King of the Highlands

Great find a few days ago in the shape of a stunning drake King Eider 20 miles up the coast from Ullapool. A few local birders have tried to find out who found and first reported the bird but unfortunately this has not been possible to date. The bird shows well when it moves into the near-shore areas with the small flock of eider, but on occasion is distant and it has also been known to disappear in the numerous rocky inlets that are characteristic of much of the coastline in the area. 

Rose tinted birding

At last a bird has been reported in Highland that could be considered a local twitch- only a 50 mile round trip to try and catch up with a rose-coloured starling at Achiltibuie. Friday evenings' attempt turned into a dip despite careful scrutiny of the area around the piping school cafe and surrounding crofts over a near 3 hour search. A return on Saturday morning resulted in a rather nervous second attempt with the bird taking nearly 2 hours to show- but when it did it proved worth the wait- I had not seen an adult before and it was certainly an attractive individual. I also saw a helmeted guineafowl walking along the verge- obviously an escape but interesting to see.