WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

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

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...

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:

Catching up

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.

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

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:

A frosty walk

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)