Blackcaps

It's been another beautiful day today, hardly a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind, so we took a gentle walk along the shore....

....below Dunrobin Castle where we passed a thicket mainly comprised of sea buckthorn. We've passed here many times before but today Mrs MW spotted a small bird which turned out to be our first sighting in Sutherland of....

....a male blackcap. The blackcap is a species of warbler which tends to migrate south for the winter but - so the internet tells me - blackcaps from NE Europe are increasingly spending their winters here. Their main food is insects and berries, and there are plenty of the latter still on the trees despite the attentions of other Scandinavian immigrants such as black-beaked blackbirds, redwings and fieldfares.

A little patience, and Mrs MW's sharp  eyes, produced a rather better picture of a female blackcap, whose cap is brown, feeding on elderberries. The orange berries are those of the sea buckthorn.