BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="3Italianbirders" data-source="post: 3608047" data-attributes="member: 116922">We had been to Scotland once before, 12 years ago, but only for a few days and had always planned to go back. As you may have noticed in my several posts in the RFI and Scotland forums, we tried to plan it as carefully as possible, and what started out as 10-day trip quickly evolved into a two full weeks. So many places to bird so little time! As it turned out, we could have done with a few more days, as we drove over 1800 miles and stayed in seven different places, and when we got back home we were more tired than when we left. It was well worth it though, as we totalled 123 species, with several lifers and other memorable sightings.We had pre-booked B&B accommodation in most places, plus a self-catering cottage on North Uist and a hotel belonging to a well-known budget chain near Edinburgh airport. We flew Ryanair from Rome Ciampino to Edinburgh and back and also booked our car rental through Ryanair, which proved much cheaper (one free additional driver was what clinched it) than booking direct with the rental companies or through other travel websites such as Expedia and Skyscanner.We dipped on the three Scottish specialities (3 Cs), Crested Tit, Crossbill and Capercaillie, but had already seen the former two (Crossbills  - Common ones - sometimes visit our feeders in winter) and weren’t realistically expecting to see Capercaillie. We also very nearly dipped on our small-bird targets, Redpoll and Bullfinch (although we had already seen them, they are always nice to see), but bagged them both on our second-to-last day, the former thanks to Gordon Hamlett’s tips. What we didn’t see, although we hunted high and low, was Twite, but everyone told us that they are easier to see earlier in the season.We also did fairly well mammal-wise, despite not seeing a whale (but we had our fair share of those <a href="http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=327927" target="_blank">last year in Canada</a>).As for literature, besides <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Birdwatching-Sites-Scottish-Highlands/dp/0956987656/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503776230&sr=1-1&keywords=gordon+hamlett" target="_blank">Gordon’s book</a>, which I highly recommend to anyone planning to birdwatch in the Scottish Highlands, we used an old copy of the trusted Collins Bird Guide, plus the Collins App for iOS. We met many birders, who gave us invaluable advice and also provided good company in between the sightings. Unfortunately we don’t know any names, but if one of you bumped into three Italian birders (two adults and a tween girl) in the second half of June, then that’s us and you are most welcome to get in touch should you come to this part of the world. One name we do know (although we weren’t introduced, but learned it afterwards from the local Bird Recorder) and it is Steven Kirkup, with whom we spent some time watching the <a href="http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=3581190#post3581190" target="_blank">White-winged Black Tern on Benbecula</a>. Unfortunately the report is not as thorough as we normally like them to be, as we were a bit lazy and didn’t write down as many details of sightings as we normally do. I am also very late in posting this, so apologies for that, too.</blockquote>

Verification