Christine's walking & birds blog

"Look!" Greger exclaimed as I was scanning for small birds on the lower slopes - and there high above the hill were two golden eagles, sailing into view side-by-side and then putting on a show of aerobatics.

Whenever they interacted I clicked off a shot, but each time the faster movement ended in just a blur. In one picture taken before they come together, the lower bird has its head raised as it looks up at the higher one. (I remember noting this down south when I watched a pair of buzzards in display flight above the garden.) As we walked away one of them, or a third bird, came into view even higher, soaring for a while and then also vanishing from sight.

 Two Manx shearwaters were seen from the ferry, an hour into the crossing.

Greger had, once again, suggested I do a pelagic. He was fed up with sitting at home convalescing and fancied doing one of his drives over east to do the shopping, to the accompaniment of an Agatha Christie audiobook in Spanish - "Muerte en el Nilo". This meant a real rush to get ready, but at least the ferry leaves an hour later on Sundays and I did get a lift down to the terminal.

The ferry was an hour late getting to Ullapool this morning; but after a tedious wait in the terminal we were eventually all aboard and listening to an announcement that they should be able to claw back five minutes off the lost time on the sailing back to Stornoway. Oh great, I thought, as if spotting things from the ferry isn't hard enough, we'll now be going even faster! Consolation was found in the discovery that I'm now fairly good at picking out, from the groups of black and white auks on the water, similar gatherings of Manx shearwaters.

I should add, that these birds were fairly distant and the pics highly cropped - not blowing my own trumpet, just pleased that I've learnt something from my fraught and frantic pelagics over the last few years. A pale-form skua, probably Arctic, was seen in the same area - on the far side of the Minch.

This is looking back at two cruise ships anchored near Stornoway; the Azaman Pursuit and the Bolette. Pod-like tenders buzzed about, carrying passengers into the harbour.

Birds seen in the harbour: The usual hoodie, a fly-over red-throated diver, a heron, a black guillemot, and a common tern which flew past carrying a fish.

As we set off again, I was on the funnel rail and ready for the shearwaters. They were lifting off from the water, still distant, and I snapped madly (and badly) as wave after wave streamed past. I reckon there must have been at least 100 Manx shearwaters; at any rate, this was the most I've ever seen and it was a sight worth seeing.

It was Greger's suggestion that I go on the ferry today as the weather forecast was good and because my car is playing up so I daren't go far in it. He stayed at home thanks to a shocking cold and cough - but he was there to meet me when the ferry docked, and he'd made a very welcome spagbol which was just the job after a hard day's birding at sea! What a lucky lady I am.  

A raptor that was just a dot over Isle Martin came gradually closer as I sat on the beach at Ardmair and eventually showed itself to be an osprey. It circled over the camp-site and then moved away to the north.

Below, on the spit, a ringed plover's alarm call alerted me to the presence of a chick. It's great that they've managed to breed successfully, what with all the paddle-boarding, dog-walking, and cairn-building going on.

Other recent sightings in other places: I was scanning a distant crag where walkers don't usually venture, when I spotted what I took to be a man gaining the crest and possibly a woman still toiling upwards. Suddenly, the man opened his arms wide and flapped them - and lo! the man was a golden eagle, and his arms were wings! Must get my eyes tested.

In a boggy forest clearing I surprised a sika deer.

The picture I took as it headed for the cover of the trees is shaky because, as it turned, it uttered a piercing shriek - and I nearly dropped the camera.

The thing about the sikas is that they are often hidden in the forest, and you don't know they're nearby until their sudden ear-splitting whistles cut through the air - but even when I could see one and was prepared, the call made me nearly jump out of my shoes!

I paid my first visit of the summer to the boggy forest paths where dragonflies hunt, but found only common darters and a very active and elusive blueish hawker. On the south-facing side of a rocky knoll, the sombre grey-green moss held patches of lovely English stonecrop.

The bright bell heather is in flower now - mostly on the ground, but here appearing to have climbed up a young conifer.

Yesterday we went on the ferry.  It was a bit windier than we'd bargained for and we had two sharp showers of rain. A single Manx shearwater was the best bird. Several pods of common dolphins and a few porpoises were seen. Approaching Stornoway we could see a cruise ship to our left - and, just before that, a large number of sea-birds (predominantly gannets) both on the water and circling above. Greger got a glimpse of something large with a fin. After the turnaround and on the way out, we were ready for action but it was still difficult to get a picture of the whale. We were on the lower deck as the funnel rail was busy, so we didn't get the advantage of the extra height above the sea. 

This was our first whale of the year; it was probably a minke, and my picture is timed at 14.13.  It still rankles that on our trip to Lewis in May, we failed to see anything on our morning watch - while practically every day since, there have been whales and dolphins and basking sharks galore reported from Tiumpan Head. It's my own fault; instead of being a cheapskate I should have paid for three nights away instead of two, and then we might have had a better chance of actually seeing something!