Tuesday, July 06, 2021
The road running up to the cemetery at Scourie is still closed off, so if you want to visit the beach or walk out on the headland you have to park in the small area by the hide. We were lucky enough to get a place, and set off on a bright morning of blue seas and sky, with the warmth of the sun tempered by a decidedly cool north wind.
A bonxie cruised over the headland, but we saw no Arctic skuas. The common sandpiper was on the other side of the bay at Scourie jetty.
I think I'll have to give in and make a visit to Handa Island if I want to see Arctic skuas. I'd hoped to see one on my trek out to the trig point five days ago, but drew a blank. In 2005 while on holiday, I just caught sight of a creamy bird as it flew over the car park at Achnahaird and realised this was an Arctic; so the following year, we walked the headland, along the road to Reiff and then back across the cliffs. We were further over towards the sea than the trig point, but somewhere in that area we saw three Arctics and I took this picture with Greger's old Nikon E995 (bought mostly for digiscoping, at which I proved spectacularly useless!).
Not exactly a blast - but certainly from the past....
I don't know if they nested here, but it seems they don't now - although we did see two Arctic skuas at Achnahaird in July 2016. Oh well, there's always the ferry.......
// posted by Christine @ 10:29 AM 
