Tales From The Highlands

Day 9 - Another Holiday Breakdown

  No, this time it wasn't myself or Majella, it was our car but I will get to that later.I got up at 6.15am as I could see the sun through the blinds.It was quite a nice sunrise over the Moray Firth.

  As I was up early we decided to head to Inverness carboot at the football ground.It was pretty busy but we managed to pick up a few bargains.Two African hand crafted masks, a Panda money box and a Rhino puppet lol

  After the carboot we drove back across Kessock Bridge and parked underneath it on the North side.There were plenty of Cormorants and Grey Herons but nothing else so we went back across the bridge to get shopping.
  We had lunch and then took the short drive up to Udale Bay.It was a couple of hours after high tide and the bay was teeming with birds.Hundreds of Pink-footed Geese squabbled among themselves with some taking flight and landing in the field behind us.
  Pink-feet everywhere.

  There were also over 100 Curlew which is more than I've ever seen in one place at the same time.

  The other numerous birds were the Redshanks and Wigeon.
  Redshanks

  Wigeon flying into Udale Bay.

  The two star species though had to be the Male Scaup, one that I don't get to see very often.
  Scaup sat watching the Pink-footed Geese move into the water.

  The other bird was a stunning Male American Wigeon.Looking through the sightings book we found that he has been here over 2 months.

  There were also Knots, Starlings, Crows and a couple of Skylarks in the field behind.We left the hide and as we headed back the car started shuddering so we headed to Munlochy garage where the guy was not very useful and just told us we needed it looking at lol Our only option was to call the AA, explain we were on holiday and see if they would come out.They did send someone but after an hour of revving the car, moving connections and spark plugs he couldn't work out the problem.We found that there was a garage in Fortrose so the car can hopefully be looked at and repaired there, otherwise it will be a long walk back to Lincolnshire lol

Thanks for reading :) Hopefully we will still get out tomorrow as a friend is taking us out while the car is sorted out.