Wester Ross - April 2016

This is part two of our Scottish 'tour' following on from Mull. After leaving the ferry at Oban, we headed north along the west coast of Scotland to our new home for a week at Aultbea overlooking Loch Ewe. The drive was great as we got further north the scenery just got better and better. We quickly fell in love with this part of Scotland.
As you can see the weather turned a tad cooler for our second week!

After a lot of driving the previous day, we decided to keep things simple on our first full day and decided to spend some time locally. Firstly we dropped down into the 'town' and drove around the edge of Loch Ewe just 2 minutes from our 'shack'.

We were rewarded with a Slavonian Grebe a little offshore, for the record:

This first of many visits to our also provided us with Great Northern Diver and Merganser. So a good start to the day. Our next stop was Laide Wood just a couple of miles up the road and the chance for us to stretch our legs a bit. The weather was good and we risked setting out without waterproofs and we got away with it! From the car park we dropped down onto a track that disappeared into the woods, we had only been walking a few minutes when we spotted a Goldcrest flitting in the young pine trees:

This was quickly followed by a Treecreeper. An excellent start to our walk. We walked on a short way and found a bench beautifully located by a stream, so it would have been rude not to stop for a coffee and wait to see what presented itself. We didn't have to wait long for a number of Lesser Redpoll to appear:

They kept us company while we had our coffee and were ready to carry on. We then had another surprise a Wood Warbler, what made it even better was that this was our first. Photographing it did prove difficult though.

We carried on exploring various trails and finding two small lochs one with a hide. We sat for a bit but apart from a Grey Heron nothing else was seen. For those of you who are Lord of the Rings fans, we did find an Ent!

The rest of our walk although lovely proved uneventful from a birding point of view, that is until we were almost back to the car, that is when a White-tailed Eagle swung into view:

One of the things we planned this week was to head further north and get the foot ferry over to Cape Wrath. When we got in I phoned the ferry and checked for the following day, all looked good, so up early the next morning to zoom north for about two and a half hours only to find that the wind had got up, the ferryman came down to check but decided not to go, that's life.
So we went for plan B and headed for Tarbet to see if we could get across to Handa Island and the sea bird colonies, alas this was cancelled too!

So plan C was brought into play, we meandered back the way we had come making some detours on the way. We did have a coffee at Tarbet looking across to Handa and were pleases to fine Red-throated Diver, Black Guillemot, Eider, Common Sandpiper, Rock Pipit, Shag and Fulmar.

We could now enjoy the scenery on the drive back and even found a great place for a very late lunch at Lochinver. The journey back did provide us with mixed weather, sunshine, sleet, snow and blizzards as you can see by this sheltering Buzzard, that Tina spotted:

Day 3 saw us exploring around Loch Ewe and finding out its WWII history, it was used as a start point for the Arctic Conveys to Russia, evidenced by the many old gun emplacements scattered around the shore and this memorial:

I should say at this point that we had given up on Cape Wrath and Handa Island for the holiday as strong winds were forecast the rest of the week, so very little chance of any ferries running. Next time and there will be a next time.

On with day 3, we completed the Diver trilogy today and added Black-throated Diver to the other two. Mergansers were to be seen in most places,

 and Greenshank popped up now and again.

 The Loch Ewe tour also added Merlin, Turnstone, Redshank and Ringed Plover to our Wester Ross list. Back at the shack we had Song Thrush and Robin coming up to our patio doors as well as Lesser Redpoll in our garden too.

We turned Day 4 into a National Trust day exploring the Gardens at the SNT Inverewe property at Poolewe on the southern shore of Loch Ewe, There's certainly a lot of Eweing going on!

The gardens were magnificent, we saw Bullfinch and Blackcap in the trees, this was a nice addition to our fortnight. I will digress from birding for a bit as the gardens are worthy of a few photos:

OK enough foliage! There is a hide in the estate that is accessible without paying to go into the property, so we went for lunch there. As the tide was out there wasn't a great deal to add, although we did see; Oystercatcher, Merganser, Redshank, Heron, Ringed Plover, Great Northern Diver and Common Sandpiper, so not bad really for a lunch stop.

Next day we went south and Loch Torridon, en route on a roadside Loch we found three Black-throated Divers, brilliant! We also had a look at Loch Maree, but this was uninhabited apart for a Goosander and some Mallard.

We drove along Loch Torridon all the way to Diabaig, this was a fantastic drive over mountains and moorland, absolutley brilliant, we stopped at the top to admire this view:

when two Snow Buntings surprised us, they had gone again before I could swap lenses. Never mind.
Taking our time we meandered back and stopped at the forestry visitor centre and walked from there down to a hide. We hadn't gone far when we spotted no less than 4 Ring Ouzels in a tree line, good views through the bins but sadly to far for the camera.

