Thursday 26 May 2011

Mayhem.

Monday was a day of real mayhem as the wind picked up a little bit to about 70mph!! The show must go on so the intrepid group set off in search of anything that hadn't blown away. Needless to say the bird numbers were low for the day but we got good views of what we did see. We started well with the WT Eagle and quickly followed that up with an Otter. The weather deteriorated rapidly after that so photographic opportunities were few to say the least. An Oystercatcher posed well...
 ...as did a Redshank.
We clocked up the usual Red Deer and Common Seals but it wasn't a pleasant experience getting out of the motor with the weather looking like this!
Nothing else of any great note was seen except for good numbers of Gannet and the day was cut short as a tree blocked the road in front of us!
Tuesday was a better day all round but still a stiff breeze blowing. The regular Dunlin and Ringed Plover flock started the day off with a cracking Mountain Hare next to the road too.
A few Common Tern at our next stop were worth looking for as they are still few and far between. Lunchtime was dominated by a pair of Hen Harrier with Cuckoo, Whinchat...
...and an Adder as the supporting cast.
We'd observed the Swallows sitting on the ground the previous day as they wore themselves out and I wonder if this Gannet was struggling too.
The afternoon went off in great style as we picked up two Otters - one in the water and the other hauled out right in front of us.
We got flagged down to be told we'd just missed a Storm Petrel fly past but as this info was related it (or another) came past where we had stopped.
A couple of GN Diver were seen as we headed towards the WT Eagle site where one bird was present feeding the youngsters. Awesome views of the Golden Eagles flying about and as we headed back to base a WT Eagle flew overhead to give a classy finish to the day.

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