Despite the Weather....

Despite the recent appalling weather the small birds have been doing their best to carry on as if spring really was almost here - so we're seeing the males in their mating finery and....

....even some of the birds, like this greenfinch, which we've not seen in the garden for some time, now coming in to fill themselves with good things so they can excel at the mating game.

Sadly, some of them are getting a little too excited. This female chaffinch was evidently being chased by an over-amorous....

....male so, in their excitement, the two of them ended up crashing in to the glass sheets of our balcony's balustrade - with terminal results for the female and, probably, a severe headache for the male.

Down at ground level spring is being measured by the flowering of some 'old favourite' plants, like this lesser celandine and, in the Council meadow that runs along the A9....

....by the very first cowslip of the season.

A Crowded Anchorage

The Moray Firth off the mouth of Loch Fleet was crowded with ships by late afternoon yesterday, no less than six of them of which two were Wilson ships and one was....

....the ocean-going tug Kingdom of Fife, which was exceptionally close in to the Golspie shore - far closer than....

....we've seen any ship in the time we've lived here.

The Kingdom of Fife is an old friend from our days on Ardnamurchan, when she not infrequently sailed past us in the Sound of Mull. She was also involved with the salvage work when the Lysblink Seaways ran ashore at Kilchoan - for the story, see the Kilchoan Diary blog here.

It's one of the things I have most missed since leaving Kilchoan, where a wide variety of ships working up and down the Sound of Mull passed very close to our house.

The reason for so many ships being anchored in the Firth is very apparent today. We are in the grip of a run of fierce westerlies which are battering us with hail, sleet and even occasional snow; and there's little sign of this weather letting up as the week progresses.

A Deserted Beach

We were on the beach again yesterday morning, walking into a stiff southwester which brought sudden showers ranging from rain to hail. While not altogether pleasant, the weather kept other people off the beach so, in walking about a mile along it, we saw not another soul.

In the seaweed washed up by the falling tide we found....

....a dozen or so of these 6" long flatfish - having seen hardly any washed-up fish in months - and....

....one of this species, probably a short spined sea scorpion.
 

Out in the Firth, four ships still lay at anchor, though the Rix Pacific had been replaced by the Wilson Plymouth.

This shot shows the Wilson Harrier and a large flock of wind-harried geese.

Ships in the Snow

It's been snowing here on and off since yesterday morning but, during the day, any that settled melted almost immediately. However, through the night some of it accumulated on....

....the rooftops, though these deposits didn't last long.

Although the weather really shouldn't be doing this to us in late March, more surprising was the number of ships anchored in the Moray Firth, more than we've seen before.

To the left in this picture is the Jomi, the ship we saw at Littleferry the other day, while the ship to the right is the Wilson Harrier.

From our house the Neuseborg (above) lay away to our left while the Rix Pacific was too far round for us to see.

Why we have this sudden accumulation of ships is a bit of a mystery, particularly as there is no exceptionally bad weather forecast during the next few days..

A Wide, Sandy Beach

It's one of the privileges of living in Golspie that we have easy access to a wide, sandy beach which stretches for miles but which usually has hardly another soul on it.

Today, this beach was so deserted that we also shared it with....

....two seals. This one, from the tracks it left running down the beach, had come ashore during the night's high tide but, by the time we were near it, it was almost back in the sea while....

....this one seemed quite happy to ignore the very occasional passing human.

To add to the interest of the walk a ship lay at anchor not far offshore. She's the Jomi, and this isn't the first time we've seen her off Golspie - see earlier post here.

The wreck in the right foreground is all that remains of the Tones, which came ashore in 1937 - see earlier blog entry here  

A Gloomy Day

The contrast between today\s weather and yesterday's couldn't be more stark: when Mrs MW walked down to the shops yesterday she wore a t-shirt, while today she was back in a winter coat.

The day's general gloom, and an accompanying thin drizzle, made photography challenging, at a time of year when, suddenly, a great deal is happening. So....

....this attempt at a red squirrel was the best I could get.

More frustrating was my encounter with three roe deer, the first since last August. None of them would stop long enough to have their picture taken. Their nervousness is understandable: the estate has been managing its deer population though the winter, and culling quite a few of them.

It's amazing how many chiffchaffs have arrived and how quickly they're spreading through the forestry. I would guess that there is now a chiffchaff every 200m or so along the tracks, enough for me to find one which would stay still long enough for a photo.

Only the other day I was bemoaning the lack of yellowhammers. Well, this male has now arrived in one of the yellowhammers' favourite spots, just by the small quarry where the tadpoles and newts can be found. He was alone but singing lustily so, hopefully, he'll soon be attracting a mate.

Peacock

In the early afternoon the peacock was back in his garden today, sunning himself on a rock and occasionally visiting the heather flowers.

After a long, grey winter it was a joy and a tonic to sit and watch this beautiful creature, and to bask with him in the sunshine and 17C warmth.