Littleferry

For a time it looked as if our only company in this morning's damp and rather grey walk along the beach would be a lone oystercatcher but we then spotted seven birds of a species we haven't seen since the spring....

....long-tailed ducks.

There was a time when the corpses of fishes - particularly rays - were quite common along the beach but they are now a rarity. Today's one find was a small fish, perhaps a bream.

With so little visible along the beach, which is worrying, it cheered us to find the main 'pond' of Loch Fleet busy with birds, including shelduck, mallard, widgeon, oystercatchers, gulls, crows, and an unusually large number of very vocal curlews.

The French Painting

One of the things I inherited from my mother was this painting. I know little about it except for references in the lists she made of all her possessions some years before she died, where she says of it, "French water colour, autumn scene, bought 1937 in King William's Street, London by HH for £4. It originally had guilt frame; reframed in Zanzibar." HH was my mother, Helen Haylett.

In a separate list, which went over much the same ground as the first, but a few years later when she was packing up her flat to move into a home, she wrote, "Picture of Autumn to OHH," OHH being the home, Old Hastings House. That she took it to OHH, rather than one of the many other pictures she had, indicates that it had a very special place in her affections, having been bought at some expense not long before she set off to take up her post in Zanzibar..

It's interesting that she knew it was French. The picture is signed, but this is illegible, so the shop which sold it to her must have told her something about it.

So we are left with the subject of the picture, the man walking towards us carrying something large on his back. It could be the French equivalent of a coracle, though it's a bit small for that. It could be the equivalent of the Highland Scots' creel used, for example, for carrying peats. Or it could be something unique to some rural part of France.

I'm also intrigued by the man's clothing which, surely, should give a clue as the the location in which the picture was painted, and also by whatever the 'stick' is that he's using.

I just wish my mother had written a little more about this painting - which I have always loved; and I would like her to know that it's still in its Zanzibar frame, and is in the safe hands of one of her grand-daughters, who has just had it cleaned.

Brora

Brora is the next village north on the A9, about five miles from Golspie. We drove there this morning to avail ourselves of two services which. our village doesn't offer but Brora does, a recycling plant and a filling station. Both villages used to have many more services which have since disappeared, including the one which we most miss, a bank.

Whenever we visit Brora we take a brisk walk along its miles of open sands, populated today by one other walker, a few seagulls and, on the golf course....

....six oystercatchers feeding on worms.

Although only a light wind was blowing, walking was cold work, the air temperature being slightly below 4C, held there by some thin, high cloud which blocked the sun. This cleared just as we arrived home.

Warthogs

I have a soft spot for warthogs. The must be one of the ugliest animals to grace the great savanna plains of Africa - probably on a par with the hyena - yet I respect the warthog for having survived in an environment where....

....this cat's favourite food is a big, fat pig.

Warthogs, like all pigs, are intelligent. For example, they hang around villages where the inhabitants are moslem, so don't eat pork, and where the warthogs are therefore safer because lions don't like humans.

That said, I still don't understand why warthogs have survived in the battle for existence. They have to feed - they are grazers - so can't hang around moslem villages all day; despite having long legs, they don't stand a chance against the acceleration of a lion; and although they have wicked teeth which act as tusks, which they can use to great effect, these aren't much protection against the teeth and claws of a lion.

Despite so much being stacked against them, they must be doing well because they are so often to be seen in the games parks of places like Tanzania, where these pictures were taken.

My only regret is that, in the three tourist-style visits we made to Tanzanian parks in the early 2000s, we never saw a family of warthogs. They are very good parents, suicidally protective; the children are very obedient; and a family on the trot, all in a line with their tails straight up in the air, is an unforgettably amusing sight.

The Hunters

I had hardly ventured forth into today's damp and chilly morning to walk up into the hills when I was confronted by....

....this newly-planted notice warning that the annual hunt across estate land had begun; and I had hardly passed the notice before....

....the hunters, all French, arrived.

They were very pleasant, and I felt like wishing them luck because, from our experience, at the moment there is very little in the way of game in these hills; there are certainly far fewer rabbits and roe deer.

I don't really object to hunting: how can I when....

....I used to be a keen fisherman - this is me fishing for rainbow trout in the beautiful Pungwe River in Zimbabwe - and I owned a .22 rifle when I lived in Rhodesia. Guns and hunting....

....run in the family - this is my great grandfather who was captain of the Scottish shooting team, and....

....the lady on the left is my mother's aunt Lil, seen here on a tiger shoot in India.

My views on hunting have changed as I've aged. While I might still go fishing if invited, I don't think I would now want to shoot anything, not unless there was very good reason for doing so.

