Trip Report – Outer Hebrides May 24^th – 30^th 2002

by Gordon Hodgson 

Day One Friday/Saturday 24^th May

Departed Frampton 21.30 for the 7-hour drive to Oban, pausing for a brief kip at Gretna, arriving in time for a quick look around Balvicar for the Snowy Egret – no sign. It had been reported on Islay earlier in the week, it was strange to stand on the bridge over the burn without the Egret in the background as I had seen on so many photos. Birds here included Red-breasted Merganser, Rock Pipit, Hooded Crow and a newly fledged Siskin, on the shore here a male Eider was close in and Common Sandpipers whizzed over the Loch. Enough time to have a good look around Oban harbour and bay, which faces a large island. There is easy parking along the seafront, the best site was from the very end of the Promenade looking through the gap between the mainland and the Island, here there was a single Sandwich Tern (not very common here) Gannet, two Black Guillemots, Arctic Tern and Harbour Porpoise. Back at the Ferry terminal a pair of Black Guillemots (see Pic 1 below) looked as if they were nesting underneath the Pier. The ferry journey from Oban to Lochboisedale on South Uist takes around 7 hours. The route takes you through the narrow Sound of Mull.  The high cliffs either side are ideal for Golden Eagle. I managed at least three and some dots miles away. The scope was useless as the vibrations from the engine made it look like an earthquake was happening!  It wasn’t until we passed the Ardnamurchan Peninsula that Manx Shearwaters started to appear, ones and twos and then hundreds including one raft right by the ferry of around 200. Little else of note on the crossing beside the usual Auks, Gannets, Kittiwakes and two Common Dolphins briefly. The ferry calls at the Island of Barra before South Uist and here there were three summer plumaged Red-throated Diver in the harbour.  Arrived at Lochboisedale at 21.50 and drove straight to Balranald to camp for the night. While putting my tent up in the wet and windy conditions a Corncrake ‘cranked up’ right behind me – I’d arrived! Sadly once it had cracked up it continued to call all night from around six feet away, pausing only to be replaced by the torrential rain hammering on the tent. 

Day Two Sunday 25^th May

Spent around half an hour with the Corncrake at dawn (see Pic 2 below), not really the most skulking birds at this time of year, this bird stood on the highest part of the field which was only around 12ft x20ft in the open shouting very loudly, a very charismatic bird. This was one of around a dozen birds seen well, mainly on North Uist but also on Benbecula and the northern most part of South Uist near Ardivacar Point.  Balranald is a magical place teaming with bird life. There is a small information centre and toilet block on the reserve, you can park here and walk along the nature trail, which takes you up to Aird an Runair. Or (as I found out later) you can actually drive almost to the point through the machair and seawatch from your car in rough conditions. At the Information Centre there are Corn Bunting singing from fence posts (see Pic 2a below), Redshank, Lapwing, Dunlin, Oystercatcher and Snipe in every field, surprisingly some with well advanced chicks and Fulmar nesting on the derelict buildings. In this picture the small white building on the left is the Information Centre and the track in the foreground is the ‘road’ out to the point (see Pic 3 below). The walk to the point takes around 20 minutes during which the only unusual bird was a Turtle Dove with the local Collared Dove.

Air an Runair is a rocky point and provides some of the best Spring seawatching in the UK. I headed straight there, past a pleasantly noisy Arctic Tern colony, a rather out of place Barnacle Goose was sat in the middle of the terns! A straggler from the winter when many thousands feed on the Machair (see Pic 4 below). The beach was busy with gulls (I’ll check them out on the way back) Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher were nesting on the shingle and waders feeding on the seaweed included some stonking summer plumaged Sanderling and Turnstone. 

Scope up – Seawatching! Manx’s and Auks for about an hour moving both North and South and then the first skua about 50m out, quite small, pale underneath, long tail streamers - Long-tailed Skua ! -  superb bird shearing close to the water. Then four skuas high up farther out, heavy and purposeful flight, small headed and get a load of those spoons, unmistakable - Poms (Pomarine Skuas)! Another two flew by much closer shortly after. I decided after two hours that the weather wasn’t quite right, you need a good SW and this was northeast! So I headed back to check the gulls on the beach where there was a lovely creamy first winter Glaucous Gull and surprisingly an adult Sabine's Gull in summer plumage feeding amongst a group of Black-headed Gulls just off shore, sadly only managed to get a crappy record shot as a group of birders showed up and I headed off to let them know about the bird, I didn’t want to approach it before they had seen it (see Pics 5 and 6 below). On the return walk real Rock Doves were feeding on the Machair. 

