Griswold's Vacations 2018 (1 Viewer)

Day 4

So we arrived at Lochaline for the 07:00 ferry to Fishnish. A quick scan of the bay gave the first of many Great Northern Divers. 20 minutes later we arrived on Mull. Cost for the return journey including the car and 3 passengers came to £28.70. Pretty good value I thought.

Heading South we took the side roads to Gorsten and Grass Point. Not a huge amount to be seen to be honest so we headed down to Glen More - an area where I'd quite happily sit all day:t: Didn't take long at all to get great views of male and female Hen Harriers. Fantastic birds. Heading a little further through the Glen we pulled over again. Getting out of the car I turned to Kev and asked if he could hear the bird that I could hear. In an absolute dead pan manner Kev just nonchalantly pointed behind at the Golden Eagle flying over us, no more than 30 feet up:-O. Again, having a Raven harassing it. It landed up on the hillside and I managed a few quick grabs before it left. When we reached Loch Beg and Scridian the rains came down so we took shelter in the café there. Walking in to the café Kev picked out another male Hen Harrier over the marshes. The cakes in this café were spot on by the way.

From here it was down to Fionnphort. Scanning Loch Scridian gave a whole heap of Great Northern Divers. For anyone interested, the house right at the end is for sale. I might need to do the lottery this week

Ben Nevis said:

Great stuff Rich.Keep lt coming. :t:

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Cheers Ian:t:

Day Four Contd.

The ferry to Iona gave Guillemot and a year tick in the form of a Razorbill. Cost was a very reasonable £3.70. Had a decent scallop and black pudding roll from the shack there as well, though I think it could have benefitted from a couple of slices of bacon.

Forgot to mention that we had a decent view of a Tree Pipit in Glen More - another year tick. For the second time of the trip we got caught in a downpour. This time however, we did not have Divers to distract us. Wasn't helped by the fact I'd left my coat in the café the night before:-C. As John and Paul mentioned earlier, there was a strong possibility the Crakes would not have arrived yet given the slow start to migration. And they were proved to be right - none that I could find anyway. Very little Iris growth on the paths taken, and certainly no "song" to be heard. Ian did send me a link to a Tweet saying they were beginning to turn up on Barra though so maybe I should have tried harder.

Went back to Mull and drove the circular route back to Tobermory (or Toblemory as Paul kept calling it:-O). Disappointingly Café Fish was closed until the evening so we just had a pint of local ale in one of the pubs - very nice too. Then it was back to the cottage to watch Stripes and have another pintB

I'll finish this off later in the week.

Rich

ClarkWGriswold said:

Had a decent scallop and black pudding roll from the shack there as well, though I think it could have benefitted from a couple of slices of bacon.

Rich

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I reckon a fried egg, personally, though a butcher in Windermere village used to do black treacle bacon that would work a treat - scallop and black pudding, what a great idea though, that's Saturday's breakfast sorted!

I forgot to mention (bit late now) that just because you can't hear Corncrakes doesn't mean they aren't there - even in singing time, for every one you hear there's another one wandering around in the open keeping silent! Admittedly though working harder doesn't help much. They are either playing or not.

John

Farnboro John said:

I reckon a fried egg, personally, though a butcher in Windermere village used to do black treacle bacon that would work a treat - scallop and black pudding, what a great idea though, that's Saturday's breakfast sorted!

I forgot to mention (bit late now) that just because you can't hear Corncrakes doesn't mean they aren't there - even in singing time, for every one you hear there's another one wandering around in the open keeping silent! Admittedly though working harder doesn't help much. They are either playing or not.

John

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That black treacle bacon sounds amazing. Would have given the roll a bit of texture which was what it needed. :eat:

Rich

Sounds like a cracking trip. Can't wait to read the rest of it. definitely will try and spend a day on the peninsula. Not seen Twite for a year or two now so would like to catch up with a few. Hopefully get a bit of sea watching in from the point and try for a few passing Skuas.

Really enjoying this report - the combination of the birds, the place and the pies gives a terrific sense of a top bidding trip- although scallop and black pudding I would definitely pass on.

Cheers
Mike

Cheers both. It's the first time I've seen so many Twite together. A fantastic little bird.

Rich

Great shot of the eagle being mobbed by a Raven by the way. I have seen this also (what is with Corvids that they seem to have this unbreakable compulsion to mob any raptor in sight with barely any sense of self preservation) and it really does bring home the size of the brutes when you realize that it is not a jackdaw! You really lucked out with the Goldie posing for you too.

Keep it coming. I am almost salivating at the thought of my impending trip now

Paul Longland said:

Great shot of the eagle being mobbed by a Raven by the way. I have seen this also (what is with Corvids that they seem to have this unbreakable compulsion to mob any raptor in sight with barely any sense of self preservation) and it really does bring home the size of the brutes when you realize that it is not a jackdaw! You really lucked out with the Goldie posing for you too.

Keep it coming. I am almost salivating at the thought of my impending trip now

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Cheers Paul. Got lucky with both Eagles. With the Sea Eagle I grabbed the little SX60 and just managed to fire off 3 shots:t:

Great Report Rich.Please keep It coming ? :t:

Day 5

Now, on the recommendation of BF members, I have read all of Mike Tomkies books. Given that we were in the area, a visit to Widernesse was always going to be a must. So we gave a quick ring and booked via here:

http://www.highlandcruises.co.uk/

Cost of the tour, which ran from Acharacle to Glenfinnan, was £20. Superb value in my book. There are tours where you can go up and down the loch, but we had arranged for Paul to collect us from Glenfinnan. He went off fishing for a couple of hours instead.

