Escape from Barra across the Sea of the Hebrides

Our departure from Barra was delayed by three days due first to a bow thruster failure on the MV Isle of Lewis followed by a failure of some steelwork on the rescue vessel, MV Lord of the Isles. Finally after days of anxiety and uncertainty, not least about where we were to stay for the extra nights, MV Clansman came to our aid and amid emotional scenes at the harbour got us off the island.

Not that the three extra days weren't time well spent, the bulk of the barnacle goose and all of the whooper swan passage happened after our official leave date and was possibly the single greatest experience of the holiday whilst arguably the bird of the holiday turned up in the shape of the Hornemann's Arctic redpoll.

However, finally we departed Barra at 13:30 today and headed off into the murk which shrouded the island with the forecast of 40mph wind and heavy rain ahead of us. It turned out ok though, yes we got wet and buffeted but we still spent most of the five hour journey on deck and saw some decent sea birds and at least 20 common dolphins. Just before we arrived at the entrance to the Sound of Mull we came across a feeding frenzy of mainly gannets and kittiwakes which were harassed by juvenile pomarine and long-tailed skuas and right in the middle of it all emerged a breaching minke whale. A great end to the holiday, I then packed up and went inside to dry off and enjoy a hot meal before we arrived in Oban.

Earlier on the trip we had seen at least nine petrels, one of which was certainly Leach's, but most of the rest appeared to be storm petrels.

Common dolphins.

Despite having a look of great skua, these next few photos clearly show a pomarine skua in my opinion.

Protruding head and tail projections make this a pomarine skua rather than great in my opnion. Don't forget I also have the advantage of seeing it in the field where I could see it flight action and through my binoculars had a much better view of its plumage than my camera could capture.

Note the tail shape.

The short neck, small head and long tail apparent in these next few photos, combined with the obvious small size alongside this kittiwake, give this bird the jizz of a juvenile long-tailed skua in my opinion, and this was even more obvious in the field where it had an arctic tern like jizz. Note the almost complete lack of white at the base of the upper wing primaries. Also notice how white the kittiwakes tail looks in this photo which gives an idea of how bright white looks on photographs in these conditions. If this skua was arctic, it would show obvious bright white upper wing patches. 

Small head, short neck, long narrow wings, it's a juvenile long-tailed skua. Again no white on the upperwing.

Look at the length and shape of the tail combined again with the short neck, small head and long narrow wings. Classic long-tailed skua jizz.

Juvenile long-tailed skua. It's difficult to say what the bird chasing it is, but it looks like a 1st winter common gull to me. The skua is obviously a lot smaller. In the field the small size was very apparent.

Gannet and guillemot.

Kittiwake.

Goodbye Castlebay.

Not a dry eye in the house as the Clansman approaches Castlebay harbour.