Scotland Day 2: I am a rock, I am an island

Today we leave Nethy Bridge for a couple of days and take the day traveling to the Isle of Skye. Our guides had a number of key sites for us to visit and at the top our target species list would be golden eagle and ptarmigan.

We took a break at Achnasheen, and to be precise, the railway station. We were there for about 30 minutes but in that time we saw wheatear, sand martin, siskin, red deer, a singing redwing and more black grouse on a neighbouring hillside.

Achnasheen Station


Redwing


This was a quality coffee/comfort stop as the birding was phenomenal at this station. (No trains mind.)

We carried on the scenic route towards Applecross and stopped briefly at Loch Shieldaig and spied a great northern diver and a few shag, albeit distantly.

Meadow Pipit


We carried along the Bealach na Bà on the Applecross peninsula eventually parking at the base of Sgurr a' Chaorachain. From here we would start looking for 'Rock' Ptarmigan or just plain old Ptarmigan I suppose, but they do look like rocks to be fair.

Our guide Dave managed to quickly pick out one a fair way up so we decided to hike up the hill but by the time we reach a place to view the ptarmigan better, it had gone and all we had were rocks. We spent a good 30 mins looking for and occasionally hearing them but had no sight of any. As we approached the top of the hill by the radio mast, a golden eagle drifted over, high which was amazing and the first of the trip.

The view from the top of Sgurr a' Chaorachain

Only a few of us had ventured up this Corbett summit, so we knew it was time to rejoin the group below who had Chris or other guide with them and it was he who spotted either the same ptarmigan or one that looked equally like a rock half way down and on the track itself!

We eased our way down the slope carefully, although one of us did go at some pace but I won’t name names. We reached the place where the bird had been seen and found it as it jumped across a gully and up onto some very photographic rocks.


Ptarmigan




A rock?

Northern Wheatear

The whole party were very pleased. Even those that hadn’t relished the climb had had great views from scopes of this wonderful grouse.

We continued our journey towards Skye, briefly stopping one more time at Lochcarron to watch two distant red-breasted mergansers.

We arrived on Skye and to our hotel in time for dinner and our customary debrief from Dave and Chris to cover all the locations and species we had seen that day.

Phil and I then went for a stroll to see if we could happen upon an otter or two but alas, all we saw was a lovely sunset and a hooded crow.






Hooded Crow



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