Saturday 7th August 2010

Awoke very early to see a lovely sunrise over Lochmaddy harbour. Sunshine and blue sky. What's that orangy-yellow ball in the sky, sort of large, very bright and round?

Onto the ferry and stood on the usual deck counting the birds. Well I would give you the figures but I've misplaced the tatty bit of paper that I wrote them down on. Need a new notebook but not possible to get one in Lochmaddy at 5.30am.

Nothing to spectacular with a couple of common dolphin, gannets, kittiwakes, manx shearwaters and a single great skua, puffins and guillemots. Razorbills noticably absent but as we approached the Trumpan Headland of Skye there were I estimated around 2,000 manx sitting on the water; the biggest flock that I've seen on this trip.

As the boat entered Uig harbour, I sawa large bird of prey being mobbed by two others. At first I thought it was a buzzard with two sparrowhawks. Then I realised that the smaller birds were the buzzards and that the larger bird was an adult golden eagle! Brilliant and quite close too. They headed off inland and must have been a great sight for someone driving along the main road.

Stayed on the boat in order to get to Tarbet on Harris. Was listing the birds but then the deck was invaded by the Scottish Piped Band that I'd seen at the Highland Games a few days earlier at Portree.
Also met a smashing couple from Aberdeen.

It's a bit windy on the boat!

Cycled out of Tarbet and soon reached a very steep but beautiful section of road.

OK I'll be honest, cycling it wasn't what I did. I pushed and walked the hill. Reached the top where a lovely mountain loch greeted me then a couple of miles later found a secluded roadside picnic bench. Lunchtime.

No sooner than I'd got out my bread and jam [living it up!], but 4 coach loads of German tourists arrived and took over the area. Actually they were greatand one lovely couple came over to me and said that they didn't want there lunch and would I like it? Boiled eggs! I've dreamed of boiled eggs. haven't had a boiled egg for months. Also cheese and fruit. Danke!

One of the tour guides came over for a chat. Tanya, usually a nurse in Bavaria wanted a photo with Barnaby and Albert. What more could I do than oblige?

A fabulous family from Sheffield had joined me on the bench by now and together we had lunch as Che, their oldest boy tried to make sparks by crashing two rocks together and Cole, their youngest played Thumb Wars.

Onward and cut it short as I've only 4 minutes left on the library computer, got to Callanish late in the evening. I'd always wanted to see this place and the effort of getting here was well worth it. More about that next time.

All the very best everyone. Keep birding!

Gary

Now What would you do?

Texts in the morning. Pacific Golden Plover on South Uist. I'm on my way to catch the morning ferry to Harris.

Watched the ferry go out of the harbour at Uig and wondered whether my luck with rarities would change. If you've seen British Birds this month, or you have read my blog faithfully [or any other way you may wish to read it], then you may recall my appalling luck with a Wilson's phalarope and a white-tailed plover at Seaforth Docks, Liverpool.

Went for a walk to the top of a nearby hill and saw a couple of Scotch Argus on the way, as well as stonechats and willow warblers. Fabulous amount of off the plant raspberries here. Yummy!

Onto the ferry back to Lochmaddy at 2.00pm :

163 manx shearwaters
25 razorbill
2 storm petrels
24 guillemot
23 puffin
2 great skua
1 arctic skua
2 dunlin
2 fulmar
1 kittiwake

7 common dolphin
a number of harbour porpoise

Also 4 large wind turbine mounts were being dragged by a large tug, passing the ship on the starboard side - according to the captain. Met Andy Stevenson on the boat who just so happens to be the bird recorder for the Outer Hebrides. He hadn't known about the PGP so we arranged to meet at the Loch when I'd managed to cycle there.

It took 4 hours to cycle to loch Bornish! Wind but at least no rain. In fact it wasn't a bad day and 5 custard donuts helped.

Got to the Loch to be greeted by Miranada and Marianne, 2 local lady birders. Andy and Marianne's husband Bob were out trying to see the golden plover flock which had retreated into a huge area of ragwort.
Suddenly a group of greylags flew over, 49 of them and these spooked the cattle in the ragwort. For some reason they started to run about, putting all the golden plover into the air. they landed on the nearest edge of the ragwort and some were on view.

Did I see the Pacific Golden Plover?

