horns of wilmington's cow

By anth

Reflectivity

There's always going to be one of those disappointing made-the-wrong-choice day on a holiday, and today was probably that day for us. The wind is still up (though from what I've seen of the weather reports its nothing compared to what the mainland is suffering), but dry, so we went with a straightforward choice between a walk around Scalpay, or from Urgha over the moor to Reinighidal.

The promise of Golden Eagles and Plovers, and Red Deer and Grouse, as well as an outside chance of Otters after we'd crossed through a Bealach to the shore on the other side meant we opted for the latter. What we got was a fairly nondescript wander on a track up and over the lump between, with a diversion to see Molinginis (an interesting spot, true, where up to 40 people once lived, and there was even a school), before an astonishingly boggy, and at one point slightly dangerous waterfall crossing-y, slog to rejoin the main path, and head back up and over to the car, with precisely none of the interesting wildlife (and virtually nothing else) on show.

Still, we rounded off the day with a late evening stroll around the headland near the cottage (again in the hope of elusive Otters, but instead being attacked by a protective mother sheep and scattering roughly a gazillion rabbits) in a brief respite in the wind.

Always feels like time is counting down once you're more than halfway through a holiday...

No new birds
Bird count: 44

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