28th
May. Our hotel at Lochcarnan, South Uist
was well situated for our exploration of not only South Uist, but also
Benbecula, North Uist, Berneray and Eriskay, islands all joined by causeways. We were soon heading off towards RSPB
Balranald on the coast of North Uist finding our first Whooper Swans of the
trip along the way. On arrived at the
reserve quite early and there were few people about as we checked out the
information centre. I was pleased to
note that there was no café or gift shop to be seen and I don’t recall seeing
any staff. It didn’t feel like a reserve
and in my opinion that is the way it should be!
We were soon listening to Corncrake
and photographing the sub species of Starling
and soon watching and listening to Corn
Buntings. We then set off on the
almost three miles of farmland, coastal and machair path. I have to say that at the end it seemed more
than three miles in the heat and we were pleased to have the cooler atmosphere
near to the ocean for a good part of the time.
A wonderful and rewarding walk.
Starling
Corn Bunting
I thought
this a wonderful reserve with fine views and excellent machair areas. From the coastal path we were able to watch Great Northern Divers 10+, Fulmer, Gannet, Shag, Grey Heron, Shelduck,
Eider, Red Breasted Merganser, Kittiwake
and other gulls, and Arctic Tern,
and find our first Rock Pipits of
the trip. In the bays we found our first
Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Turnstone
and Dunlin of the trip, along with Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Common Sandpiper, Redshank,
Curlew and Snipe. As we rested at times on the machair we were
able to photograph Dunlin, Ringed Plover
and Wheatear and listen to Cuckoo, Skylark and Meadow Pipit. Both Grey
and Common Seals were also seen
along the coast line. We weren’t the
only photographers and we got chatting to Alex, a visitor from Hamburg,
Germany. Alex was carrying a heavy load
of equipment and was probably happy to stop for a rest and chat. We found that he had visited Northumberland
and had friends living there. He told us
he really had a desire to photograph Slavonian Grebes and we told him of our
close encounter and photographs of them in Sweden at a nest site to which he
showed great interest. I think Alex was
surprised by Sam’s knowledge of German common names for birds which helped the
conversation along, although I have to say Alex spoke perfect English. After a long chat we all moved on, but we
bumped into Alex again whilst awaiting a ferry and he asked us again about the
Slavonian Grebes in Sweden and give us his email address, so we could send him
details. Afterwards we walked past an Arctic Tern breeding area where the
noise and threatening flights towards us reminded me a little of the Farne
Islands. I seem to remember that we saw Wigeon, Teal and Tufted Duck in the area too. We ended the walk feeling that we had
passed through and excellent reserve and it restored some of my confidence in
the RSPB.
R
Ringed Plover
Dunlin
Wheatear
After lunch
on our drive back we stopped at Committee
Road in the wild upland area and Sam got out his Swedish army stove again
to make us cups of tea. This area is
renowned for raptors, but initially we found little. Then Golden
Plover was heard, and Kestrel
seen hovering. Kestrels are not at all
common in the Outer Hebrides. As we left
we had a decent but short sighting of our first Hen Harrier (male) of the trip, as it flew and dropped behind the
hills. Time didn’t allow us to return to
the area. We visited Dun An Sticir which
is two small islands in a loch which are connected to the mainland by a rather
tricky rocky causeway. It is an area of
historical importance with some remains of a Broch on one of the islands. We explored parts of Benbecula too.
In the
evening we returned to the heathland and mountain area that we had discovered
the previous night and as well as the scenery and birds, enjoyed sightings of Red Deer and watched the full moon over
the mountains before watching a wonderful sunset again and listening to
birdsong and watching Short Eared Owls
at 10:00pm. Later we realised we had seen
7+ Short Eared Owls today. Sleep was welcome.
Red Deer
Full Moon over mountains
Hebridean Sunset
29th
May. We began today again under sun and
clear skies and found a rather nice wetland site as we set off to further
explore the Uists and Benbecula. We were
watching the site when someone told us there were Red Necked Phalarope visible
from a little further along the road. As
you might imagine we didn’t hang around and sure enough we soon had good close
sightings of 5 Red Necked Phalarope. This was a UK tick for me as I had missed
them in Shetland. A car stopped, and I
initially thought the guy was going to complain about where we were parked, but
no, it was the land owner who talked about the birds on his land. We were able to put him right on how many Red Necked Phalaropes there were. The
guy was clearly proud off his patch.
