Mad, bad and dangerous

Tuesday was another fine day but still that Northerly wind blows. With the guests on board we headed off in search of the goodies...a couple of Whimbrel, Dunlin, Golden Plover and Linnet were overshadowed by 3 summer plumage Black-tailed Godwit - excellent. We also picked up the first Lapwing chick that I have seen this year. A couple of Whinchat proved quite elusive but everyone managed to see them eventually. We had a quiet morning but things would hopefully improve in the afternoon. A cracking Greenshank was a nice find before we located a Golden Eagle sitting on a ledge. Just as we found it a shower passed through and the bird took flight and landed in a more sheltered spot that was also in the shade when the shower passed. We headed off to find an Otter - it didn't take long. We spotted one on the far shore and watched it fish before it hauled out and clambered around the rocks for a wee while. WT Eagle was bagged before we headed back along the loch. We located another Otter that was not too far out so we stood and waited for a swim by. We didn't have to wait too long for him to come ashore but he went straight back out again. A couple of dives later and he was heading back to shore with a flatfish. Naturally he found a little hole to hide in but we waited patiently for him to come out...

...well worth the wait! An extra bonus on the way home was a cracking male Hen Harrier that flew over the motor and then circled round us before heading off. In the evening a good few hail showers passed through so one minute you'd see this...

...and half a pint later it looked like this...

Wednesday was a better day with it not being too cold and no showers to dodge.The first thing we got in the morning was completely mad! A Magpie, we don't get them here, was trying to nick stuff off the WT Eagle nest - how mental is that bird?!! Mrs Eagle wasn't impressed and chased the cheeky bird off. We managed to get decent scope views of a pair of Golden Eagle just after the Magpie was evicted. We had cracking views of an Otter along the loch. We watched it bring a crab in but it must have been a dangerous one as it was only ashore for about 20 seconds before heading back out again. It came back in almost immediately with a big looking fish. When it got to land you could see it was a Dogfish - cracking stuff. Otters seem to struggle a bit with the Dogfish defence of rolling itself into a ball but they get there in the end. As for the bad bit....my photos. The camera wasn't happy with anything despite a good few attempts so this is the best I got.

Golden Eagle was next on the hit list as we located a sitting bird that took flight soon after we found it along with it's partner. Quite a bit of flying and landing was going on so it was busy time trying to relocate the birds in the scopes but cracking views were had. The female bird flew quite high and then came screaming back in towards the cliff face...

...before finding some ready made lunch.

Absolutely cracking stuff! We hit a bit of a flat spot which gave us time to reflect on the sightings we'd already had. A couple of WT Eagle sitting on the rocks kicked things off again in style. Superb views of Whinchat were had as we searched for the elusive Hen Harriers - no luck with that one. Two Dunlin and nine Ringed Plover flew on to the beach in front of us...

...while we checked out the view of Jura.

I picked up two WT Eagle in flight, just circling round and we decided it was probably the two birds we'd had on the rocks. We got distant views of a Mountain Hare munching on the grass along with a decent number of Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Whimbrel. The Black-tailed Godwits were still present too. As we left the area I caught sight of a close hare in mid stride - brakes on, camera out. I went for the wider shot as another hare appeared off to the left.

On the way back we got close views of one of the WT Eagles flying next to the road. It's all good stuff!!