Scotland 2023 Part 1

Friday/Saturday May 12^th/13^th

For this year's Scottish adventure I booked the Highlands and Corncrake trip with Heatherlea with John & Janet for a week. We should have travelled up on the midday train on Saturday but thanks to the rail unions wanting to scupper people going to the Eurovision final by going on strike we had to come up with a late Plan B. This involved an overnight coach from Victoria on Friday evening which arrived into Glasgow at 6AM. In the end it wasn’t too bad a trip. We had four hours to wait for a Scot Rail train (they’ve already agreed their pay settlement) so found a McDonalds for a leisurely breakfast before wandering over to the rail station where we boarded the 10.07 train to Aviemore.

We’d booked a taxi on arrival which then took us to the Mountview hotel in Nethybridge. Having been inactive for so long we decided on a walk along the river. 

River at Nethybridge

It proved a good choice as we found a singing Pied Flycatcher and had best ever views of a Dipper.

Dipper

We wandered back to the hotel for a rest before meeting everyone else in the bar before dinner. John and I had a post-dinner stroll over the golf course and added a few new trip birds including two Yellowhammer and a Curlew. 

Sunday May 14^th

The three of us met for a pre-breakfast stroll up the road, getting a Cuckoo in addition to most of the birds seen yesterday evening. After a multi-course breakfast, we were ready to begin the day’s proper birding. The schedule had been moved around so we headed up to Lossiemouth where the Grey-headed Lapwing turned up yesterday. Unfortunately it had moved on during the night so we spent the rest of the day birding various sites in the area, on the coast and just inland. It rained virtually all day, albeit mostly lightly so it didn’t hamper us too much.

Highlights during the day included Grey Partridge, Tree Sparrow, Corn Bunting as well as Eider, several Common Loons in full breeding attire and a Marsh Harrier which was my first one in Scotland.

Yellowhammer at a feeding station

Non-avian highlights were the group of Bottle-nosed Dolphins which were very close to the shore and put on a real show, constantly leaping out of the sea.

Bottle-nosed Dolphin

We met in the bar for the bird log before dinner and retired early to bed as we had an extremely early start the next day. 

Monday May 15^th

Assembly time outside the hotel was just after 4am and we loaded up our overnight bags and left promptly at 04.15 for our drive to Skye. We made the odd roadside stop, once for a particularly smart Black Grouse. 

Black Grouse

Some of us also saw Red Kite and Osprey while others caught up on their beauty sleep. We arrived at Uig Ferry Terminal just after 8am and our guides checked us in for the ferry. We then had time for a packed breakfast before driving onto the ferry. We decanted our vans and went up to the uppermost deck ready for a two-hour seawatch.

Departing Uig on Skye

Just after departure our first birds were two Black Guillemot, these were soon followed by the other three breeding auks which streamed past the ship regularly during the first half hour. It then quietened down and we saw very little else apart from one Bonxie as we approached North Uist. 

Approaching North Uist

We boarded the vans and were soon on our way although the destination kept changing. Along the way we briefly saw a Short-eared Owl. Eventually we settled on going to look for the Dotterel but just as we approached the area we saw another group of birders on the corner who informed us they were watching an obliging Corncrake. We decided this was too good an opportunity to miss and a minute later we were watching said bird. It showed very well on and off for ages, calling continuously to its rival which was at the other end of this marshy spot.

Corncrake

Eventually we left it and moved on up the road to the Dotterel field. It took a few anxious minutes to find it but I picked it up near an abandoned car. We had good scope views as it came closer, picking up food in the typical plover fashion.

Dotterel

We stopped for another view of the Corncrake then drove a short distance to a loch where there was a sleeping Garganey. We carried on to the RSPB visitor centre and ate our picnic lunch before carrying on to explore the area further. Afternoon highlights included White-tailed Eagle and Whooper Swan. We tried a seawatch for passage skuas but didn’t see any so headed south over to Benbecula and checked into our hotel. While having dinner we saw a male Hen Harrier hunting across the road.