entrants are asked to capture an image of nature on digital cameras and email the photo as a jpeg attachment to bit@snh.gov.uk with 'photo contest' in the subject line. Entries must be original, have a title and include information about the Scottish location and the name and contact details of the photographer.

The closing date is 31st July. Full rules and regs plus the top 30 pictures from last year at http://www.snh.org.uk/biodiversityweek/photo_contest.asp and there are some fabulous prizes - 1st place gets a day with professional wildlife photographer Neil McIntyre, 2nd place gets a whale and dolphin-watching trip from the Isle of Mull and 3rd place is a year's subscription to BBC Wildlife magazine.

Natural Scotland

Birds

Catching up (or What I Did On My Holidays)

Curlews

Sightings and this year's ranger walks

Apologies for the radio silence

Yet more deer

More stags

WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Adverse weather conditions

When you're smiling...

Otterly fantastic

Early mornings

Right place, right time

A trip to Inverness

Catching up

Polouriscaig revisited

Apologies...

Strathy Forest

An hour in the garden

Terned on

It's all about luck

Seawatching

A few more puffins

O'Neill Cold Water Classic at Brims Ness

I'm in love

Scottish Natural Heritage

*gulp*

The puffins return

Lazing on a sunny afternoon...

Happy Easter!

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!

Ranger walks

Back on the beach

Loch Meadie

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Oh what a beautiful morning...

Big seas and little bays

Westerdale and Loch More

Target practice

Sandside

This is going to take some time...

Sulk over

*How* frustrating?????

Found the culprits!

A frosty walk

Watch this space...

Staggering

A common Thurso species

Following on from my last post...

Approaching mid-winter

Lucky day

Cold day

Snow

An hour on the beach

In search of Scotland's Haven

Somewhere over the rainbow...

A visitor on the beach

Tides

$£(%&(%*$%&*(!!!!!!!!

I'm in love

Whirlwind week

It's all about the light

Last night

Fancy a shag?

Melvich and Strathy

Mean 'n' Moody

Notes to self...

Strathy Point

Armadale sunset

A chance encounter

Armadale airport

Photography club

One to enter

Back on the beach

Halkirk Highland Games

A plover-free zone

Back to the beach

Oh what a beautiful morning

Caithness County Show

gulp

How frustrating?????

$£(%&(%$%&(!!!!!!!!