Read the next blog to find out



Ok, I'll tell you - there it was! It's head and breast showing above the ragwort. On the list UTB and a new bird not only for the year list but also a LIFER for me, but only after it flew around with th flock showing other diagnostic features. It then landed on the grassy area in fron of us giving better views.

Brilliant and maybe I will break the Non-motorised year list record after all. My luck has changed!

The attempt to see storm petrels from the nearby headland was curtailed by the arrival of some rain, so with the tent set up, I went to sleep with a smile on my face. 40 miles of extra cycling to see a new bird. Well worth it!

Friday 6th August 2010


Now got to Lochmaddy and slept there after a cycle ride in pouring rain and an easterly wind. Not fun but the PGP helped.

Stopped at Cothrom Adult Community Centre in order to access the computer there. Sharon, the receptionist was delightful and brought me a cup of coffee as I dried off. The centre is a fabulous facility with very friendly staff and great resources. Wind turbines outside showed off it's green credentials. Thanks to everyone there.

http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/communitysupport/barravatersay.asp

Also stopped at Howmore Youth Hostel again and met a lovely family from Suffolk and a Scottish gentleman. Mugs of Marmite to ward off the midges and some toast before braving the rain again. Good collection of bones on the dry stone wall here. This one is some sort of whale.

Finally got to North Uist, after tea taken in a bus shelter; this one clean and although lacking the newspapers of one before, it also lacked the sheep dung! Parked up in the car park and climbed the hill to the superb burial chamber, Burpa Langass. A huge mound of rounded, lichen-covered stones witha small entrance. Torch in hand, crawled inside through a narrow entrance; my cycle helmet protecting my head. I'd do anything to get out of the rain. Inside a large chamber with large flat supporting flagstones, dry and comfy.

Back outside, rode the few miles to Lochmaddy with the rain now decreasing to drizzle, and the time now about 7.30pm. Some clear sky way over to the west promised a good sunset. Walked around a few sea inlets at Lochmaddy, watching the fish jumping, and saw an otter swimming along a shoreline nearby.

3rd August Ferry to Skye - 4th August Highland Games

A lovely sunrise then drizzly rain.

Seen from the ferry:

2 red-throated divers
1 black guillemot
26 gannets
148 manx shearwaters
16 razorbills,
25 guillemot
15 fulmar
10 puffin
14 arctic tern
19 storm petrels
6 kittiwake
1 great skua

Lunch taken on the 'scenic' road to Broadford but curtailed because of midges. Haven't seen many of the little blighters/biters but there were enough here to make up for the days when I hadn't seen any. Did manage to see a family of red-throated divers here before retiring hurt.

Also visited the excellent Sea Eagle exhibition at Portree and met Chris Butler the RSPB eagle information officer there. Superb set up and well worth the visit.

Cycled to the other end of the island, taking nearly all day doing so, in order to see the Black Islands, Eilean Dubha. These are two very small islands that form an RSPB reserve, so another one ticked off the growing list of reserves visited.

Not many birds seen here; a few black guillemot, oystercatchers and gulls, a few shags.

Cycled back to Broadford and stayed at the Youth Hostel. Now some people may sympathise but I forced one of my room mates to sleep elsewhere due to the force of my snoring! Sorry!

4th August

Rain forecast but the morning was fine, calm and sunny. Cycled to portree taking the now clear views of the mountains on the way.

Brought my ticket for the Highland Games and joined the crowd to watch the chucking of the small stone. A new Portree record was thrown and the girls danced on the stage in the Scottish way. Bagpipes were being played nearby and everything was fascinating despite the arrival of the occasional heavy shower.

A brilliant day caped by meeting a lovely local family I'd met the day before at the sea eagle exhibition [and who kindly made a donation!] and a great tug of war battle.

Rode on to a field about 4 miles south of Uig where i camped for the night to the sound of buzzards in the trees.

August - Seven months gone - five to go.

August the First

A cycle to Balranald RSPB reserve, with birding on the way and a visit to a reserve that is no longer a RSPB one - Drimore Farm.

Wind had turned overnight to a north westerly. Great rught into my face most of the time. I may have said this before but I prefer rain to a wind in the face. One may be unpleasant, except for I get a wash but the latter is painful. So this proved to be.

Got to Balranald at 5.30pm and immeadiately went around the whole of the reserve's track. A spotted redshank with the more common varoety on the nearest beach was a surprise. Clearish views of St Kilda was a thrill and I had another of the unseen calling corncrakes in a stinger filled hole near to the bridleway.

