Black Guillemots in Oban

Just one more post from my trip to Scotland, before I return to long-overdue Moroccan pics….

Having arrived back in Oban later than planned, due to exceptionally low tides on Uist delaying our departure by two hours, we opted to stay in town that night rather than make progress a bit further south. With blue skies and sunshine greeting us the next morning, a bit of type around the harbour with the local Black Guillemots was in order! Jono has been here once or twice before, and raves about the photo opportunities – and now I’ve visited too, I can see why. With a high tide early morning, we counted at least 25 birds off the harbour wall near the church, many of which were visiting nest holes in the wall just under the promenade.

We could easily have spent more time here, but these are the best shots I managed before we needed to hit the road for the 9 hour drive home!

Hebridean scenery

One more photo-heavy post from the Hebs – the birds are great, but the backdrop is pretty awesome too!

The night after seeing the Harlequin, we stayed at the Gatliff Trust hostel on Berneray – a small island connected to North Uist by a causeway. It’s somewhat off the beaten track, but after Suzanne and I spent nearly two weeks there the summer after graduating, I’ve got a very soft spot for the place. The hostel is located right on the shoreline, overlooking the Sound of Harris; you can look for divers, seaduck and otters from a bench outside the front door! The accommodation is basic – but with cooking facilities, a hot shower and a bed to sleep in, how much do you really need? Especially when the sunrise is this good….

Nick getting in some early morning Otter-watching – though sadly the only animal we saw this trip was the thatched one on the roof!

And then we headed over to the island’s glorious west beach. Unbroken white sand extends for about four miles, with a view out over an ultramarine bay to Boreray, Pabbay, and Harris in the distance.

As the day brightened up, the views were pretty awesome down on South Uist, too. The following couple of photos were taken from the southwest corner of Loch Bee – first, looking north-east to the whaleback mountain of Eaval, and then looking south to the three peaks of Hecla, Beinn Choradail and Beinn Mhor (from left to right). The latter is the highest point on the Uists, at 620m above sea-level, less than two miles from the sea!

Sadly, it was all too soon time to say goodbye to the Hebrides again, leaving Lochboisdale behind, and switching to seawatching for a few hours.

The islands are still a simply stunning place to go, and I’d completely recommend them to anyone (birder or otherwise) who loves unspoilt, wild places.

Harlequin on the Hebs

Got back last night from another epic trip to Scotland, this time to the Outer Hebrides with Jono, Nick and Bob. Once again, we took a few days over it, in order to enjoy much more than ‘just’ the target bird – Britain’s 18th ever Harlequin Duck. The whole thing was a great success, encompassing some superb birding, several more national rarities, beautiful scenery, and even some good local food!

And, to cut to the chase, we had cracking views of the Harlequin. Arriving early morning on Good Friday, after the long ferry crossing into South Uist from Oban the night before, we found five other birders already on site watching the bird offshore from the south end of Traigh Iar – the duck’s favoured spot throughout its stay. Initially, it was some way offshore, still well within good scope view range, but not really offering much in the photographic stakes. As the tide dropped, though, it became possible to walk out onto the rocky promontory and get a bit closer, and with a bit of patience, the Harlequin came in closer to us, at one point down to around 25-30m.

What a bird!

We enjoyed watching it for probably about three hours in total, before heading away to enjoy more general birding, and look for a couple of other nearby rarities. A female Ring-necked Duck was only half a mile away and easily found, but the Richardson’s Canada Goose was more difficult and took quite a bit of searching for. Happily, though, we found a flock of around 1000 Barnacle Geese near Loch Paible, and after a while the tiny vagrant was picked out. It was notably smaller and shorter-necked than the Barnies, and showed a clear thin white band below the lower edge of the black neck, as well as a tiny little bill. Even once we knew where it was in the flock, the bird could easily disappear completely for some time – remarkable how difficult some of these vagrant geese can be to pick up in a flock of what you’d think were totally different looking birds!

Other highlights on the Hebs included at least 3 more White-tailed Eagles, skydancing Hen Harriers (first time I’ve ever seen a displaying male, I think), 3 Merlin (including a gorgeous male), Peregrine, 4 Pale-bellied and about 20 Greenland White-fronted Geese, adult Glaucous and a 1st winter Kumliens Gull, 4 summer-plumage Slav Grebes, at least 30 Great Northern Divers, Long-tailed Ducks, Common Scoter, 12 Snow Bunting, and heaps of Purple Sandpiper and Twite. Brilliant!

In honour of the Harlequin, we splashed out on dinner in the Langass Lodge hotel, south of Lochmaddy. Local hot-smoked salmon, rib-eye steaks, Dover sole, lamb shank and hand-dived Hebridean scallops all featured on our table, and were delicious. Highly recommended for any other duck-twitchers with something to celebrate!