The Highlands and Islands Thread (1 Viewer)

[Ratal]

3 Red and a Black Kite over Inverness Court - Heading up the river towards Loch Ness area. 1540 hours.

 

[JIM J]

black kite surely a rare bird to be reported

 

[Ratal]

Adult summer plumage Black Throated Diver off Ardersier, over head a solid ten minutes southerly flight of Swifts. Pair of Osprey mid Firth.

 

[vanellus]

We saw a juvenile flying south over Gruinard. Thanks for the advice.

 

[grahamknight10]

Hi

We will be going on a road trip in the Highlands from 21st September - can I seek some pointers as to any particular birding sites along the way?

We will be roughly doing the "North Coast 500" route for 6 nights with stays at Applecross, Rua Reidh Lighthouse (2 nights), Kylesku, Durness and Mey, before heading back for 3 nights near Avienmore. I know the Cairgorms area pretty well from previous visits, but the West and North Coasts are new to me.

I am particularly interested in seabird passage, but also any other goodies, especially Ptarmigan. Am expecting birds and other wildlife to be pretty much anywhere on the way?

Many thanks in advance

Graham

 

[delia todd]

A lovely tour you've got coming.

Have a look in Opus for some ideas: the Scottish ones are here - you really should try and get to Handa island, and perhaps out to Cape Wrath too, while you're at Durness.

These will keep you occupied until other people pop in with ideas. But my other advice would be to stop at every layby that overlooks some water and scan for anything that might be there.

Also a must, is to get Gordon Hamlett's book, Best Birdwatching Sites: Scottish Highlands - he's a member here too, so may well pop in with some more ideas.

 

[Sandra (Taylor)]

Hi

We will be going on a road trip in the Highlands from 21st September - can I seek some pointers as to any particular birding sites along the way?

We will be roughly doing the "North Coast 500" route for 6 nights with stays at Applecross, Rua Reidh Lighthouse (2 nights), Kylesku, Durness and Mey, before heading back for 3 nights near Avienmore. I know the Cairgorms area pretty well from previous visits, but the West and North Coasts are new to me.

I am particularly interested in seabird passage, but also any other goodies, especially Ptarmigan. Am expecting birds and other wildlife to be pretty much anywhere on the way?

Many thanks in advance

Graham

I can only repeat Delia's advice about buying Gordon Hamalett's book. Will be invaluable for the area you want.

Sandra

 

[gordon hamlett]

Hi Graham,

Further to the responses from my fan club, if you want to see a sample chapter, send me a pm with your email address and I'll sort something out for you. Interestingly, I wrote about the lighthouse, and spent months arguing back and forth about what I could and couldn't say. We got everything sorted out, the book was published, then the owners sold the lighthouse...

If you are interested in seabirds, have you considered a non-landing trip from Ullapool to Stornoway? Chance of all four skuas, assorted shearwaters, storm and Leach's petrels, auks, divers, gannets, whales, dolphins etc etc, all from the comfort of a large, stable comfortable ferry. See the Calmac website for details. Might even see me <grin>

While Delia's suggestions about Cape Wrath/Handa are fine, remember that most of the seabirds will have left the cliffs by now, so you will be just as well seawatching from somewhere such as Point of Stoer or Strathy Point.

HTH

Gordon

 

[grahamknight10]

Hi Gordon

Thanks for the very kind offer of a scanned chapter but your fan club has already persuaded me to buy the book! It will arrive in the next few days. Shearwaters and Skuas are very much of interest to me, and your idea about the ferry is a very good one, but given that I would get seasick on a duck pond we will have to give that a miss.

Thanks again for the replies, no doubt I will be back with more questions when I have read the book

Graham

 

[gordon hamlett]

Hi Gordon

Thanks for the very kind offer of a scanned chapter but your fan club has already persuaded me to buy the book! It will arrive in the next few days. Shearwaters and Skuas are very much of interest to me, and your idea about the ferry is a very good one, but given that I would get seasick on a duck pond we will have to give that a miss.

Thanks again for the replies, no doubt I will be back with more questions when I have read the book

Graham

Thanks for ordering the book Graham, I hope that you enjoy it. I can retire a rich man on the 80p royalty now <big grin>

The huge ferries are incredibly stable, but I know what you mean.