Tour got off to a great start when we got talking to one of the guides whilst waiting for the others to arrive. I happened to mention I'd just finished reading Saga of Sea Eagles by John Love when Martin (apologies if I've got your name wrong Martin - getting old again!) said that he was good friends with John, and a couple of his photos were in the book.

We then left when the others arrived and within 5 minutes Martin had got us all on to an adult White-tailed Sea Eagle. Quickly this was joined by another and the hunt was on. Both were after a Greylag Goose which was absolutely fascinating. Old Lucky (as we named him) managed to evade both and survived to tell the tale. A great start. Further along the loch were a few Mergansers and Ravens. Then we came across a pair of absolutely stunning summer plumaged Black Throated Divers.

We continued up the loch where we came across the cottage where Mike Tomkies spent so many years and the main reason for me going on the trip. It was brilliant to see the area he describes so vividly and you could almost see Moobli following him up the hill on one of his treks. The cottage was being used again, and now had solar panels fitted. A luxury that Mike certainly never had.

Now the heavens really opened, and the sky went very dark with hailstones shattering the surface of the loch. Whilst the other passengers went to the covered area at the back of the boat, we joined the guides down the hatch at the front. Had a brilliant 15 minutes discussing birds, dolphins in Cardigan bay and other Cetaceans. Turns out Martin was originally from North Wales and had moved to Mallaig. For the life of me I can't remember the other gents name but his local knowledge of the birds was simply outstanding. Afterwards, we both said we should have done the trip earlier in the week, as we gained some very useful information.

Back on deck we were lucky enough to see a couple more Black Throated Divers before coming up to Glenfinnan. Great view of the viaduct from the boat by the way, and the boat driver also gave historical information about the various points along the way. Normally the trip gives sightings of Golden Eagles but not today. I suspect that given the weather they were sitting tight.

An absolutely brilliant end to a brilliant trip... or so we thought:-O

Day 5 contd.

Given it was our last evening we packed the car as much as we could including my camera. ***Top Tip - Don't pack your camera!!***

Then sitting at the dining table, eating our traditional Welsh Tapas, Paul looked out the window and said the Pine Martin was there. Obviously not believing him we casually walked over. This is one of those moments that will be etched into my memory forever. We've all had them. Your jaw drops, and you just stare in amazement (ok, in this case there were a couple of expletives which is why I can't post my iPhone videoo). Amongst all of my wildlife viewing moments this is right up there with the very best - watching a Grizzly Bear and 2 cubs in Tweedsmuir National Park; the Black Bear and her very young cub on the hill outside of Bella Coola; the Wolf that crossed in front of us on the Maligne Lake Road; watching a Blue Whale from a helicopter off the coast of Australia; and watching Humpbacks continuously breaching off of Tofino. It really was that special. In all the years of visiting Scotland this was our first Pine Marten:t:B

Now that's a fitting end to a fantastic trip.

Odds and sods

On the way back we returned via Musselburgh. Only had an hour (given we still had a long journey ahead) and we ended up dipping the White-Winged Scoter. Did have decent views of Velvet Scoterand Common Scoter though.

Below are a couple of snaps from Ardnamurchan Point, Loch Shiel and of the Codger.

The next trip is to Spain so it'll basically be birds seen from the Villa. After that we're hoping to see the New Year in, in Norfolk. At this point it's looking highly likely that we're going to need a dog friendly cottage as potentially there's a Hungarian Viszla on the horizon. So far, the boys are not overly enamoured with my suggestions for names - Granville, Alun Wyn, Adam, Hamish, Duncan or Bruce. I'm working on them:-O:-O

Rich

ClarkWGriswold said:

At this point it's looking highly likely that we're going to need a dog friendly cottage as potentially there's a Hungarian Viszla on the horizon. So far, the boys are not overly enamoured with my suggestions for names - Granville, Alun Wyn, Adam, Hamish, Duncan or Bruce. I'm working on them:-O:-O

Rich

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Rizla the Viszla would have a certain ring to it :t:

John

Farnboro John said:

Rizla the Viszla would have a certain ring to it :t:

John

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:-O

Adam was after Adam Jones the ex Welsh prop. When they rejected that I suggested his nickname - Bomb. This they liked. Ruled this out after further consideration. This should have been patently obvious when I suggested it3

ClarkWGriswold said:

. In all the years of visiting Scotland this was our first Pine Marten:t:B

Now that's a fitting end to a fantastic trip.

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Now you are just showing off.:t:

That is on my all time hit list of things I really would like to see.

I have high hopes for the family holiday in July when we visit the trossocks as the farm we are staying in apparently has a regular Pine Marten visiting the gardens there.

Bad luck with the Scoter. I am hoping it hangs around long enough to have a crack at on the way from Mull to Northumberland for the second half of our upcoming trip

Fantastic report of a great sounding trip Rich.

Cheers Paul and good luck on your upcoming trips. I'd love to be heading back up but it'll have to wait until next year now.

Rich

ClarkWGriswold said:

:-O

Adam was after Adam Jones the ex Welsh prop. When they rejected that I suggested his nickname - Bomb. This they liked. Ruled this out after further consideration. This should have been patently obvious when I suggested it3

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Um, yes. A dog's name has to be something you are prepared to shout in public: Bomb perhaps not a great idea just now..... :eek!:

John