Almost as rewarding as the phalaropes were breeding plumaged Black Tailed Godwit, Dunlin and Ruff, also new for the trip list as was
the Little Grebe that was heard and
the Shoveler seen. Other birds seen included Grey Heron, Mallard, Teal, Moorhen,
Redshank, Snipe, Curlew, Ringed Plover, Cuckoo, Skylark, Swallow, Meadow Pipit,
Pied Wagtail, Wren and Hooded Crow. We decided to visit again in the evening.
After our
good start to the day we took a walk to a rocky inlet which on reaching we felt
looked ideal for Otters. We found a
comfortable spot to sit and we waited.
We watched Common Seals and
enjoyed the sight and sounds of birds in an otherwise silent area, but we saw
no Otters. Another scenic area brought
us sighting of Red Deer and a very
attractive view of the mountains. During
our drive we had a very nice sighting of a male Hen Harrier as it carried prey away before dropping again and eating
it in our view. The bird eventually
disappeared after showing well again in flight.
We found that we would visit wild areas and often not have much luck
with the likes of Hen Harrier and Short Eared Owl but suddenly find them near
buildings including our hotel and on this occasion the Hen Harrier had been
hunting near to the community centre. Red Throated Diver was also seen on a loch
today.
In the early
evening we returned to the Red Necked Phalarope
but didn’t have quite such good sightings as in the morning. We did enjoy some great sights and sounds on
this very warm evening including calling Cuckoo,
singing Dunlin in display flight,
drumming Snipe, calling and
displaying Redshank and calling Curlew.
Then a highlight, a very distant White-Tailed
Sea Eagle being mobbed by a Common Buzzard was picked up by Sam. Although distant there was no doubt what we
had, so we drove closer to the area that it was flying but sadly didn’t re-find
the bird, but we had had our first White
Tailed Sea Eagle of the trip.
We returned
to our now regular evening haunt beneath the mountains. We saw the Shetland ponies again and on our
return enjoyed another amazing sunset and watched Short Eared Owls.
30th
May. We decided to spend our time on
South Uist today and began by exploring the raptor viewing route we had found
on our first evening. We met the
Shetland Ponies on the way and this is where I think I lost my ‘super cool’ sun
glasses. If your passing by this area
and see a Shetland Pony wearing sun glasses, they will be mine! I was a bit concerned as you really do need
sun glasses on the island because of the very intense light, but I coped in the
morning.
Heath Spotted Orchid
We didn’t
climb really high, but we did have a decent walk into the foothills and
although no raptors were found apart from Common
Buzzard we weren’t disappointed in what we did find which included some
very nice Heath Spotted Orchids, our first Twite
of the trip, Wheatear, Stonechat, Four
Spotted Chaser Dragonflies and Large Red Damselflies, oh yes, and a
Frog. I really enjoyed this walk and we
talked to a couple exploring the area, the man being a retired Geologist who
had worked in Edinburgh.
Four Spot Chaser Dragonfly
Large Red Damselfly
Large Red Damselfly
I was a wee
bit concerned about my eyes, so we asked an assistant in the restraunt where we
had lunch if she knew where we could get some.
She didn’t, but suggested we try ‘The’
Eriksay shop, which seemed to suggest it was the only shop and thankfully this shop did have a selection of sun
glasses, a pair which I now possess.
Maybe not as cool as my lost pair, but they served the purpose.
As we
returned we stopped at a sandy bay. We
found a blind hill in the road suddenly came to an end and there was a drop to
the beach. I wonder how many
unsuspecting tourists have ended up on the beach? We watched a few birds from this area
including Lapwing, Redshank and Ringed Plover and most importantly Hen Harrier. We saw both male and female Hen Harrier today.
Whooper Swans
As we were
later driving along Sam suddenly said ‘Whooper
Swans with cygnets which brought little response from me, but an ‘aye’ he
had to repeat his words three times before it sunk in as my brain had
interpreted it as Mute Swans. Anyway, we
both now have our first ever sighting of Whooper
Swans with cygnets, five of them!
Just near this spot we drove up a rather beautiful glen and found a
small patch of woodland which held both Common
Flycatcher which we saw and Redpoll,
which we heard, both new for the list.
Short Eared Owl
Hebridean Sunset
No comments:
Post a Comment