If the winds are onshore, you should see some good stuff from the lighthouse. Keep your eyes on the skies too - there are several pairs of white-tailed eagles in the Gairloch area.

If you haven't seen it yet, have a look at http://www.northcoast500.com/home.aspx to show you some of the sights you can expect - it more or less follows your intended route.

If you want any other help, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Have a great trip.

Gordon

 

[Ratal]

Massive number of Skuas coming through Fortrose today, as well as a Wryneck on the golf course fringe early am.

 

[Ratal]

An absolute stunner of a morning.

Low fog, water like glass - and Skuas. All.four species in and around Fortrose, pirating close to the shore.

Impeccable plumage dark morph Pomarine the crowd pleaser.

 

[Ratal]

Three pm - Got a call of mass Skua movement from a lad watching the Firth some place near Milton of Culloden.

Stood at the stadium with half a dozen birders - tally 32 Great Skua, 52 Arctic, 11 Long tailed. Stupendous sight watching them harass everything that moved - especially the poor Terns in their winter plumage.

1 Juvenile Black Throated Diver, a Peregrine on the Stadium and a pair of Winter plumage Slavonian Grebes.

 

[jpoyner]

Three pm - Got a call of mass Skua movement from a lad watching the Firth some place near Milton of Culloden.

Stood at the stadium with half a dozen birders - tally 32 Great Skua, 52 Arctic, 11 Long tailed. Stupendous sight watching them harass everything that moved - especially the poor Terns in their winter plumage.

1 Juvenile Black Throated Diver, a Peregrine on the Stadium and a pair of Winter plumage Slavonian Grebes.

Seems they use the Great Glen route in autumn too. Either that or they winter somewhere in Inverness!!

 

[Ratal]

Seems they use the Great Glen route in autumn too. Either that or they winter somewhere in Inverness!!

Still massive numbers coming through today. Weather was good, air quality astounding. Large numbers of Linnet, twite and redpoll in the fields.

 

[John Eaton]

Still massive numbers coming through today. Weather was good, air quality astounding. Large numbers of Linnet, twite and redpoll in the fields.

Are we talking about the same Firth? I've been at Alturlie (not far from Milton) for 3 days running (from Sunday) and seen none of these Skuas. Large numbers of Twite???? When do you get more than a couple of birders watching anything much in our area unless it's an SOC trip or at Strathdearn? All very stringy to me I'm afraid.

 

[JIM J]

plenty of scottish crosbills poorhouse wood on saturday and crested tits around feeders osprey centre loch garten

 

[Ratal]

Are we talking about the same Firth? I've been at Alturlie (not far from Milton) for 3 days running (from Sunday) and seen none of these Skuas. Large numbers of Twite???? When do you get more than a couple of birders watching anything much in our area unless it's an SOC trip or at Strathdearn? All very stringy to me I'm afraid.

Should of gone to specsavers mate - You'd of had to have been blind to miss them.

Blindness aside, there has been a good number of Stonechat too, along side a spectacularly plumaged Buzzard that came down off the Black Isle - a real corker.

 

[Ratal]

Are we talking about the same Firth? I've been at Alturlie (not far from Milton) for 3 days running (from Sunday) and seen none of these Skuas.......When do you get more than a couple of birders watching anything much in our area unless it's an SOC trip or at Strathdearn? All very stringy to me I'm afraid.

I apologise - As a novice Birder that you obviously are, I have to ask: Do you even know what a Skua looks or flies like? it can be tricky past fifty feet for the visually impaired.

Kudos to you for trying though, bless ya.

 

[John Eaton]

I apologise - As a novice Birder that you obviously are, I have to ask: Do you even know what a Skua looks or flies like? it can be tricky past fifty feet for the visually impaired.

Kudos to you for trying though, bless ya.

It's all very easy throwing insults when you don't use your real name. All I would suggest is that you post your sightings on the Highland & Moray Bird facebook page (I'm sure John will let you on it) along with the rest of the regular birders in the area and see the locals reactions to some of these wonders you come up with. To be on that site you will of course need to show your real name, instead of hiding - but I will be very surprised if that happens.