A Trip to the Outer Hebrides - Mainly North Uist

 We booked a week on North Uist, however we ended up with a day less as our ferry from Uig (Skye) to Lochmaddy was cancelled due to bad weather. The bonus was we had a day on Skye and booked a last minute B&B, the downside is we had to pay for a night on Skye and lose a day on North Uist.

We had a bit of a drive around some old haunts on Skye on the Sunday before getting our rebooked  2.30pm ferry, As we were driving down to the ferry port after coming across from Staffin, this flew over:

A White-tailed eagle to really kick off a great week of birding.

There was some great scenery around too!

So we made it onto North Uist and went straight to the same cottage we rented last year, it's brilliant but I'm not going to tell you where in case you book it when we want it again. 😂

As we turned into the road to the cottage, we were welcomed by a flock of Barnacle Geese:

So we toured around North Uist, Benbecula, Baleshare, Berensay and South Uist, the weather was iffy with very strong winds and rain on some days, but these are the photo highlights:

Peregrine at RSPB Balnalrad,

and Barnacle Geese,

Common Gull

Golden Eagle.

The beach at RSPB Balnalrad.

Curlew in the fields around St Kilda Viewpoint,

and Short-eared Owl at the top of the viewpoint,

as well as the resident sheep coming to see what we were up to!

Then two White-tailed Eagles being harassed by Starlings as we came back down from the viewpoint.

On South Uist we had some good closer views of some Whooper Swans

Then back on North Uist we came across a small murmuration;

Next day was another good Eagle day 😀

Plus lots of waders,

and Long-tailed ducks

View from our cottage.

Redshank.

Another wonderful beach on the way up to Berneray,

Loads of waders again on the East Beach of Berneray.

plus a Barnacle Goose.

Then back to the St Kilda Viewpoint for more Short-eared Owl action.

Then the owls were joined by a male Hen Harrier, awesome!!!!

Yet more Owl action.

So a brilliant, if somewhat curtailed week was had.

Around Grantown on Spey

 Once we recovered from the dreaded Covid we booked a couple of nights away in Grantown, not quite the same as Lesvos, but there were a couple of things we wanted to do in the area. Firstly was to see the Polar Bear Cub at the Highland Wildlife Park:

Mission accomplished!

In addition to the captive wildlife, there were some birds about:

Lapwing,

Willow Warbler,

and Barnacle Geese.

a Redshank was also seen on the muddy pools near the Tiger enclosure. (rubbish photo, so not posted!)

So other photos from the park:

That'll do for this post.... another Grantown post to follow!