Scozmo's Photery

My parents have lived in the coastal town of Ardersier for over thirty years, there’s just mum now so we get up to visit as often as possible, not only to visit mum but, Ardersier has some great walks and scenery surrounding it and the sea right across the road!

I love the walk along the shoreline and right around the Fort when possible, the tides dictate how far I can go.

We drove up on the 13th intending to stay for a few days before heading back home, it’s Winter of course so the weather can be unpredictable and it was cold and windy for most of the visit.

I always try to get out for a shore walk with mum as soon as we get there, mum walks a lot and is lucky to have this on her doorstep.

There can be some amazing sunsets here, tonight wasn’t one of the best but there was a stiff onshore breeze so a few surfers were out taking advantage of it.

We walked a mile along the shore, then turned back.

That was us then, in for the night. One of my favourite things about these visits is getting up early (ish) and heading out on my own with the camera(s), you never know what you might see.

The 14th started with a pretty sunrise but the full Moon was also still setting over the Black Isle.

You can see there how close the sea is to the village.

Looking in the opposite direction, where I was walking to, the full Moon was shining brightly. That is the Black Isle on the far horizon.

I often drive up to a car park near the fort then walk from there but, I decided to walk to the fort as it was such a beautiful morning.

When the light is as low as this was, there’s not really a lot of bird photography to be done, especially with the strong wind blowing, I don’t think the tripod would have made much difference.

I tried a few shots of a Curlew that was strolling along the tide line but they were all a bit fuzzy, way too windy for my hands to steady the lens and I obviously didn’t set it fast enough.

So, I had to make do with landscapes or seascapes for now, you can just see the lighthouse at Chanonry Point on the far left in that shot.I do like a nice panorama so …

Sunrise to Moon set panorama shot, not perfect but it gives you an idea of the entire scene around me.

I’d cracked the first mile when I saw the Hooded Crow, there’s a mixed pair along the shore here, I’ve seen them with young two years running now, that’s a Hooded x Carrion Crow pair. There was a Hooded pair last year but I haven’t seen them again …. yet.

I always think of this as the female, the young birds are usually full black so, that’s my logic, the dominant male gene dictates that?

I also spotted a Stonechat in this same area but again, too windy and it was moving around too quickly for photos.

There’s no shortage of gulls here, Herring, Common, Black-headed and I’m always on the lookout for something a bit different, that said, I doubt I’d know it if I saw one! 🙂

I’d reached the fort now and was scanning around before heading down to the shore inside its boundaries.

There are always plenty of Curlew around.

I went down the ramp onto the grass and started along the shore where I spotted a flock of mixed waders roosting, Knot and Godwit as far as I can tell?

Of course, they didn’t hang about too long and I wandered on.

I like to be first to walk in these places on a morning, the wildlife hasn’t been disturbed yet, more chance of seeing something special, in my mind anyway 🙂

There were a couple of Curlews along the upper grassy area and an Oystercatcher or two.

I love those old concrete bollards, were they for securing the seaplanes to?

I got lucky this time, that Curlew took off and flew right by me.

Not everyone gets to see Curlews up close, they’re very shy birds.

I disturbed a small group of Redshanks that I hadn’t even noticed on the shoreline but they were too quick for me to get any shots.

I eventually made it round the corner onto the point and noticed a small group of Long-tailed ducks just offshore.

Nice to see all of them in full colour, the female looks beautiful.

A Grey seal popped up a couple of times but too far off for a decent shot.

A flock of waders flew by but, yet again, too fast for me, so I made do with a family of Mute swans who swam past more sedately. I was also watching a hooded Crow picking at something on the beach when a single Pink-footed goose waddled down the pebbles towards the shoreline.

I was slowly working my way back along the shore, back towards the car park, it was pretty chilly in the wind.

The point can be a great spot for fly past shots, these Eider are two of many that flew by.

The swan family had now rounded the point and were heading into the bay, catching the morning sunlight.

I stood on the point for a fair while, bearing in mind how cold it was and noticed there was one person, a guy I think standing on the point at Chanonry, it can be very busy over there with Dolphin spotters.

Looks like he’s struggling to do up the zip on a jacket 🙂

Onward, or homeward and I spotted the Hooded x Carrion Crow pair, Hoodie was on the ground and the Carrion was on watch-keeping duty.

Look at the colours in that sky!

A parent Herring Gull and youngster didn’t hang around as I approached.

Back up onto the main road and I looked across the grassy frontage at a small flock of Thrush-like birds on a bush.

Along the shoreline again, still on the grassy bank and I walked close by a Crow on a fence post which didn’t move but kept a watchful eye on me.

Another Curlew took to the wing noisily and flew by me.

And, almost finally. Remember way back at the start of this walk, I spotted a Stonechat?

It kept ahead of me for a while, then whipped back the other way, obviously to allow me to catch it in better light 😉

I pulled this shot out because of the plastic bottle sticking out of the seaweed; this is generally a clean beach and surrounds but, slowly but surely more and more plastic is being left. Several people do walk along cleaning up but isn’t it just so sad that so many just don’t care?

It’s just over a mile walk from the fort to town and vice versa of course so, I was on the final leg and got a few more photo-ops on the way.

A small flock of half a dozen Turnstones landed on the shore as I walked by, lovely wee birds and can be very obliging for photography.

A Black-headed gull, there are lots of them, sat nicely on the water for me.

And the final shot, a little surprise, was a Rock Pipit on the roof of the holiday apartments. The bird isn’t a surprise, its location was 🙂

So, you can perhaps now see how I can pass the hours quite easily and enjoyably in Ardersier, out on the shore these were between 08:35 and 11:00.