Hello again WAB folks.
I have been off-WAB for a while as I have been away on my annual trip to the Scottish Highlands and Islands.
I returned home to Essex last Sunday (18th) and work commitments
have prevented me posting a report on my holiday until now.
Other than one grey day and one very rainy day (the last one), we had exceptionally good weather with warm/hot and sunny days
. I can not recall ever having such continuous good weather in all the years I have been visiting the Scottish Highlands and Islands
.
The wildlife was truly excellent
other than the ****ing midges
. I think the entire Highland population pursued us day and night and it seems like every part of the human anatomy still has a souvenir and I am still trying to convince work colleagues that I have not returned with small pox!
We stayed near
Strontian on the Ardnamurchan peninsula for our first week and at
Achintraid near Kishorn on the Wester Ross coast for our second week.
I will try and recall the highlights and hopefully tempt those of you that have not ventured to the far northlands …. except Fergus who actually lives up there and is presumably midge resistant
. Any tips mate on how to survive the wee beasties?
Our first cottage was located just outside Strontian and had a bird table outside which in addition to the usual suspects attracted regular
Siskins and on the first evening a pair of
Yellowhammers.
On our first evening, the cottage wall also had a resting moth which we hopefully correctly identified as an
Angle Shades.
Just across the single track road from the cottage, the birch scrub and moorland edge attracted occasional
Red Deer in the early evening.
A
Barn Owl was a fleeting visitor one evening.
Unfortunately we were unable to attract a
Pine Marten with liberal supplies of jam and honey despite them being known to be in the area.
Day 1
Our first full day on the way to the Corran ferry we saw our first
Otter of our holiday feeding in Inversanda Bay, c.100
Eiders resting on the rocks and 4
Common Seals off Sallachan Point.
Whilst waiting for the ferry at Ardgour, we saw our first 4
Black Guillemots and the first of many
Common Sandpipers during our holiday.
In Glen Roy we saw a singing
Wood Warbler and a small colony of
Sand Martins.
In the Spey Valley from Laggan we saw a male
Wigeon (presumably breeding somewhere in the area), 7
Golden Plovers in superb black and gold summer plumage, a pair of
Curlews with 3 chicks and a rather distant
Red-throated Diver. There were also 2
Brown Hares showing well on some cultivated land near Laggan.
A visit to the RSPB reserve at Loch Garten on Speyside produced EJ, the female
Osprey, plus a view of one of the chicks. There were also at least 4
Red Squirrels providing close-up views plus a
Bank Vole (I think) ran across the track to the visitor centre …. and back again when we returned via the same spot! A male
Capercaillie had been seen earlier in the morning but this huge grouse continues to prove elusive on my trips to Speyside. How can a bird be so big but so difficult to see?
On the walk down the track through the forest to Loch Garten and Loch Mallachie, there were at least 5
Crested Tits whilst Loch Garten itself produced a male
Goosander, a female
Goldeneye with 3 ducklings and a pair of
Common Sandpipers.
On the way back to our cottage, a visit to the RSPB reserve at Loch Ruthven just to the east of Loch Ness produced 2 pairs of beautiful summer plumaged
Slavonian Grebes .
Day 2
Our second day was spent on Mull.
It started spectacularly with an adult
White-tailed Eagle seen in Morven on the way down to the Lochaline-Fishnish ferry crossing. This was a distant view of a huge bird but it was easily recognisable in flight. It then perched on a rock outcrop until forced to move on by harassing
Hooded Crows.
Mull is just superb for wildlife and we saw in excess of 40 species of birds, many
Red Deer, a
Toad which narrrowly missed becoming a road casualty, a
Peacock butterfly and a
Large Red Damselfly. The bird highlights included another
White-tailed Eagle in Glen More, 3
Golden Eagles on the road down to Loch Buie, 2 other
Golden Eagles watched soaring for at least an hour at the east end of Loch na Keal, 10
Gannets fishing in Loch Buie and a
Red-throated Diver in Loch na Keal. Someone else had seen a
Corncrake near Gribun but we were unlucky as we were with any further sightings of
Otter which we have previously seen in Loch na Keal.
