Black Guillemots

Our recce of Oban Harbour was so close to being a disaster, luckily, sharp eyed Martin tracked a bird that flew from the CalMac ferry terminal and landed on the Corran Esplanade, just in front of the Cathedral. So hot foot back to the car and a drive round to try to locate the birds. Parking was a tad awkward so Martin stayed with the car whilst I looked over the sea wall. Sure enough about half a dozen birds in the water, I turned to Martin to give the thumbs up and one landed on the wall just in front of me. These birds aren't fazed by humans and they just get on with life, ignoring the onlookers, behaving like mini penguins.

The Black Guillemot has been high on my photo list for some time, I am of an age where the word "cool" is not usually in my vocabulary. However, on this occasion, I agree that this bird is definitely cool, both its local name "Tystie" and its scientific name, Cepphus grylle are cool too.

 

 

 

At one point in the proceedings Martin tapped me on the shoulder and pointed down the jetty on which we were standing. One of the birds had landed just below us, right on the limit of my minimum focus distance. Looking into the eye of this bird you can almost make out two photographers!

So the holiday was starting to be a success, two life ticks and several year ticks, we were on a roll, we just had to go up Ben Lawers for a Mountain Ringlet. A couple of hours later we were parked by the dam on Ben Lawers, a fairly stiff cool breeze from a northerly direction meant nothing was flying but at least the sun was shining. After a brief search we dropped back down to the car park where the visitor centre used to be. We walked up the Edramucky Trail to the fenced enclosure, in an area just to the right of the gate Small Heaths were about but precious little else. Finally  late in the afternoon, I had a glimpse of a Mountain Ringlet but it did the vanishing act and I failed to get a shot.