I'm beginning to think that the Friday evening weather forecast is sponsored by those out-of-town, covered shopping malls. Yesterday's offering was particularly portentous with the promise of rain on an almost biblical scale. In the event, I spent 5 hours walking up into Glen Finlas this morning, and hardly felt a drop of rain. One good thing about a discouraging weather forecast, however, is that it tends to keep the hills quite quiet. Today, I didn't meet another soul.
The walk up the glen was really excellent with some hard-to-find, local birds including Whinchat (at least four singing males) and Wood Warbler (three), and most of the common, upland specialities including Wheatear, Raven, Redpoll, Cuckoo (brilliant views of two perched birds), Common Sandpiper and Buzzard. Birds of the day were Reed Buntings (including proved breeding near the top of the loch), Meadow Pipit (everywhere), Willow Warbler (everywhere with trees) and House Martin (present all the way up the glen and nesting in buildings beneath the dam). Other nice birds included four Great spotted Woodpeckers, a few Common Gulls and a single Chiffchaff. One that got away was a female duck with a trail of young which crossed the far end of the loch. My guesses would be Mallard, Wigeon or Goosander/Merganser.