How beautiful is Skye? I have such happy memories of this isle from 2008, a family holiday that was spent on the coral beaches and in some of the finest restaurants the Isle had to offer. And speaking of fine food, after another, yes another full Scottish breakfast, we went a short distance to Broadford Bay for an unscheduled stop. One of our party needed some travel medication and the this was the nearest place for a pharmacy. While we waited, we used the time to check the bay for birds.
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| Our group at Cabost |
So this feels like a good time to tell you about the dynamic of the group on this trip and the personalities that made it such a great tour.
There were 13 of us on the trip plus our two Heatherlea guides. We needed two small mini buses and travelled in convoy. In the front bus, the seating arrangements were pretty straight forward. Kev and Viv, two of Phil’s friends, Mo, a lady from Somerset and Wendy, a seasoned Heatherlea customer (0ver 150 trips with them to Scotland...I know, mental) And Dave and Martin, two birding friends who were quite humorous when you talked to them. I don’t think they changed the seating position at all. Kev was always ready to jump out with his camera which he did, often and not always with permission of the driver!
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| Carbost |
Bringing up the rear was our more modern but less flexible bus that carried myself, Phil and Brenda. We also had Brian, a serious birder with a UK list of 540 species I think. Finally we had 3 Americans from Connecticut, Lori, Dee and Steve. They were excited by everything so that was fun. the only problem with out bus was that you had to drop the seats to let the three at the back get out. This would prove a bit tiresome as the tour progressed and nearly caused me to have a heart attack. More about that later.
At Broadford Bay, we had all the usual species, including hooded crow, oystercatcher and common gull. It was a quick stop so we were soon back on the road.
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| Hooded Crow |
We headed for Loch Ainort where we caught up with great northern diver, red-throated diver, eider, black guillemot and red-breasted merganser. |
| Loch Ainort |
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| Red-breasted Mergansers |
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| Golden Eagle |
We also has a sighting of a golden eagle soaring over Mount Iloilo but it was quite distant, as they usually are. Later at Loch Sligachan we would see another golden eagle distantly, what else? It was over the mountains practising its stooping techniques. We also had greenshank, curlew and the now ubiquitous red-breasted mergansers.
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| Old Man of Storr |
We added skylark, meadow pipit and shag in the Carbost area before having lunch in a great location at Steffin Bay.
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| Great Skus |
We had great views of great skuas while wheatears ran close by toying with the photographers looking for that perfect 'wheatear shot'.
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Northern Wheatear |
There were gannets on the horizon and one or two eider bobbing on the sea.
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