A trip to Lewis & Harris - Feb 2024 (1 Viewer)

[Scozmos]

A few weeks ago we (I) decided a trip to Lewis & Harris was a great idea, it's my birthday treat so, the trip was booked via Skye for a day or two. It's February son, warned my wise mother. So? I thought.
So, here we sit, in our lovely cottage on Great Bernera while the howling wind tears across the landscape outside. 🥶
Ach, it's only weather, right?
Who thought February would be fine ? 😅
So, Skye.
There's no shortage of Hooded Crows on Skye, small flocks and pairs everywhere, which is great, I love Corvids and these are fine examples.
The first morning of the 25th I was up and out for sunrise down by the harbour in Portree and there was more around than I expected.

It was still fairly dark so photographing birds was a bit of a challenge.


A male Eider came paddling towards me, I didn't see any other around, then it set about feeding.
There were plenty gulls around, Herring, Black-backed great and lesser, Common and Yellow legged, according to Merlin
Rooks, Crows and Jackdaw aplenty.
But, there were other plans for the day so I went back early to shower, change and hit the road. First stop, the Fairy Glen.
The glen is pretty spectacular and well worth a visit outside of tourist season if you can and lots of Ravens and Buzzards around. We were really lucky and got a stunningly clear but cold day.

I watched a pair of Ravens soaring and playing in the distance , formation flying and tumbling.
We headed off again to drive around the North of the island and ended up doing a non-stop loop, apart from one eye-catching event. Scrunch of brakes and gravel.

A beautiful female Kestrel on a wire right next to the road.
I ended up lying across from the driver seat to capture her through the passenger window with the P950.

One more stop for a scenic shot accidentally got me this Buzzard.


So one day Skye in glorious sunshine and a few photos, more tomorrow.

 

[delia todd]

Oh my!!! Some cracking pictures there Scoz.

You're in for a real treat when you get to the Outer Hebs too. Really looking forward to your next post lad. Thanks.

 

[edenwatcher]

Good stuff. Yellow-legged v unlikely though - still a Scottish rarity.

Rob

 

[burnie]

Enjoy, it's a fab place I know well, Reef beach is a good sheltered spot to see Divers, turn right as you get off GB and drive slowly to Mangersta beach, once you pass the right turn for Kneip you are in Eagle alley all the way to the garage and community shop.

 

[Scozmos]

Good stuff. Yellow-legged v unlikely though - still a Scottish rarity.

Rob

I agree, Merlin threw it up, there were lots of gulls about, i'm not good at gulls but try

 

[Scozmos]

Enjoy, it's a fab place I know well, Reef beach is a good sheltered spot to see Divers, turn right as you get off GB and drive slowly to Mangersta beach, once you pass the right turn for Kneip you are in Eagle alley all the way to the garage and community shop.

Cheers @burnie we're Northerer but hoping to head down that way over the weekend, seeing several at Bosta beach, possibly GND? photos to follow

 

[Scozmos]

Skye - Day 2
So we arrived Saturday evening, did stuff on Sunday then caught the boat from Uig on Monday at 13:00 which meant time for a wander in the morning. I'd 'discovered' the Lump yesterday evening so that was my morning wander.



There's a very busy Rookery up there and possibly some interesting birds later in the year, for now it was Rooks, Jackdaws, Hoodies, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Great & Blue Tits along with gulls, various, many as well as Blackbird pairs.
But first, the Hooded Crow.
I don't know what it is about them, their nonchalance in my/ our presence? Always totally aware, going about their business regardless when we're around? I watched one on the shore at Ardersier, feet away from me, yet carrying on foraging. I could watch that all day!
So I slowly edged closer to this one and I think you'll see it monitoring me.

I hadn't noticed before that it has something in its beak in photo 2.

Do you really think I don't see you?

One more step .....

"he thinks I don't see him"

Right, he's getting the evil eye!

I had also never noticed they have a different call / voice. This one was making the oddest, almost vocal sounds.
Anyway, I won't inflict you with more Hoodie shots (for now)
Down to the harbour again, in better light.
I'll stop typing and let the photos speak.

I don't know why but I was a bit surprised to see the Little Grebe in the harbour and the Eider male was also around but one bird caught my eye and I couldn't get a good sighting of it for ages.

Not the Black-backed, Great? But the wee Black Guillemot in the background, it stayed just out of range for ever.
The other reason I couldn't ID it.....

There were a few more around in Summer plumage and one of them was feeding right in front of me!

Until another interested party turned up!

The bird still in Winter plumage finally came a little closer.

That was it for Portree harbour but on the ferry later .....



The only other thing that happened was this .....


Don't see one of those every day!

 

[Scozmos]

End of Day 2 completed and what a morning I've had to follow

 

[Farnboro John]

Pretty impressed with the attack sub and a nicely lit photo as well!