In the hide we had (familiar story) a late lunch, seeing our first Golden Plover of the trip in an adjacent field plus a few other bits and bobs but the weather wasn't looking great so we decided to head 'home'

So that was our first visit to Wester Ross and mighty good it was too! There will be a small third instalment to follow concerning a brief stop we made on the way to Edinburgh from here.

Wester Ross Birds:

Black Guillemot  ("Cepphus grylle")

Blackbird  ("Turdus merula")

Blackcap  ("Sylvia atricapilla")

Black-headed Gull  ("Chroicocephalus ridibundus")

Black-throated Diver  ("Gavia arctica")

Blue Tit  ("Cyanistes caeruleus")

Bullfinch  ("Pyrrhula pyrrhula")

Buzzard  ("Buteo buteo")

Chaffinch  ("Fringilla coelebs")

Coal Tit  ("Periparus ater")

Collared Dove  ("Streptopelia decaocto")

Common Gull  ("Larus canus")

Common Sandpiper  ("Actitis hypoleucos")

Cormorant  ("Phalacrocorax carbo")

Curlew  ("Numenius arquata")

Dunnock  ("Prunella modularis")

Gannet  ("Morus bassanus")

Goldcrest  ("Regulus regulus")

Golden Plover  ("Pluvialis apricaria")

Goldfinch  ("Carduelis carduelis")

Goosander  ("Mergus merganser")

Great Black-backed Gull  ("Larus marinus")

Great Northern Diver  ("Gavia immer")

Great Tit  ("Parus major")

Greenfinch  ("Chloris chloris")

Greenshank  ("Tringa nebularia")

Grey Heron  ("Ardea cinerea")

Greylag Goose  ("Anser anser")

Herring Gull  ("Larus argentatus")

Hooded Crow  ("Corvus cornix")

House Sparrow  ("Passer domesticus")

Kestrel  ("Falco tinnunculus")

Lapwing  ("Vanellus vanellus")

Lesser Black-backed Gull  ("Larus fuscus")

Lesser Redpoll  ("Carduelis cabaret")

Little Grebe  ("Tachybaptus ruficollis")

Mallard  ("Anas platyrhynchos")

Meadow Pipit  ("Anthus pratensis")

Oystercatcher  ("Haematopus ostralegus")

Pied Wagtail  ("Motacilla alba")

Raven  ("Corvus corax")

Red-breasted Merganser  ("Mergus serrator")

Redshank  ("Tringa totanus")

Ring Ouzel  ("Turdus torquatus")

Ringed Plover  ("Charadrius hiaticula")

Robin  ("Erithacus rubecula")

Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon  ("Columba livia")

Slavonian Grebe  ("Podiceps auritus")

Snow Bunting  ("Plectrophenax nivalis")

Song Thrush  ("Turdus philomelos")

Sparrowhawk  ("Accipiter nisus")

Starling  ("Sturnus vulgaris")

Treecreeper  ("Certhia familiaris")

Turnstone  ("Arenaria interpres")

Wheatear  ("Oenanthe oenanthe")

White-tailed Eagle  ("Haliaeetus albicilla")

Willow Warbler  ("Phylloscopus trochilus")

Wood Warbler  ("Phylloscopus sibilatrix")

Wren  ("Troglodytes troglodytes")

Isle of Mull - April

It has been a fair while since I have posted, mainly because we have been too busy birding and travelling! It's a hard life, but as they say (not sure who they are) "some has to do it"

This post will all be about Mull and our hop over to Iona for the day. The next post will be Wester Ross and the one after that Lesvos.

We stayed on Mull for a week. Usually we stay around Lochdon but unfortunately the cottage that we normally rent overlooking the Loch was taken. So we found ourselves a nice little place in Gruiline.

First off I have to say the weather for our week was amazing, on all our previous visits you could guarantee a minimum of 3 days rain, but this time it was glorious we just had a dull damp day on the Sunday, but after that.. brilliant.

So onto the wild life, of course the main targets (probably should rephrase that) are Eagles and Otters and day one delivered big time! Our closest Loch was Loch na Keal and that is where we had our first White-tailed Eagle sighting of the week and our only Otter sighting.
As we drove around one corner, two Sea Eagles were sitting there, one took off straight away, but the other wasn't giving up his meal of what I think was a Common Gull.

A great start!
We mustn't forget the supporting cast though,
this Rock Pipit gave us good views.

Common Gull

 Curlew and a pair of Teal

So moving on from the Eagles we did a small circuit eventually ending back at Loch Na Keal, en-route there was plenty to see,
Great Northern Divers were to be found regularly during the week,

 as were Oystercatchers of course,

 and the ubiquitos Hooded Crow,

 Pied Wagtail

 and Greylag Goose.

Eventaully towards the end of the day we discovered this chap, sadly the photos aren't brilliant as it was a bit gloomy at this point.

As the weather forecast seemed good for the next day we decided to head over to Iona and a nice walk to what is probably our favourite beach in the world.

