Birding Braunie

Oh my days! Is it Friday already? This was our last full day with Heatherlea and it was destined to be a big one. Correction: The big one. Do these birding tour operators plan this? Do they always save the best for last? I don’t know. Some would say the Capercaillie caper would have done it and it did in many ways but this day would match it or in some eyes surpass it. You be the judge. Another full fat breakfast! My only thoughts during this now routine ceremony was whether I would still fit in the minibus. To be honest, I thought we would be doing a bit more walking on this trip but apart from the odd amble up a hill, we were never far from the transport. The birding day began with an excursion to Roseisle and initially around some of the farmland minor roads where we picked up a couple of corn buntings just sitting on fence wires. Looking out from a viewpointon the Moray Firth at Burghead Bay there were velvet and common scoters, eider and a few red-breasted merganser. Telescope out...

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 every...