These days have mostly consisted of me being outside, because it's continued to be just beautiful here. The temperature is right around freezing, but the skies have been clear and brilliant blue and the wind has been low. This has made for clear skies at night, with lots of stars and a full moon, and small puffy clouds that pick up the suns colours during the day. It's just been too beautiful to stay inside and do anything productive, no matter how worn out I might be from walking so much.
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Tuesday I slept fairly late, thinking I'd take the day to catch up on weaving
and harping and other stuff, but when I got up, it was so beautiful out I
decided I had to try climbing the hill again to see if it was clearer and
better for full-village photos. It was! I could see to Little Bernera
clearly, which has a sandy beach. Wayne and I went there once, on our boat
trip in 2002 with the harp course.
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I just went up the hill and back down, without completing the circle, but I
did spend a long time on top just taking in the spectacular views, and
connecting my knowledge of the village with what I was seeing. I noticed a
point of land I hadn't visited behind Ali and Sandy's house, and decided I
wanted to explore that soon. I also visited with Sandy's cows again.
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The day clouded over a bit as I was headed down the hill. I had lunch to
wait out the rain, which never came. The afternoon cleared up some, and I
decided I really needed to go visit Ali and Sandy, whom I hadn't seen in a
while. There was a second reason -- Andrea had given me cookies to pass on
to them, but I hadn't managed to get there yet. (I'd gotten the cookies the
day before Wendy came, and just didn't find time while Cheyenne was here.)
So, I headed over to their place, but they weren't in. I left the cookies
and a note, and walked back to the point of land behind their croft. From
there I walked the coastal areas to the cemetery. I headed inland from there,
toward the inlet/loch, hoping to see the merganser ducks. No luck with the
ducks, but I did find the loch easily and walked home from there.
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The next morning, I got up earlier because the bright sun kept waking me up. I decided to go ahead and get up, and spent the first part of the morning watching the birds, which were here in force. The hoodies were being quite cooperative for once, so I got several good shots of them.
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Then I headed out for the final walk Ali had described to me -- the walk from
the village to the next village, Carloway. This takes you through the
machair, but it's a wide trail, and no hills, so it was very easy walking.
I was quite disappointed to arrive right as another person was coming, and
he headed down this same trail, with his dog. I knew this would spoil any
chance I had of seeing good birds, so a dawdled a good bit as I walked the
trail, hoping things would restore to normal. I still didn't see any birds,
but I lost him fairly quickly. When I arrived at the hotel at the other end,
the loch there was beautiful, and it felt like I hadn't been walking for long
at all, so I decided to walk around the loch. This is the hotel/loch where
I fed the ducks on day before, and I realized I hadn't thought to bring bread.
The ducks weren't where I'd seen them before, but I found them further around
the loch, right in front of the Dun remains on an island in the loch. They
were settled down for a nap. I took photos, and a couple got up and got
active for me, so I had a good time duck-watching.
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Most of the way down the path, I saw that there was another path diverging
off to the right. I decided to follow this for a bit to see where it led,
and so I could stop hurrying to stay ahead. The path led across the machair
to the far side of the loch/inlet where I'd seen the merganser ducks. I had
to do some very mucky climbing, but I reached the lochside, and there were
the ducks, up close to the island in the middle. I couldn't see them well,
and wanted to get to the other side of the loch to see them better, so I
headed around the loch towards Loch Roag/the sea. At first I couldn't find
a way down to the lochside so I could cross to the other side, but instead I
found a way out to the point beyond the loch, which had some spectacular views
of Loch Roag and the islands beyond. From there I headed back the way I had
come, and finally spotted the way down. It was a bit difficult at one point,
because I had to walk along a very narrow bit of ground, but this was right
on the inside of a fence, so I had something to hold on to to keep me steady.
From there, I had to climb under the fence (it was broken at this point) to
get down to the rocks/shore.
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I crossed the rocky bridge across the inlet, seeing tons of mussels and
several sheep along the way. Then I walked along the familiar side of the
inlet. By this time, however, the ducks had departed. I never saw them
leave, but they were nowhere to be seen. So, I headed back across the same
way I'd come over the day before, ending at the cemetery, and then taking the
cemetery road back to my cottage.
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First, I saw two blackbirds! I had seen blackbirds daily when I first
arrived, but about a month ago they stopped coming. I had seen one some days
if I got up very early in the morning, but that was the only time I had seen
him. This was a male and a female, and they were having a good time exploring
the yard. So, I went crazy taking photos. In the meantime, the robin showed
up, who I hadn't seen in a whole month here at all. The robin was very
skittish, and just wouldn't stay put for me to take photos. Any time I'd
look at him, he'd take off, but he kept coming back throughout the afternoon.
Meanwhile, the blackbirds multiplied to three, adding a young male, with paler
colouring. At one point a fourth blackbird showed up, another male. The
first male dashed to cover when this other male showed up, and didn't come
out until the new one departed shortly thereafter. I was surprised there
wasn't a fight.
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Suddenly, all the birds disappeared except for my male and female blackbirds.
The female was on a fence post, and the male was up next to the cottage, where
I throw out scraps. They were sitting very still. At first I thought they
were just napping, and then I realized they had been sitting there a long
time, and figured out there must be a hawk. Sure enough, a sparrowhawk came
swooping down and flushed the female into flight. She managed to evade him
but feinting a landing at an old blackhouse, and then continuing away. The
hawk landed and it was too late to catch her. I was so relieved!
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The hawk missed this motion completely, but seemed to think there was another bird in the tall grasses farther from the cottage. She (female markings) knew there were birds to be had, and was swooping low over the grassy areas, trying to flush them out. Nothing flew out. She got frustrated and sat on the fence post, not far from where the female blackbird had been sitting.
Luckily, the male remained very still through all of this, and never drew her attention. However, she had drawn the attention of my hoodies, who came to the rescue. They came swooping over and started chasing her all over the croft, and beyond. Soon she was nowhere to be seen.
I think the blackbird was pretty traumatized by all this -- it took place over a good hour of time, and he then proceeded to sit still for about another hour, even though house sparrows and the robin returned to the feeders during that time. He finally, very slowly, made his way out of the grass, returning to his feeding spot. He ate some food, preened a little, but still didn't seem quite comfortable. Eventually, he seemed to get his courage back, and suddenly he started dashing about in the field, as he had been before. Shortly after this, the other male blackbird returned, and this time he chased him off. Shortly thereafter he flew away, probably to join his mate.
This is by far the most bird excitement I've seen at the house here. I had seen what I thought was a kestrel (looks a lot like our peregrine, not like our kestrel) on a post here once, but he didn't do anything but sit. I got a good enough look at this bird to be pretty certain she was a female sparrowhawk, and she was clearly an efficient hunter. I felt really lucky that my blackbirds, just returned, got away safe and sound. The hoodies are my heroes!
Thursday I took two basic walks around the village, doing the circular circuit I did frequently. The first time I walked alone, and watched the sunset. The second time I walked with Laura and Justin, and we did it to moonlight. It was amazing how beautiful the town was in the moonlight, and how bright! The stars were out and brilliant as well, so I found myself tripping over my own feet quite frequently because I kept looking up at the sky. It was a very pleasant walk.
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