The cutest little lamb so far…

It’s already the 1st of June and that means we have five days before we leave this unique island paradise.  Its popularity is, however, growing and Mary and Angus are finding more and more caravans, motorhomes and tents wanting to stay.  That’s great for them but it does mean we share our space with many more campers than we used to.  We are lucky in that we are given the end nearest the house as that means we are never sandwiched but our once little-known special island is getting more widely known.  Selfish of us we know but it could be our blog is partly to blame in showing those who read it what they’re missing.  Wonderful for the economy of the the island though of course and Barra is still far from being spoilt.  It must be very different in the winter too.

Anyway, enough of philosophising, there’s still plenty of room for everybody.

Peter and Alfie’s morning walk down to the beach is still remarkably profitable and, jealous of what I might be missing, I suggested going over with them at a more sociable time of day – after breakfast!  All the birds were still there, Sanderlings, Dunlins and Ringed Plovers plus the odd Pipit and Wagtail.

 

At an unidentified sound they rise as one huge flock, only to settle down again in a slightly different place.  Fascinating…

This Sanderling almost looks as if he is picking his way through snow…

Dunlin

How good it is this year to share the beach just yards from our motorhome, Madge, with this huge flock of birds who come here to get away from the cold weather in the north.

Talking of birds, we had a near encounter with that secretive of birds, the Corncrake.  Out of my eye I just caught sight of a large, almost orange shape as it landed in the corner of Mary’s garden by the fence.  Peter rushed out with the camera but could he find it?  There is a large clump of old daffodil leaves there and we can only imagine that he/she managed to burrow underneath and disappear from sight.  We watched for a while but nothing.  Readers of this blog in the past may remember that we actually photographed one in North Uist which we managed to flush one out by playing the voice of a Corncrake on Peter’s iPhone!  We must try it again before we leave these isles.

After putting the blog on at the café we were approached by a young chap with a motorhome, asking about campsites.  He had just arrived from South Uist via Eriskay and seemed to have no idea of the size of Barra or anything about it.  We told him as much as we could but it astonishes me that someone would not bother to find out the basics of where they were going.

We went to the Jetty and took Alfie for a walk along the beach.  I paused to sit on a rock half way but they walked the whole length of the beach before Alfie raced back to me.

The lamb in the featured photo amazingly missed yesterday’s post but he is given top spot in today’s – just one of the delightful lambs on both Barra and Vatersay.

A couple of quick watercolours for today – simplicity if best I have decided…