Ardnamurchan photo-dump part 4 - Sanna and Ardnamurchan Point

Sanna Bay lies on the north-west shore of the peninsula and Arnamurchan Point pokes out on the west coast. Sanna is achingly picturesque - the point a bit less so but it's a fine spot for sea-watching. The weather (including not much wind) meant not much was coming close inshore though.

Seawatching from the lighthouse yielded lots of Manx Shearwaters beyond camera range, It was while watching a flock of these through the scope as they banked and turned and dropping into the sea that I saw the grey back of a Minke Whale briefly break surface - my first whale-from-land.

 You can climb down the rocks here and get pretty near the sea. Here's a Whimbrel sitting at the sea edge.

And a fly-by Raven. Both these pics were taken on our first morning, when we had a few hours of grey skies.

On our second visit to the lighthouse the skies were glorious blue - a nice backdrop to these mountaineering Red Deer.

And now Sanna. It was in the car park here that we met (for the first time out of three) local wildlife photographer Hamza Yassin, who gave us lots of top tips for where to go to see various stuff. Oh, and we met this environmentally aware female Wheatear as well.

In the bay itself - a Great Northern Diver - one of several seen, in full stunning breeding plumage, over the week.

The beach here is a) glorious and b) good for waders. We found Sanderlings and Dunlins, lots of Oystercatchers, and many Ringed Plovers. I like the contrast between these two - one camouflaged and the other not-so-camouflaged.

A walk over the heathery duney bits behind the beach produced these orchids, which I haven't got round to identifying.

Also some of these brilliant little beasts - Green Tiger Beetle.

Sanna, even on the sunny day of our second visit there, was quiet - the archetypal undisturbed beautiful Scottish beach. There were a few others there though. We saw a pair of snorkelers and a pair of canoeists enjoying the water, and this artist having a bit of a paint.

And finally a couple of little ones at Sanna - Skylark, and Meadow Pipit against the unfeasibly blue sea.