Blue Eyed Birder: Outer Hebrides for Oriole Birding

The morning stroll around Daliburgh gave us the hoped for pre-breakfast White-tailed Eagle and Short-eared Owl action as well as some close encounters with the local forms of Wren and Song Thrush. The pesky male Cuckoos were as usual on the wrong side of the road but the female did pose and photobomb the Grasshopper Warbler.

Pre-breakfast at Daliburgh

Yellow Flag were just opening

Hebridean Song Thrush

Reed Bunting

Gropper and the Cuckoo

female Cuckoo

male Cuckoo

Moorhen!

Horsetails in the dew

Hebridean Wren

It was north once more to time our arrival with the outgoing tide at Lochdar. There had been a wader switch round with 83 female Bar-tailed Godwits, 17 Knot and 30 Grey Plover this time along with the Dunlin, Ringed Plovers and Turnstones. The feeding Dunlin up here incorporate bits of the fizzy song into their calls when feeding; not something I have heard before down south and I suspect that it is something they do as they near their breeding grounds.

Bar-tailed Godwits

Dunlin

A huge adult White-tailed Eagle glided into view and looked like it was going to glide past us at eye-level before deciding to plonk itself down on the mudflats. The haze was appalling but the bird was still so impressive. It kept glancing up but it took an age for us to find the immature bird dropping out of the blue. It landed as close to the adult as it dare but seemed bigger and heavier and even gave it some grief before pushing it into departing. The tail on the adult was the whitest one I have seen yet.

White-tailed Eagle

White-tailed Eagle incoming

White-tailed Eagle

White-tailed Eagles

Essence of White-tailed Eagle with closer Black-headed Gulls

The youngster soon moved too and we refound it sitting on a small island in a lochan by the road. I will not tire of seeing them so readily.

White-tailed Eagle

A traditional Hebridean thatched cottage with cobble tie downs

Co-Op Eiders

A toilet requirement had us diverting past Loch Mhor and I spied a female Red-necked Phalarope right by the road and both buses were evacuated with haste. The birder parking was even poorer this time and I had to drive all the way to the main road and back past again and ended up parking a ten minute walk away in the large church car park which is where I shall aim for in the future if I get to visit again. I walked down the road with the sound of defensive Lapwings and Redshank, whistling Whimbrels and singing Skylarks but by the time I got back to the loch the Phal had buggered off but at least the crew had got to scope it which was the main thing. The male Ruff was seen too but it was too hazy to scan any further back.

Lapwing

Time to go as far north as we could on a scenic drive across North Uist to the causeway over to Berneray passing an Osprey being mobbed by Common Gulls over their colony at Dun an Sticir on the way.

Views on the way

The island was gently rolling and we cut across the Borve Machair with its breeding waders (a colour-ringed Oystercatcher may have come from an Irish scheme and I am awaiting feedback) and had lunch at the end by the austere cemetery overlooking sandy beaches and turquoise and navy blue seas. It did not require any birds at all to make it a very special place.

colour-ringed Oystercatcher

Tom and Bonnie loved this spot

The memorial to the 7'9" Giant Macaskill (Aonghas Mor MacAsgaill) 1825-1863. The strongest man in the world at the time.

The Common Carpets up here are very pretty

Inland at Loch Brushda we added female Pintail to the list as well as Little and Arctic Terns and a pair of Gadwall. The Arctic Terns came low over our heads at one stage and initially looked like they were going to dive us despite us being 400m from the loch!

Creeping Willow - Salix repens

Creeping Willow - Salix repens Quite an amazing tree!

We finished up in the Penerine and Ormiclate area of North Usit where more waders were checked on the endless beaches, spangled Great Northern Divers bobbed and we saw another White-tailed Eagle and Short-eared Owl too. There was a good cover of Bird’s Foot Trefoil here and plenty of Bumblebee action. There were no Great Yellows but many vivid orange Moss Carders but the pale tailed ones are now confusing me and although I initially though lucorum I am now wondering whether they are terrestris of something else. As ever these common ones confuse me!