Day 4 - Sea Watching - 15/5/2018

Another dull grey day, wet and drizzly as we started off. We headed north, and on the way stopped off on the coast at a place descriptively called Stinky Bay. Looking out from the minibus an ICELAND GULL was spotted amongst all the HERRING GULLS feeding on the sea weed. To those interested in bird watching GULLS are always a niche interest. They all look the same and have about a hundred different plumages for each species. The ICELAND GULL was slightly smaller than a HERRING with white wings - no black tips. Later in the day another white winged gull was seen, but it turned out to be an albino COMMON GULL, judged so by its bill colour.

ICELAND GULL

 

From Stinky Bay we headed up to Balranald, this time to do some sea watching. This area is well known for its passage of SKUAS, a family of birds which specialises in pirating food off other sea bird species.

On the entrance road we looked for CORNCRAKES again, but we were only able to just hear one. We passed through all the crofting landscape to the headland - which is called Aird an Runair. Initially there was a mist which prevented any good views but while we enjoyed a coffee it dissipated.

On the walk to the sea watching spot, just off shore was a large rock that held a GLAUCOUS GULL,  a massive GULL, amazingly pure white, which distinguished it from the other GULL species present.

As we continued our way to the sea watching spot a large BONXIE flew over. Also known as a Great Skua, they are massive birds and not very similar to other SKUA species which are mostly thin and tern like.
We settled ourselves in for the sea watch. Sea watching, like GULL watching, is another niche form of birdwatching - as many people loath it as love it. It mainly consists of seeing little specs on the horizon and confidently identifying them as a species of bird. It can be infuriating, and in some occasions nothing is ever seen. Having grown up in the centre of the country, far from the sea, I was more used to  watching reservoirs. Suffolk coast seems to be quite barren and doesn't attract to many sea birds either.
However, on this occasion we were able to  have some good views. From the off there was a shout of 'POMARINE SKUA!' and said bird drifted over the beach showing itself in all its glory. Much more butch than an ARCTIC SKUA it also had a tea-spoon shaped tail. An absolutely brilliant view, once in a life time seeing it so close. We saw eight POMS altogether, including one on the mid horizon, and six specs on the far horizon, which is the usual sighting for such a bird.
We saw lots of GANNETS, flocks of MANX SHEARWATERS out some distance, DIVERS, AUKS, a couple of FULMARS and plenty of ARCTIC SKUAS. For a couple of hours sea watching I'll take that.

Typical Uist landscape: lochs, moorland and mountains

 



In the afternoon we took the Commtitee road, a kind of old peat diggers road, that ran through some beautiful countryside. We saw two HARRIERS, one a brief view, the other of a young male sky dancing, an evocative name for its display flight. We had some great views.
There were a couple of pairs of STONECHAT seen in the general landscape, but they weren't as common as on the Suffolk heaths, just here and there.
We moved on and had a coffee at Grenitote an area of extensive mud flats, where not much was seen except the odd WADER.

A Ewe guiding her lambs across the mudflats

 

From there it was decided to end the days birdwatching, one that happened to be extra special.

Well, what more can I say, everything today superseded my expectations. Apart from looking for CORNCRAKES, I was really unsure what else we would see on the holiday, but this blew my expectations apart. It was a great day's bird watching, one worth going on holiday for.