Happily for the wildlife, and very much less so for the French visitors, I heard only one gunshot all morning.

More Geese

This morning we sat and watched as massed skeins of pink-footed geese flew across the skies above the Dornoch Firth, on their way north to the day's feeding grounds. We tried to find some way of estimating how many there were, but were defeated. All we could come up with is that the upper arm of the nearest skein consisted of about 200 geese - and if you look closely in the lower part of the picture - click on the picture to enlarge it - there are masses more, and more continued to pass over after all the geese in this picture had gone.

There is something awe-inspiring when one encounters large numbers of a single species gathered together - and, at times, frightening, as when....

....we encountered a large herd of buffalo in the Selous reserve in Tanzania.

From the way the geese numbers are increasing, I would guess that more and more are still arriving from their summer nesting grounds in Iceland and Greenland, so we may have even more awe-inspiring sights to come.

The Big City

It's not often we go to Inverness, the nearest the Highlands has to 'the big city', but when we do it's because we have to - for example, to attend a hospital appointment; and the place is always a pleasant surprise, not least for the long walks that can be enjoyed through the woodland along the River Ness.

To get there we made use of our senior citizens' 'Saltire' card which entitles us to free travel on the bus to and from Inverness; and the one night we spent there was at one of the city's three Premier Inns, which are always clean, well-maintained and reasonably priced.

However, given a choice between a couple of days in Inverness and being at home, I would take the latter every time, especially if, as happened this morning, on entering the woods for our daily walk we are greeted by a red squirrel and....

....find a fungus which we haven't seen this year. This is, I think, a yellow brain fungus growing on the fungus' favourite host, gorse.

Not that Inverness is without wildlife. On the pavement beside a busy road into the city's Seafield industrial estate we spotted a pied wagtail, a bird we haven't seen here in ages.

A Tropical Adventure - 2

We took the two grandmothers to as many interesting places as we could, and this included a visit to our favourite escape, a small hotel at the eastern end of Jamaica. Bea, my mother-in-law, may have been in Jamaica a fortnight but her pleasure at what she saw around her hadn't diminished. This is another entry in the diary she kept:

Saturday 30th March

6.45am - morning tea

8am - breakfast

Packed up for the trip to Long Bay.

10am. Journey along the coast to Long Bay - on to Boston Bay for picnic lunch. Gill bought 25 bananas for 50c.

Boston Bay is a lovely bay with shade. I found a few shells and drift wood. Gill, Jon, Elizabeth, Helen all swam - I found it better to just paddle along the beach as I still found the strong sunlight on the water a little upsetting. The colour of the water is unbelievably blue and so warm. Had to sit in the shade after a while - at noon sun is almost overhead. 

About 3.30pm we went back to Long Bay to the guest house - ‘Ports of Call’ - run by a Canadian and his wife. It is right on the coast - walk out from the terrace onto the sea shore. We had a welcome cup of tea sitting at tables just by the sand.

Very attractive bedrooms. All furniture made of bamboo with beautifully coloured bedspreads. Walked along the shore.

8pm. Dinner. We all had shrimps cooked in butter, with sweet corn.

A Morning

We watched from our breakfast table as, well before sunrise, a thousand and more pink-footed geese filled the sky as skein after skein - some better organised than others - flew north to their daylight feeding grounds, more....

....and more of them in bigger or smaller groups as the light grew and....

....the sun finally broke the horizon.

After breakfast I walked up the track that climbs into the forestry, carefully because....

....the night's clear sky had brought a sharp frost and there were places where the going underfoot was treacherous; and as I walked so the birds gave me more joy, first as....

....more geese passed over, lower than the earlier ones, then as....

,,,,three buzzards wheeled above the fields which, in summer, had supported the glut of rabbits which has now given way to famine.

I walked for about half-an-hour uphill, far enough to be able to see the warmth of the sun light the Silver Rock, seen here with Loch Fleet away in the distance.

A Tropical Adventure - 1

When we set off on our two-year contract in Jamaica we asked both sets of parents to come out and visit us - confident that my well-travelled parents would take up the offer, and equally certain that Mrs MW's parents wouldn't - her father refused to fly so the furthest they had been was Italy.

To our surprise and disappointment my father refused to come, even though he could have done the journey by ship, so my mother asked Gill's mother, Bea, if she would accompany her - and, to everyone's surprise, she jumped at the chance.

While in Jamaica Bea kept a diary. This is the first of two entries from it, from the day she arrived in the country after a thirteen hour flight from the UK.