John

 

[Mendobirder]

Interesting about the Black Guillemots in both winter and breeding plumage. We just noticed the same thing here offshore northern California with Pigeon Guillemots (Cepphus columba) and Common Murres (=Guillemots, Uria aalge).

 

[JTweedie]

I love walking by crows - Carrion or Hooded - because they're one of the few birds you can see that are actively keeping an eye on you. They'll often be quite bold and stand their ground and predict that you're likely to walk past them rather than be a threat.

 

[Scozmos]

Absolutely @JTweedie we had one or three turn up on the railing outside and even opening to door to get shots, they often just looked and carried on anyway!

 

[Scozmos]

I can finally carry on my Lewisian tale, I've been using a "fairly new" laptop that cost a packet ................ in 2016 , not only was it now way too slow for what I'm trying to do but, the lower left corner of the keyboard doesn't work any more!? Tried using the onscreen keyboard????? So, back home on my Mac and raring to go, here's hoping my memory can match the images!

 

[delia todd]

the lower left corner of the keyboard doesn't work any more!?

I had that happen on one of my laptops. It followed a Windows update. Lasted a few weeks then suddenly sorted. Then it happened again after the next one and again got sorted but this time took longer.

Really frustrating.

I put some macros on to allow me to type Capital A and S, also a and s and double s. One of the faults affected the ( ) symbols so had to set up macros for them as well.

Don't know if the same thing has happened to your laptop, as it may be that it's no longer being updated due to its age.

 

[Scozmos]

Day 3 of the holiday but Day 1 on Lewis, or Great Bernera to be precise, in the village of Breacleit. The cottage we rented had a deck or veranda out front which looked directly out over Loch Geal so I didn't have to go far to check out visiting birds there.
We had left Skye on a gloriously sunny day, the crossing was breezy but calm-ish so it was a nice surprise to wake up to the same weather on our first day.
My first sighting and photo of the day was a Hooded Crow out one of the windows, I didn't know then that they were regular visitors. We were up and about reasonably early mainly due to the sunshine, can't waste it right?
Off to Bosta (Bostadh) beach. The beach was only three twisty, windy miles away, on single track roads so it's a fun drive.
After the initial look around I started to look out for birds and spotted a few down on the sand.

A couple of Ringed Plover were scurrying around at the high water line with another darker bird which I hadn't had a clear view of yet.

I made my way round the rocks slowly to get better sight of them.



One confused looking Plover
What a beautiful, peaceful wee beach it is with some interesting history around it too, this was going to become my go-to place in the mornings. The tide was coming in, probably about half way in so the rocks just off the beach were accessible for me and there were a few waders dotted around on them.
The sun picked out a couple of birds on the nearest rocks ...

A pair of Purple Sandpipers, if I'm not mistaken? A first for me and beautifully lit.


Pretty chuffed for my first outing on the island, there were a few Ringed Plover and a Turnstone around as well and the light was great.

That wee bird looks like it's thinking "is this all there is?"

No more photos please!
There was a group of Oystercatchers sheltering on the same rocks, using the natural cleft.

Look at the colour of that sea!
I found it wonderful to have a few birds perched reasonably nearby and keeping still in beautiful light.

The Oystercatcher formation preening team started practicing as I watched.

I took my first phot at 11:48 and my last at 13:05, quite like it there not all birds I must add.
There was still plenty of wild action on the Purple Sandpiper rock

There was a tall craggy island offshore, maybe half a mile out but it made for a good backdrop.

We were enjoying the beautiful day so I wasn't watching or photographing everything in sight, there were a good few 'gull around but I'll get to them. I'm adding the Purple Sandpipers again to show the range they were at, this shot isn't cropped at all and taken with the Sigma 150-600mm at 600mm.

Maybe a little perspective would be useful?
Below is taken from the approach to the beach from the car park, the rocks I am photographing are those to the right with the "art installation" next to them. It doesn't work any more!

BY 1 o'clock it became obvious that the weather was about to change.

Time to make a move perhaps so, we headed off up the road towards one of those stone circle things

 

[delia todd]

Lovely one and cracking pictures too Scoz.

But ummm.... I know you know, but they're Purps, not Sands LOL. At least I can't see any Sandpipers on the rocks, don't tell me I need to go to SpecSavers again LOL!

 

[Scozmos]

Lovely one and cracking pictures too Scoz.

But ummm.... I know you know, but they're Purps, not Sands LOL. At least I can't see any Sandpipers on the rocks, don't tell me I need to go to SpecSavers again LOL!

I'd named them properly, I think further up but, I'll check

 

[delia todd]

I'd named them properly, I think further up but, I'll check

Yeah... to start with you did. But the later pics?

 

[Scozmos]

Yeah... to start with you did. But the later pics?

Fixed it now

 

[JTweedie]

Nice photos of the Purple Sandpipers. I used to see them on the quay walls at the entrance to Ayr harbour every winter, but I'm either not going at the right time or they're just not coming there any more as I haven't seen them for ages.