The weather forecast warned us - and it has turned a lot colder. This morning we woke to a crust of ice on standing water in buckets and birdbaths, a biting easterly breeze, and a dusting of snow on the mountaintops of Mull.All this is bad news for Nan MacLachlan's lambs, but they have a trailer full of straw to cuddle up in at night. For the Blackface sheep out on the common grazing, any early lambs will have a tough time. At least the ground remains reasonably dry.
Considerable excitement at lunchtime in this house because we saw a merlin fly by, heading along the coast towards Sron Bheag. We've never seen a merlin before but knew they were in the area from reports on the wildlife section of the Ardnamurchan Estate's website. They're a small hawk which is easy to tell in the air because of its rapid wingbeat.
If the cold is bad news for lambs, the arrival of a merlin, to add to the local sparrowhawk, is bad news for those small birds which have managed to struggle through this cold winter.
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