Spring in the Western Highlands 



that the common gulls commence their nesting, or even later 

 should wintry weather continue. 



Lapwing are for the most part still going in flocks as I 

 write (April i), and the dunlin have not yet paired, nor have 

 they left the sands for their inland nesting haunts. A small 

 company of about a dozen purple sandpipers which have fre- 

 quented the rocks throughout the winter and which seemed to 

 have disappeared towards the end of February have again 

 been seen throughout March, the last occasion I noted them 

 being on the 27th. On the I2th I saw one deliberately walk 

 into deep water and swim from one rock to another a distance 

 of at least fifteen feet. About the same time I saw a turn- 

 stone do the same thing, but as far as my experience goes 

 it is very rarely that either of these birds deliberately goes 

 out of its depth. Mergansers have increased during the 

 month and are now common. On March igth I saw three 

 greenshank feeding on some soft ooze, and in the mud their 

 movements seemed strangely laboured. On the 23rd I visited 

 a favourite shore resort of curlew, and although the weather 

 was summer-like, the birds were not uttering their spring 

 call. This, I think, seems to show that they must be birds 

 which nest much farther north than Britain, for the local 

 birds were already on the moorlands and using their full 

 spring notes. Large flocks of knot still frequented the mud 

 flats, the sunlight glinting on their plumage as they swerved 

 and wheeled in restless but well ordered flight. Near them 

 were more than fifty shelduck, perhaps resting on their 

 northward migration. In flight they are heavy and resemble 

 geese rather than ducks. During most of the time I had 

 them under observation they dozed in the warm sun, but 

 occasionally took short flights as they changed their feeding 

 grounds. The ringed plover were all pairing. 



By the end of the month gannets were numerous in the 

 waters surrounding their nesting rocks and guillemots were 

 moving in from the deep waters. 



March 26 was the most wintry day of the whole season. 

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