Purple Posers

After the seemingly endless days of gloomy grey sky and bitter cold, it was such a relief to get out on Saturday and experience warmth and sunshine. First port of call was Clarach, where little gulls had been spotted the previous days. Naturally, there was nothing there. Well, I say nothing, of course there was the obligatory herring and black headed gulls, plus oystercatchers and a distant fly by red throated diver, along with a vocal rock pipit. Heading to South beach, we picked up 3 gorgeous purple sandpipers 'sunbathing' on the rocks only about 10 feet from us; secure in the knowledge that the metal railings between us and them prevented us getting any closer they didnt mind Steffi spending 20 minutes pointing a camera at them. Just as we decided to leave, a little gull passed by overhead and proceeded to feed phalarope like on the water right in front of us.

Next stop, the Leri, where we picked up a cracking male eider in the channel by the boat yard. Aside from a few curlew, redshank and shelduck all was quiet here, though a merlin hunting low over the fields was a bonus, so we headed over to the point, where it was even quieter. Good numbers of  goldeneye, shag and a few linnets on the tideline were about all that was on offer - although our day was brightened up considerably by the tool in the flash car who got himself stuck in the sands whilst trying to impress his girlfriend - we left smugly in our 4x4 laughing fit to burst.
At the Ynslas turn car park we had, as usual, good numbers of common scoter, a few red throated divers and great crested grebes.

Good news concerning our presumed willow tit - it is definitely a willow, confirmed by Dr Richard Broughton who checked our pics and description and gave us the thumbs up. Here is a photo from its most recent visit.