October 17th saw mam and I head into Inverness for a walk, the top end of the Caledonian Canal can be a really nice walk with some nature around to see and photograph and as it turned out, it was a beautiful morning.
The start of our walk looking North
I couldn't resist making a black and white version of the bridge and control booth.
So we headed down the East side, there was a decent warmth from the sun although it was still chilly.
It wasn't long before we'd cleared that dock area and were alongside the water itself.
There were a few Little Grebes diving in the canal.
Gorgeous wee birds and there's usually a few on the canal.
That might be the view you're more used to though :)
The canal really does look fabulous in this light.
Some of those are still original old buildings, especially those up by the lock gates.
I spotted a young Moorhen enjoying the sun on one of the dock walkways.
There were a lot of mixed gulls roosting on the walkway but this reflection caught my eye.
Now, I mentioned mixed gulls on the walkways but the Black-headed gulls make it for me. I've photographed them before and they make great subjects in my humble opinion and the light here was perfect.
I've done very little to those shots, the light was just as shown so I cropped a couple of others to get closer.
If I'd realised how nicely these were coming out I'd have spent more time there. A pair of Little Grebes were swimming across the canal away from us but again, the light was wonderful.
Look like an adult and a young bird.
We decided to take the path down to the Merkinch local nature reserve.
First sighting was a row of waders long the far bank but a female Goosander was cruising just below where we stood.
Now, I was looking at the waders on the far bank and could see that there were a couple of variations and at the time I could not work out what they were. I've since spotted Redshank, the majority and Greenshank, which were really nice to see but there are still a couple I'm waiting for some answers on. Oh and there's a few ducks mixed in :)
We could see Wigeon and Teal on the bank and on the water, a few Pigeons wandering about over there and a Curlew foraging on another bank.
Something caught my eye in the tree almost directly above us.
I managed about a dozen quick shots before it disappeared, looks like a Chiffchaff to me.
I managed another shot of the Goosander, this time in the sunlight.
A couple of Teal on the water but none of the Wigeon I saw before we headed back up to the main path. We crossed the railway tracks onto the Beauly Firth part of the walk. The water was like glass with a perfectly blue sky with a few streaks of cloud.
Looking back towards the Kessock bridge, a wreck lies in the water below. I managed to get three or four shots and stitch them into this panorama view.
You can see the mouth of the Caledonian Canal on the far left and the path we were walking.
We walked down to the last or first lock gate and crossed to the other bank.
The Black Isle is directly opposite and the town of Beauly up the firth to the left. There used to be a ferry that ran from what is now the Merkinch LNR to the Black Isle until the bridge was built in 1982.
The canal was built to save ships from sailing all the way around the North of Scotland, where the seas can be pretty wild, instead, they could now cut through the Great Glen down towards Oban.
We headed back up the canal, across the railway and back towards the Jammy Piece car park. (A jammy piece is bread and jam)
Yet another, or was it the same Goosander cruised just ahead of us as we walked the path?
And that was it for that walk, we eventually got out onto the main road and headed for Ardersier again and maybe another walk?