Photographed some beautiful stranded jellyfish on the beach and found a strange limpet sp.

August 2nd

Woke at 6.00am and walked the reserve again. No wind!!!
Sat on some rocks adjacent to a rotting seaweed area on the far beach and watched as turnstone, dunlin and sanderling enjoyed their feast of the attendant flies. The scum on some rock pools had coalesced into some patterns repeating those seen from satellites. Well in my imagination anyway.

Then walked to the most westerly point of the reserve and seawatched for an hour. Two common dolphin quite close were the highlight with gannets, manx and auks passing also. Good views of St Kilda was interuppted by a passing rain shower.

Ended my time at Balranald with 40 bird species and 8 moss carders seen.

Cycled along the north raod of North Uist to Lochmaddy, seeing red-throated divers in a couple of the bays. Good views across to the mountains of Harris. One nice, old-looking croft but most houses were boring modern boxes.

Now a massive thanks to Campbell, John and Alistair of Lochmaddy. I was about to sleep on a bench outside the ferry terminal when Campbell came and offered me a bed in the nearby cattle auction hall. Very comfortable night with a kettle for coffee and a light for reading. Brilliant and many many thanks.

30th July Coll

Awoke early and seawatched from the tent. It had rained overnight but was now dry with a fresh [!] southerly blowing. A very close great skua was the only bird of note; very little otherwise.

Cycled to the standing stones near the RSPB visitors' centre and then the crannog at Loch Cliad. The weather had deteriorated by now to strong southerly with drizzly rain. Added to the atmosphere of the crannog though. Interesting to see a couple of these ancient homestead structures.

From the road to the pier, before the rain set in, the views across to the Trishnish Isles, Staffa, Mull and Iona had been beautiful.

Spent the afternoon in the library in Oban and then camped about two miles north of the city after visiting the Catholic cathedral.

31st July 2010

The night was punctuated by either a tawny owl that decided to hoot, squeek and make other noises and heavy rain. A bull somewhere decided to join in.

Got up at 5.00am and cycled to Oban. Photographed a group of black guillemot on the sea wall and caught the 8.15am ferry to South Uist.

Bird list from the ferry:-

5 shag
84 gannet
4 great skua
9 black guillemot
23 manx shearwater
27 razorbill
15 kittiwake
25 guillemot
2 commic terns
2 arctic terns
53 fulmar
14 storm petrels
22 puffins
 Also 16 basking sharks,
2 grey Atlantic seals and a sunfish.

Cycled to Howmore in pleasant sunshine but with a strong westerly. I wonder how many calm days these islands have?

Lots of common darters on the white markings on the road, a few moss carder bumblebees and a single great yellow. Also some suicidal emperor moth caterpillars with frourescent blood where they's been squished.

Is this a common or Highland?

Arrived at the beautiful Howmore Youth Hostel, one of my favourites, watched a ring-tail hen harrier and a couple of snipe drumming before walking down the beach. Now I'd been here before in April, 2005 when Ian Crutchley and Steve Alcott, ex-pupils from my time as a Secondary Science teacher in Wolverhampton, came here to look at a remarkable 12 white-winged gulls together with 3 ring-billed. Now there were sanderling, dunlin, ringed plover, gulls and seven ravens but what a wonderful beach.

Time for sleep in my bunk bed ...

OK. I am trying to catch up!

Now on South Uist again - 6th August and a brilliant weather day. Strong easterly winds mixed with either drizzle or rain. Actually enjoyed the morning walk but before talking about that I'd better spend my time getting up to date.

So let's go back to :-

July 29th Had slept in the fabulous Oban Youth Hostel and had managed to get the Scottish breakfast in before catching the 8.15am ferry to Coll. A lot of terns in the Sound, together with groups of feeding kittiwakes and manx shearwaters; black guillemots near the shoreline at Craignure and then the highlight of this boat trip. A white-tailed sea eagle was sitting on a pine just north of craignure and as the boat passed, it took off and flew around for a while before landing again on the same tree. Fancied a bit of a stretch I suppose.

Duart castle, Mull

Read the newspaper for a while and pray that the Barcelona decision to ban bullfighting is reciprocated throughout the country and France and any other place where they think that teasing, stabbing and killing a bull is an entertaining sport with the matador as a hero. personally I abhor it and can't see matadors as anything other than cowards.