I knew of a good site for Red-necked Phalaropes on Benbecula so headed there next to get another target bird under the belt. I was only there about 20 minutes when a pair of phalaropes flew in calling. The male disappeared immediately (funny that) and the female began feeding along the far back of the Loch about 100 metres away. Always a delight to see these enigmatic buoyant jewels, which are on the very edge of their range here. Another target bird ticked I headed north to go back to Balranald to camp near the point for the night in order to be near the action in the morning. I stopped at Loch Paible for a closer look at the Machair in this area and there had been a Gyr Falcon here only a few weeks before (rather hopeful I know). Apart from the usual hoards of waders and the tiniest Ringed Plover chicks right next to the car there was little else here. 

Just North of Loch Paible there is a road, which takes you towards Solis across the moors here, you are almost guaranteed Short-eared Owl and right on cue two birds were hunting the moor about a mile up the road. Back at Balranald whilst setting up the tent the Glaucous Gull was again on the beach, this time with a first summer Iceland Gull for comparison. Not a bad first day! 

May 26^th

After a night of listening to Corncrakes again (thankfully this time rather more distant) I walked to the point again despite the strong easterly. Passing the pile of stones near a the small Loch a group of passerines rose out of the grass and landed on the pile of stones – Tree Sparrows, 9 of them, most unexpected and a record the locals got quite excited about! Sadly they flew strongly north after a couple of minutes. As I set off again for the point an Otter appeared right in front of me and walked unconcerned into the nearby Loch, it must have walked up from the beach. Nothing much happening on the sea apart from a couple of Bonxies (Great Skuas) so I headed south onto South Uist, to Lochynort for raptors. Just past the turning there is a long, high ridge up to the left, two Golden Eagles were soaring high over here. Lochynort (3 houses) overlooks a large sea loch and is surrounded by high mountains; there is a small car park at the end of the road and a substantial (in Hebridean terms) plantation here, mostly deciduous with a nice mature garden. I had a couple of hours here notching up Kestrel, Willow Warbler (2) and a singing Blackcap (or at least it sounded similar to a Blackcap). I spent a good hour chasing it through the plantation never getting more than fleeting glimpses of a warbler. I suppose it was probably a Blackcap. Atlantic Grey Seals were asleep on seaweed in the middle of the loch (see Pic 7 below). A superb male Hen Harrier appeared briefly over the hill north of the car park and a Peregrine flew slowly through the valley, no sign however of any Sea Eagles which are regular here. Almost directly West of here is Rubha Ardvule the 2^nd most famous sea-watching site in the Hebrides, here you can literally drive right out to the point which must be great in a biting north westerly. Not today though, a nice pair of Long-tailed Ducks were feeding in the shallows in the bay to the south with numerous Eider here including one nesting unconcerned about cars and people right at the base of the small monument at the point (under the inset between the two large boulders) (see Pics 8 and 9 below). 

I drove from here north up the coast stopping at favourable looking sites although the weather now was very heavy showers. From here the top of South Uist there were at least four Iceland Gulls, all first summer birds including two together on Tobha Mor beach   A summer- plumaged Great Northern Diver just offshore was killing a flat fish by repeatedly stabbing it viciously (see Pics 10 and 10a below).

Back at the phalarope site there were now three Red-necked Phalaropes, two females being continuously harassed by a less striking male. I decided I needed a base and a shower so booked onto the only (known to me) camp site on the Uists on Benbecula, I stayed here for three nights and although basic, the site is adequate and only a fiver a night. Also the Dark Island hotel just down the road is reputedly the best drinking house on the Uists. 

