Achanaird Bay is about 6 miles from where I'm staying at Acheninver hostel in Achiltibuie and its a bit of an oasis, being a beautiful sandy beach with dunes and saltmarsh in the middle of an otherwise rocky coastline.
It's a decent place for waders and everytime I go I feel like I'm about to find a buff-breasted sandpiper. This week there's been a fine selection albeit in small numbers, with 200 dunlin, 70 ringed plover, 30 curlew, 5 whimbrel, 3 sanderling, 5 bar-tailed godwits and a couple of turnstone, all mainly feeding on the short, grazed saltmarsh grass.
Apart from the waders, it's also good for passerines such as wheatear, pipits and wagtails, and at the moment there are about 10 white wagtails.
Today I managed three species that I wasn't expecting, all of which were new for me in North West Scotland.
First off was this rather grotty looking Slavonian grebe, which in its defence was undergoing its moult into non-breeding plumage. Then a little further on I flushed a woodcock from some short marshy grassland, but best of all I then saw a female marsh harrier hunting over the river bank. Apparently there are only one or two records a year in the North West Highlands so a very decent record.
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