Anyway, off my soap box and back to birding from the ferry.

As the boat left the Sound of Mull, I went to the front of the boat just as a close storm petrel went past. can't count it on the year list as I'm on a motorised vehicle! [Good to see though]

A basking shark was also quite close and quite small too. Gannets, puffins, manx, razorbills and the occasional adult guillemot with a lone chick were also seen. Nearly all the guillemot chicks that I've seen have been alone with just one parent.

Met other birders, Ray and Jo from Portsmouth. Must have seen Jo before because she used to work at Durlston Country Park, near Swanage, doing marine work there. I used to live in Swanage and miss it and my friends there, terribly.

Arrived at Coll and the weather was still quite good; high cloud with lots of sunshine. Most unusual for my time in Scotland. The high street looked charming and the roads were empty. Brilliant.

Cycled to the RSPB reserve on the south west coast, seeing a ring-tailed hen harrier on the way and sat having a spot of lunch outside the visitors' centre. Met Ben the site manager whilst i was watching bumblebees in an area of ben's garden planted out with vetches and the like, put there specially for them and was just in time to join his weekly walk around the reserve.

Ben from Sedgley!

Good walk over the machair; Ben identifying flowers, red batsia, wild carrot, bllody cranesbill and eyebright etc, and talking about the structure of the area. Frog orchids shown and three new bumblebee species for me anyway - great yellow bumblebee - and it is 'great'. Massive and yellow; deserves the name. Also the moss carder with it's orangy thorax and the red-shanked carder bee with the 'comb' red instead of black on the more common red-tailed.

Tried to find Irish ladies tresses but instead almost saw a couple of young corncrake that disappeared as fast as they appeared in the grass in front of us.

Early evening chat with Ben. What a life he has. Autonomous on a beautiful reserve. Brilliant bloke.

Camped down by the beach and seawatched as the sun set developed. 7 basking sharks seen and a diver flew past, gannets and just a couple of manx shearwaters. Beautiful sunset.

From my position I could see Rhum clearly, with the Cullins on Skye poking through the gap, Barra and the Uists to the north west and tiree to the south west. Just to make it a perfect day, a large gibbous moon rose above the hills to the south east.

Thanks Ben - all the best. Brilliant day.

Mull - Sea Eagles

Wednesday 28th July

So after a night of camping next to a very noisy stream, awoke and cycled down to the ferry terminal at Kilchoan in rain. Was feeling a little down when suddenly three large stag red deer crossed the road, galloping just in front of me. they then jumped a barb wire fence before heading off down a nearby glen; not stopping until they reached the bottom.

Ferry over to Tobermory. No tourist office because the building was empty but found out where Loch Frisa was from a very helpful gentleman in the CLAMAC office. Up the hill and over on the Dervaig road, turned onto the forestry track before coming across a sign stating no access to the sea eagle hide. Asked a local but I can't print what he told me to anyone who tried to stop me!

Plenty of willow warblers, a couple of trilling grasshopper warblers, siskins and chaffinch, together with 4 kestrels, 3 buzzards, a few hoodies and a raven. Intermittent rain showers coming from the south west and a regular fly past of a helicopter delivering something to the fish farm at the west end of the loch.

Suddenly found a plush, new-looking wooden hide/display room. was a little shy/embarassed and shattered but went inside to be greeted by Debby, the fabulous, knowledgable RSPB lady. Turning round casually to look at the female white-tailed sea eagle, saw her perched on a reasonably nearby conifer. Here she was the star of the first Springwatch, a veritable 'barn door' preening carefully and wondering no doubt where her husband was.

The pair had failed to produce a fledgling this year. Sadly the first hatched chick died due to the cold weather and another egg was sat upon for 78 days, some sort of record but obviously dead.

Stayed for a few hours to watch the bird and just after a prolonged bit of heavier rain, and just after Debby's marvelous introductory speech to another batch of paying visitors, the male came flying over from the west, landing next to his loved one. 14 years together and love is still strong.

Birds seen, and year list up to 210, cycled to Craignure ferry terminal and caight the ferry back to Oban. In at the Oban Youth Hostel and a relaxed evening.

So thanks and hello to :-

Sandra and Tim from Shirley, Birmingham.
Stuart Marshall and family from Hexham,
Sheila and Kerr for their donation from Fife,
David and Margaret from Glasgow, with a donation also.


Thanks to everyone in fact.

All the very best

Gary