Isle of Skye

A last minute decision saw us heading north for a week to the Isle of Skye. Not primarily a birding trip but I was hoping for some of the birds not seen in South Wales very often.

On arriving at our cottage on Saturday afternoon I was pleased to note that we had a patio overlooking a sea loch. I set the scope up and the first bird I saw was a Black Throated Diver, followed by a couple of Great Northern Divers, Black Guillemots and Red Breasted Mergansers. Hooded Crows as expected were everywhere.

On the Monday we went to the Fairy Pools near Carboost, fabulous scenery here made better by two White Tailed Eagles flying over, certainly the bird of the trip.

Weirdest bird of the trip however was when I had to stop the car at 2.30 in the afternoon in bright sunshine for a Woodcock to walk nonchalantly across the road.

12 Whooper Swans were found just off the island on a small pool on the road south.

Nothing really unusual for the rest of the stay with all the usual waders you would expect Dunlin, Curlew, Ringed Plover, Oystercatchers, Redshank, Lapwing being observed. More Black Throated and Great Northern Divers were seen but surprisingly no Red Throated Divers. The only other raptors seen were Buzzard and Kestrel.

Another last minute decision saw us book in a B & B in Dumfries on the way home to split the journey home up. So on the Sunday we called into Caerlaverock as we were staying very close to the reserve. We had never visited this WWT reserve before and although we didn't have a lot of time really enjoyed our quick walk around. It was nice to get thousands of tickable Barnacle Geese, Tree Sparrow, lots of Whooper Swan, a very large flock of Golden Plover, Curlews, Black Tailed Godwits along with lots of wildfowl.