Afternoon walk at Kentra Bay (north east Ardnamurchan) (26th July)

Kentra Bay is a vast expanse of mud covering over 4 square kilometres, as a result it is a large attraction to many waders including (on the day of our visit) 18+ Curlew, 2 Redshanks and 7 Greenshanks.  I had very little time to scan the whole area so I was only able to pick up on the most common species.  As we were on a walk more time was spent walking than birding.  However I did encounter occasional interesting birds including 2 Crossbills (in the pine woodland to the west of the bay) as well as hearing several more.  Outside of the forest I also saw 5 Siskin (again with more individuals hear but not seen) and 1 singing Grasshopper Warbler (that remained in dense cover of the woodland without showing itself).  We took a break from our walk by taking a rest in one of the small secluded bays along the beach called Camas an Ligthe.  After a while of sea watching I found a diver (relatively close inland), I have taken notes yet I am still unsure whether it was a Black or Red-throated, it appeared to be black but the backlighting could have made the throat appear darker thus confusing the actual colour so the ID still remains unsolved.  Sadly I also found a dead Gannet, its cause of death was obviously hidden by the fact that it had been dead for at least a week or more.