Scotland day 4: A bit of a Skye lark pt 2 ( Far and away)

Today was more about the wide shots; the atmospheric vistas deserving a bit of Hans Zimmer music if I’m perfectly honest. Okay so most of the birds were too far away to really a) appreciate and b) get a decent pic of.

We started out exploring the south of Skye – the Sleat Peninsula and Ord Loop. Around the Kilbeg area we made a brief stop in an area of scrub and woodland. We heard now of course the willow warbler and some of the group caught the song of a chiffchaff as we slowly drove along a track/road. Chris our guide then caught the reeling song of a grasshopper warbler so we all disembarked the vehicles (some quicker than others).

Eventually, we all got to hear the reeling although Phil could not due to his hearing impairment. However, it was Phil who was the first to see this secretive warbler and helped other get onto it which wasn’t easy. We also had a distant white-tailed eagle and a cuckoo fly past as well as views of a tree pipit but it didn’t hang around.

Once everyone had had their fill – something the Heatherlea guides were very mindful of. They always made sure everyone had either seen or had the opportunity to see anything that was worth seeing before suggesting we move on.

Cuckoo

There’s a Gropper out there somewhere

Grasshopper Warbler

On the road toward Ord, we saw wheatear, snipe and some more distant golden eagles. We had an hour or so at Ord and had a couple of common sandpipers flying back and forth on angled wings from the beach to the river on numerous occasions. A wheatear and a meadow pipit hunted for food along the grassy knolls and a couple of greenshank prodded about for food close to the waterline. Offshore another great Northern diver sat majestically on Loch Eishort

Ord

Meadow Pipit

Great Northern Diver

Oystercatcher

Whinchat

By late morning we had made our across the Sleat peninsula to Kilbeg, stopping briefly to see a distant whinchat and a raven.

Now on our way back to Nethy Bridge, we headed towards Achnasheen, we passed a loch and there, right there was an Osprey flying in the other direction. I of course was stuck in the bus unable to exit quickly but Kev was already flying out of his bus to get a few shots off. This was fun competition; that unsaid mutual respect and banter that I guess goes with 'in-the-moment' photography. Anyway, 1-0 to Kev.

if you remember or indeed, if you bothered to read a previous blog, Achnasheen was that wonderful railway station where all sorts of good birding could be had. I disappeared to look for dippers as the others settled in to watch the fields and treetops for anything new. No dippers and as I came back, Chris found our one and only crossbill of the trip. A male sat high on a Spruce and stayed around for everyone to get good views.

Crossbill

Out on the fields, at least 15 golden plover in fine summer plumage were feeding among the sheep along with a couple of wheatear. On the way back to the hotel we had common buzzard and kite plus as we crossed a small bridge over the river we saw a dipper, nice.