We had some good sightings while we sat on the beach having, you guessed it if a regular reader, a coffee! Probably the highlight for me was Great Skua passing through the straight.

Red-breasted Merganser were in abundance on the Lochs as well at the beach here,

Iona is also a great place to see Northern Wheatear, Skylark and Meadow Pipit although for some reason getting a photo of them proved difficult this time around, so here's a Song Thrush to be going on with!

 but actually I did get a decent shot of a Skylark.

A bird we didn't see on Mull but did on Iona was the Rook, so I thought I would add him in here.

Apart from our favourite beach and all the other birds, one of the main reasons to go to Iona is for Corncrake, sadly we were too early this year and they hadn't arrived yet, so to make up for it, here's a photo of some cute Lambs,

no it doesn't really make up for it does it!

After our walk we headed back towards the Ferry stopping at the Argyle Hotel for a Cream Tea and very nice it was too, especially with the Gannets entertaining us fishing in the water between Mull and Iona.

I will condense the rest of the post to the highlights from the rest of the week, we explored most corners of the Island picking up some nice birds and other things along the way:
Brown Hare

 Stonechat

 Raven

 Hen Harrier. We came across three Hen Harriers driving down from Glen More. Two male and a female. One male drove the other off, then proceeded to display to the female swooping, climbing and diving, until she was 'happy' and they disappeared behind the trees together. It was a magical twenty minutes, we felt very privileged to have seen it.

 Goosander, Loch Ba

 Common Sandpiper, Loch Ba

 Grey Heron, Loch Scridain

 Golden Eagle, Glen More

 Hen Harrier, Near Loch Spelve

 Juvenile White-tailed Eagle, Gorton

 Seeing off a Buzzard!

 Canada Goose, Lochdon

 Hen Harrier, Near Loch Spelve

 Rabbit

 Brown Hare, Gruiline

 Roe Deer, Gruiline

 Shelduck, Salen

 Highland Laddie

 Greenshank

 Royal Navy, Tobermory, HMS Shore, Sandown Class Minehunter

 Short-eared Owls having a scrap!

 The victor!

 Curlew, Gruiline

So that sums up a week on Mull, we left Mull to move on to Aultbea in Wester Ross on the west coast of Scotland, but that's another story.

Mull Bird List:

Blackbird  ("Turdus merula")

Black-headed Gull  ("Chroicocephalus ridibundus")

Buzzard  ("Buteo buteo")

Chaffinch  ("Fringilla coelebs")

Common Gull  ("Larus canus")

Common Sandpiper  ("Actitis hypoleucos")

Cormorant  ("Phalacrocorax carbo")

Curlew  ("Numenius arquata")

Dunnock  ("Prunella modularis")

Eider  ("Somateria mollissima")

Golden Eagle  ("Aquila chrysaetos")

Goosander  ("Mergus merganser")

Great Black-backed Gull  ("Larus marinus")

Great Northern Diver  ("Gavia immer")

Great Spotted Woodpecker  ("Dendrocopos major")

Great Tit  ("Parus major")

Greater Canada Goose  ("Branta canadensis")

Greenshank  ("Tringa nebularia")

Grey Heron  ("Ardea cinerea")

Greylag Goose  ("Anser anser")

Hen Harrier  ("Circus cyaneus")

Herring Gull  ("Larus argentatus")

Hooded Crow  ("Corvus cornix")

House Martin  ("Delichon urbicum")

House Sparrow  ("Passer domesticus")

Kestrel  ("Falco tinnunculus")

Lapwing  ("Vanellus vanellus")

Lesser Black-backed Gull  ("Larus fuscus")

Mallard  ("Anas platyrhynchos")

Meadow Pipit  ("Anthus pratensis")

Mute Swan  ("Cygnus olor")

Oystercatcher  ("Haematopus ostralegus")

Pheasant  ("Phasianus colchicus")

Pied Wagtail  ("Motacilla alba")

Raven  ("Corvus corax")

Red-breasted Merganser  ("Mergus serrator")

Redshank  ("Tringa totanus")

Ringed Plover  ("Charadrius hiaticula")

Robin  ("Erithacus rubecula")

Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon  ("Columba livia")

Rock Pipit  ("Anthus petrosus")

Sand Martin  ("Riparia riparia")

Shelduck  ("Tadorna tadorna")

Short-eared Owl  ("Asio flammeus")

Skylark  ("Alauda arvensis")

Song Thrush  ("Turdus philomelos")

Sparrowhawk  ("Accipiter nisus")

Starling  ("Sturnus vulgaris")

Stonechat  ("Saxicola torquatus")

Swallow  ("Hirundo rustica")

Teal  ("Anas crecca")

Turnstone  ("Arenaria interpres")

Wheatear  ("Oenanthe oenanthe")

White-tailed Eagle  ("Haliaeetus albicilla")

Wigeon  ("Anas penelope")

Willow Warbler  ("Phylloscopus trochilus")

Woodpigeon  ("Columba palumbus")