March 17th 1974 - Sunday

Disturbed night with barking of dogs and crowing of cocks. Awake at 4.30am. New bird songs and a beautiful humming bird in the garden - so tiny. I find the colour here fascinating - garden full of lovely tropical flowers - hibiscus (red, pink-yellow, etc), pride of Barbados (lovely flame-coloured flowers), cactus (in bud), banana trees, etc. I did a few arrangements for Gill but found the hibiscus did not last - seemed to last only one day after being picked.

Spent an easy day - in the afternoon went across to the school. Can well understand Jonathan getting depressed about things - broken windows, general air of neglect - although an enormous expansion is planned (1000 pupils during the day but evening classes as well). School starts at 7.30am finishes at 2.30pm.

Very tired in the evening - had to go to bed before the others.

The Daily Challenge

A little excitement each day - not too  much, for I'm an old man - is what keeps me going, particularly in winter when, despite the miles we walk, there's relatively little to be seen in the natural world. So, a photograph combining the recent red sunrises with the daily commute of pink-footed geese northwards in the early morning, seemed a challenge worth attempting, and this is the result, taken yesterday morning from our bedroom window.

Another challenge, which happens quite frequently as we walk along Squirrel Alley on our way down to the village, is to get a picture of one of the red squirrels which come to the squirrel feeders put out by the people in the houses that back onto the woods.

Again, yesterday, Fortune smiled, for no fewer than three red squirrels were running around in the trees, of which only this one paused for long enough for me to take its portrait.

Cold Walking

This morning we walked the ancient trackway that runs along the coast to the northeast of Golspie and was once the main highway to Wick and the Orkney Islands, a walk we used to follow often when we lived at the other end of the village. Sadly, the weather was miserable, grey clouds which occasionally produced a thin, sleety rain, ice underfoot from last night's frost, a light but biting northerly wind, and....

....only the very occasional, very watery sunny interval.

There was little wildlife visible to cheer us. Even the gulls seemed to have moved elsewhere, and there was no sign of the rock doves which usually over-winter along this shore. However, we did see this patient grey heron....

....the usual cormorants, a curlew, a redshank, and a handful of oystercatchers.

The only thing perhaps worthy of attention was this plant, growing just above the storm line at the top of the beach, a plant we haven't seen before. Could it be a sedum, an escapee from a nearby garden?

Stanley's Kopje

I spend more and more time now looking back through the hundreds of photographs I have on my laptop, remembering people, landscapes, sounds, smells, animals.... remembering so much and, with those memories, wishing I could turn the clock back and visit the places I have loved, just one more time.

I know I won't, can't. If I could, I would go to places like Stanley's Kopje, seeing it as we did in 2011. It's a lodge in Mikumi National Park, Tanzania, typical of the sort we stayed in during our three trips to Tanzania. The large building houses the communal rooms - lounge, dining room, bar - while the guests each have a tent-based 'bedroom', all with wide views across the surrounding countryside. 

Makumi is the national park nearest to Dar-es-Salaam so isn't considered one of the best but we thoroughly enjoyed it. For those who must see the 'big five' it is a bit disappointing. We saw elephant and lion but the elephant were in small groups and lacked good tusks, a reflection of the years of poaching.

I'm far more interested in the less important animals, such as the Maasai giraffe which, like all the larger animals, spent much of their time in the shade, for Mikumi was very hot and dry when we visited; and....

....the zebra, which always look fat and healthy whatever the weather.

We enjoyed Stanley's Skopje for many reasons but an experience I particularly enjoyed was their early morning drive which included breakfast in the bush.

So, farewell Stanley's Kopje, Mikumi and its animals, including this rather fine marsh mongoose. I hope that, long into the future, others visit and enjoy you as much as I did.

An Unwelcome Visitor

This is the central business district of our small bird feeding operation, where fat, sunflower kernels, peanuts, niger, and mixed seeds are available to customers from a variety of dispensers - free - twenty-four hours a day, but yesterday afternoon it was suddenly deserted.

The cause is sitting to the left of the above picture, a....

....very smart sparrowhawk, visiting what it considered to be the centre of its feeding operation, and was in no hurry to move on.

The lack of small birds didn't seem to worry it. It sat for about twenty minutes, enjoying the sunshine and waiting for lunch to make a mistake,

None of the small birds did make a mistake so the sparrowhawk seemed suddenly to give up, and moved to another spot which is particularly popular with some of our small birds, the chaffinches and house sparrows - the bird bath. By this time....

....the very unwelcome visitor was being carefully watched, from a safe distance, so it moved....

....back to the feeding area, finally giving up and flying off round the side of the house.