Winter is the season when we accept that we may take one of our walks and see nothing of great note so when, on today's visit to Backies to see if any eggs were available - which....
....there weren't as all the hens seemed to be too busy chatting up the cockerel under a tree - Mrs MW spotted....
....a raptor wheeling high above the forestry, we were thrilled.
We spent several minutes watching it, hoping all the time that it would come close enough for us to be able to identify it with some certainty - it definitely wasn't a buzzard, and too small and the wrong shape to be an eagle - but it was probably watching us and quite determined to keep its distance.
From its silhouette and from this picture, which does show some of its markings, we're fairly certain it's a red kite, a bird we've seen from the car a couple of times when driving south of the Dornoch Firth on our way to and from Tain.
Walking still isn't much fun along some of the paths where the relatively warmer daytime temperatures have melted some of the snow, the resulting water then freezing at night to turn them into toboggan runs. It's been cold these last few days but....
....not cold enough to ice over the skating pond, not deep enough for it to be put to use.
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