Wednesday 14th April 2010
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After breakfast we drove across Scotland to Oban, where we took the ferry to Craignure. On the way across we picked up Black Guillemot, Guillemot and Great Northern Diver. Upon reaching Craignure (or Kenya, as Cath misheard), we headed off to Grasspoint. As we pulled up, a number of Wheatears flew along the stone walling. We walked up to a vantage point and basked in the sun, being hindered by the heat haze. We were joined by another couple, and they were just in time to see a Golden Eagle soaring above a nearby mountain. Whilst watching that, Gary found a perched White-tailed Eagle. Whilst watching this amazing bird we all completely forgot to say “NO!” to it. Sorry Suffolk pig farmers. It spent most of the time surveying its territory, but we then saw it throw back its head in a Capercaillie-like way, and a second later the sound carried to us, the call of the Sea Eagle.
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After breakfast we drove across Scotland to Oban, where we took the ferry to Craignure. On the way across we picked up Black Guillemot, Guillemot and Great Northern Diver. Upon reaching Craignure (or Kenya, as Cath misheard), we headed off to Grasspoint. As we pulled up, a number of Wheatears flew along the stone walling. We walked up to a vantage point and basked in the sun, being hindered by the heat haze. We were joined by another couple, and they were just in time to see a Golden Eagle soaring above a nearby mountain. Whilst watching that, Gary found a perched White-tailed Eagle. Whilst watching this amazing bird we all completely forgot to say “NO!” to it. Sorry Suffolk pig farmers. It spent most of the time surveying its territory, but we then saw it throw back its head in a Capercaillie-like way, and a second later the sound carried to us, the call of the Sea Eagle.
Sea Eagle
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Eventually we dragged ourselves away from the eagle, and drove to our B&B in Tobermory, where we were greeted with some delicious shortbread. In the evening we went to the pub, MacGinnochs, where we sampled the range of Isle of Mull ales. I particularly recommend Golden Galleon.
"Whilst watching this amazing bird we all completely forgot to say “NO!” to it. Sorry Suffolk pig farmers." Excellent!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to read how different our trips were, considering we were up at the same time. You saw a lot of stuff that I didn't!
I think you did pretty well out of three days birding! On the mainland the only "target" birds we got that you didn't were Golden Eagle at Glen Cannich (I'd never heard of the place, but Gary had seen them there before) and Scotsbill, which we devoted over a day specifically to. We initially missed BT Diver at Lochindorb, but a couple pulled over to say they'd just seen it, and we only saw the RTDs at Loch Morlich once in five looks.
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