Saturday 7th May

Still playing catch up...

On Wednesday it was back to what has become somewhat usual - a testing bike ride in rather challenging, windy conditions so that the concentration was more on the road on the wildlife.

Loch Arthur

Managed a stop at Loch Arthur for half an hour, where I did however see some swallows and house martins flying over the water surface in the search for flies, plus a great crested grebe and a diving cormorant.  A question arose as to why I did not see any swallows when I was in Italy last week?? And so here's a theory: the birds need to spend more time in Northern Europe than Southern Europe in order to get enough food to feed their offspring and nourish themselves for the flight back to Africa.

Whether this idea has any sense in it, I really do not know. I do however remember comparing notes with a German friend who told me one Autumn that swallows had already left Thuringia when I was still seeing them in Scotland, which struck me at the time as strange. The grebe incidentally was only just developing his crest.

Today took part in a walk from Whitehaven to St. Bees with the Amnesty West Cumbria Group, a total of about fifteen miles.  This is the first and only time I have walked that far, and I had wondered how well I would cope, as I often notice on birdwatching trips that I am quite tired after about six miles.

Guillemots

Well I was fine, although I saw comparatively little in the way of birdlife on the walk.  I think the main reason is that the pace was so much faster than when idling around scanning the horizon for birds. There were a couple of magpies and pipits, some skylarks and the odd cormorant.  And I did get the chance to photograph this guillemot colony, although did not attempt to count guillemots.

Another thing that is prejudicial to birdwatching on a long walk is the use of walking sticks. Although much appreciated in terms of getting through the walk, you really need to keep your eyes on the ground to see where you are going to put them.

I was pleased to manage the walk, but for nature purposes, I prefer to take things more slowly.