Day 3
We did not see much of particular note on our third day other than the first
Dipper and
Grey Wagtail of our holiday at the Chia-aig waterfall near the east end of Loch Arkaig, a group of about 30
Red Deer at the west end of Loch Arkaig and 2
Ospreys flying over the south end of Loch Lochy towards Loch Arkaig.
Day 4
On our fourth day we visited Strathconon to the west of Inverness and Dingwall.
On the way, we stopped at Loch Laide just to the west of Loch Ness near Abriachan. This is a very small loch but nonetheless produced 4
Tufted Ducks, a
Reed Bunting and hundreds of
Frog tadpoles in the shallow water at the edge. There were also a large number of
Green-veined Whites which we did see frequently throughout our holiday …. I guess the warm and sunny weather helped!
Strathconon failed to produce any
Golden Eagles but we did see yet another
Osprey flying over Loch Beannachan at the end of the glen, the first
Spotted Flycatcher of our holiday and many
Red Deer.
On the way back to our cottage we saw 2
Red Kites flying over the A9 between the Tore roundabout and the Kessock Bridge at Inverness. These birds can now be seen regularly to the east on the Black Isle and to the west from the roads to Dingwall and Muir of Ord. Drivers need to be careful in keeping their eyes on the road whilst birdwatching …. definitely an acquired skill!
We also saw 2
Fallow Deer and a hunting female
Sparrowhawk somewhere along the minor road south of Loch Ness to Fort Augustus.
Day 5
On our fifth day we visited part of the Ardnamurchan peninsula, starting with the Garbh Eilean wildlife hide on the shores of Loch Sunart just west of Strontian. The track down to the hide produced
Willow Warbler,
Blackcap,
Wood Warbler (heard singing only) and
Great Spotted Woodpecker (heard drumming only).
Our stay at the hide failed to produce any
Otters although the sightings book had regular records of them. However, there were at least 10
Common Seals hauled out on the rocks, around 20
Herons nesting on the island and a group of
terns which were too distant to identify as Common or Arctic. Loch Sunart itself produced 2
Red-throated Divers and 10
Kittiwakes which were surprisingly some way inland from the open sea.
The highlight, however, was the cause of pandemonium amongst the Herons and terns …. an adult
White-tailed Eagle which flew around the general area before it finally landed in a conifer tree on the opposite side of Loch Sunart where it joined another adult bird! We had distant but brilliant views through the telescope.
Ardnamurchan Point is the furthest west point of the UK mainland and can be very good for seabirds and cetaceans. There were none of the latter and there were fewer birds than in previous visits but we did see 2
Gannets, 1
Great Skua, 2
Manx Shearwaters plus good numbers of
Guillemots,
Fulmars,
Shags and
Kittiwakes.
On the way back to our cottage we had a walk through part of the Ariundle Forest near Strontian. We heard a "reeling"
Grasshopper Warbler but did not manage to see it. However, the highlight here was seeing a number of
Chequered Skipper butterflies, a nationally rare species and even very local in western Scotland.
Following our evening meal we ventured out again in the hope of seeing some of the very elusive night creatures such as
Pine Marten and
Wild Cat. We were unlucky with both of these but did see another fishing
Otter in Loch Sunart …. and added substantially to our collection of midge bites!
Day 6
Our second day trip to Mull produced a well watched adult
White-tailed Eagle at the east end of Loch na Keal and an
Otter in the dunes at Calgary Bay.
Day 7
Following a restocking of our supplies at Morrisons in Fort William we headed off to Wester Ross for the second week of our holiday.
We had a slight detour off our main route in to Glen Garry and along Glen Quoich to Kinlochourn. This minor road can be very good for close views of
Red Deer as it was at Christmas when we were last there. The numbers were much lower on this visit and they are probably to be found higher up on the hills at this time of year. It was also noticeable that the stags are not quite as majestic during the summer as their summer coats do not have the rich russet red and the antlers are still growing.
Report on the second week to follow ….
Richard
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