Distant Diver

Day two in Scotland can't rival the first, but the views get pretty close.

Pronoun guidance: AB1's beer. This post covers the events of July 1st, 2018.

Location location location

The next day has some excellent locations, but only one tick. We encounter Stonechat (no Whinchat, mind) and Redpoll (a little flock flitting between three areas of silver birch) on a very pleasant walk from the Ferrycroft Visitor Centre.

We enjoy excellent views of Redshank and Ringed Plover (as well as the mountains behind Loch Shin) from the famed Dalchork Bird Hide. A picnic alongside Loch Loyal is rather briefly held - rain briefly attempts to intrude; we retreat to eating in the car.

Our planned campsite at Tongue is being renovated. We don't much fancy pitching in the tiny area leftover from the building site, so we decide to fast forward to our next location in Durness. From the second carpark on the crossing of the Kyle of Tongue we do pick up a distant Black-throated Diver, though; an excellent tick to find so early on - despite the fact they breed in basically all of the bit of Scotland we plan to visit, they are not the easiest birds to see.

A brief trip down a very tiny road takes us to the path up Ben Hope - we decide against a hike up - there isn't time, and the weather looks a bit shifty. The atmosphere's not helped by a family of Peregrine Falcon otherworldly screaming somewhere up towards the tops. We do, however, enjoy the sight of a very bold Common Sandpiper down in the valley below.

The drive from there to Durness is highly scenic, helped by some fairly apocalyptic light - thick cloud occasionally being penetrated with summer sunshine, but barring the constant Pied Wagtails and a few auks on the various sea inlets (We spend a few stops looking for other divers, or a better view of Black-throated), we don't see much in the way of birds.

We find a place to pitch, strategically placing our car to act as a windbreak - the weather is still sub-par, the wind has a bit of bite, and we don't remember if our tent is a budget special or something more substantial. We take residence in the campsite's pub to plan the next day's activities and get our first reminder that there's some sort of world-footballing event happening.

After a first beer in something like five months, we decide to add our weight to the ballast keeping the tent in place and get an early night; the clouds have brought the day to an end a bit earlier than usual.