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.

More from around Grantown

 We visited Loch Garten mainly to see the Osprey, but also to have a look at the cameras on the Eagle nest. A bonus was a camera on a Goshawk nest. We did see an Osprey return to the nest from the visitor centre:

As you can see it's a fair distance away, but still awesome. We had hoped to see Crested Tits as well, they eluded us when we visited in February and they did so again. Having spoken to one of the RSPB volunteers about it, he said that at this time of year (June) they tend to stay in their territories and don't venture to the feeders at the visitor centre very often.... hey ho, next time!

Plenty of other birds around the visitor centre though:

Siskin,

Chaffinch,

and Treecreeper

A Spotted Flycatcher was seen in the woodland walk, plus all the common tits. 

Next stop was a visit to our favourite Ospreys a bit further down the A9:

We were then going to use the lovely hide at Loch Insh for lunch but sadly some *!*!* has recently burnt it down. 

On the drive home, we went the long way around, over the Lecht, through Braemar and over Glenshee. We were rewarded with this at the Lecht:

A White-tailed Eagle, I'm guessing this is one of the pair nesting at Loch Garten.

Followed by two Merlin Helicopters flying through the valley underneath the Eagle!

Finally from Braemar we drove the Old Military Road to the the base of Glenshee and came across a Curlew,

with a youngster, hiding in the grass (honest!)

That'll do for a summary of the trip.