May 27^th

Still keen to get more skuas I headed north again to Aird an Runair. Nothing on the sea here but a Corncrake showed really well in the field just by the turning from the ‘main’ road. Another summer plumaged Great Northern Diver was in the bay and a summer- plumaged Black-throated Diver flew south, completing the trio of expected divers. Continuing north in the hope of some passerine migrants (the wind was still in the East) to Griminish Point where a large circular house has a garden, which has housed some good birds. Sadly, today only 4 or 5 Sedge Warblers and a handful of Greenfinches and Twite. Several Little Terns were on the beach here and a House Martin here proved to be a decent record.

I continued along the road which follows the coast around the north of North Uist (see Pic 11 below) where the scenery was astonishing but little bird life apart from the odd Twite at the side of the road and the ever present waders in the fields. I made the pilgrimage to Cachlan Farm plantation favoured by some yank passerines in recent years including Veery. After watching Wrens and Song Thrushes (both subspecies here) I turned back and took the short cut south along the Solis road (Short Eared Owl site mentioned earlier) a brief stop produced two Golden Eagles over a nearby hill giving great close views. Golden Plover (the first so far) were calling from the moor out of sight. Langass Plantation is tucked away on the road from the north of Benbecula to Loch Maddy and is a hotel with small garden and a large conifer plantation. The marked trail here produced only a male Hen Harrier (I only saw males), a Mealy Redpoll in the plantation – very red and 14 Red Deer drinking at the side of a distant loch. Starlings (see Pic 12 below) on Uist seem very different from our mainland birds, acting much more like a really wild bird, appearing in the middle of moors and nesting amongst rocks and in dry stone walls and seeming very spotless and glossy, are these similar to the birds in the Shetlands which are an intermediate race?.  I headed South once more hoping to catch up with some more eagles but North Lochynort failed to come up with the goods, but a calling Red-throated Diver was nice and another Short-eared Owl followed the same hilltop route of the previous day’s Hen Harrier. Heading back north again to Loch Bi which is a huge Loch in the north of South Uist and is best reached by the road marked ‘Range Road’ which takes you along the south side, but don’t go down here if the flags are up and if the flags go up when you are already here - shift! – it’s used for missile practice. The site looked great for waders, a drake Garganey had been seen here recently but failed to show today, displaying Dunlin here were great to watch, lifting just one wing when calling. There were numerous Greylag Geese here some with broods of goslings.   

May 28^th

This morning I decided to try and get some shots of the Red-necked Phalaropes and was surprised to see six now present including 4 female. However they proved very difficult to get decent shots of as the light was bad and the midges irritating (only place I saw them) (see Pics 13, 13a, 14 & 15 below).

The wind was still from the east but today it had a bit more south so it was back to Air an Runair in the hope of more skua action, and it happened. In a 3 hour seawatch I had 42 Pomarine Skuas, biggest flock 9, plus 6 Long-tailed Skuas, mostly cracking adults, Poms with big spoons and Long-tailed with ridiculously long tail streamers including three together close in and one over the headland annoying the local Arctic Terns. All four skuas passed in these 3 hours Poms being bay far the most common slowly tracking purposefully north – excellent! Lots of Manx’s were on the move today too; there were now 3 Great Northern Divers in the bay and a summer-plumaged Black-throated Diver flew very closely northwards. A stop at Benbecula Fish Factory to check the gulls sat on the rocks revealed another first-summer Iceland Gull (see Pic 16 below). The wind had really picked up by now and swung around due West and the rain was torrential so as I was relatively close I decided to sit in the car and seawatch from Ardivachar Point on South Uist. Here there were two Glaucous Gulls, a first-summer and a superb adult both on the beach. Two groups of three Poms also flew north here, I think if the wind is too far in the west it pushes birds into the Minch and they probably pass un-noticed to seawatchers staring west. This site is not regarded as a top seawatching site but you can sit in the car. Unfortunately I missed a flock of 40 Long-tailed Skuas which passed Aird an Runair at the same time as I was watching farther south, proof of the top status of this site for skuas.

May 29^th

My last day was spent in the Balranald area seawatching and enjoying the easy birding, the sea failed to perform but it is just a remarkable place to be at and enjoy.  I caught the overnight ferry back to Oban, which leaves Lochboisedale at around 10pm, arriving in Oban at 5.30am, and I was back in Gloucestershire by 1pm, enough time for a quick check on the North Flash at Frampton! 

My thanks to Brian Rabbitts for his help and useful information whilst I was on the Uists.