Some St Helens birding

Straight back into babysitting duties following a week whale watching in north west Scotland, Monday morning found me heading for the swings at Taylor Park in St Helens. My binoculars tend to go everywhere with me though and a quick scan of the lake revealed a drake scaup with a couple of tufted ducks. My scope was in the car so later in the afternoon I returned for another look.

July is a good month for seeing drakes passing through on their way to moult, and this was my fourth July record of the species in St Helens alone.

It was still present this morning. Taylor Park may not seem the best place for seeing birds, but the scaup joins the drake ring-necked duck as a decent aythya species on the lake this year, and in previous years I've seen black-throated diver, pied flycatcher and Mediterranean gull here, so always worth keeping a look out.

Rothiemurchus

The drive home from Gairloch is over eight hours without a stop, so we decided to spend a night in Aviemore to break the journey and do a bit of birding. 

However, it was very, very quiet for birds, the Caledonian pine forest of Rothiemurchus was almost silent in fact. Not even common birds to be seen or heard, though fortunately we did come across one roving flock of coal tits which had a crested tit loosely associating with them, but certainly no sign of any crossbills of any species.

We did see a few interesting plants, especially creeping ladies tresses at Loch an Eilean, and there were a few dragonflies about.

Golden-ringed dragonfly. Best of all today, a white-faced darter which was a new species for me, but sadly no photograph. Also several four-spotted chasers and a few common darters.

Epic humpback encounters off the Summer Isles

I seem to be running out of superlatives when describing whale watching trips out into the Minch with Hebridean Whale Cruises (opens in a new window), but once again I can only describe todays experience as epic. 

So far this year most of the large whale action has been just west of the Summer Isles at the mouth of Loch Broom, with several humpback whales and at least one fin whale present. These animals can be seen from the ferry and probably also land, but a dedicated whale watching trip is by far the best way to get a good look at them. Today we saw three different humpbacks, two of which were completely new individuals that had not been recorded by anybody previously.

One of the great things about the whales being in this area is that they are often seen with the magnificent backdrop of the mountains of Inverpolly. This is an area which I know well and in the photo above you can see Stac Pollaidh just left of centre.  This is is a hill that I have climbed many times over the past 40 years, including last year with Elaine, and I've photographed from all angles but I never thought that I would get a photo of it like this with a humpback whale diving in front of it!

The first humpback that we saw today was actively feeding on northern krill. What an incredible experience to witness this at close range! The winds were light and the sea was as flat as it's ever likely to get here. Suddenly an area of the sea would turn orange, perhaps no more than 50m in front of us. At first it was hard to know what was happening but it soon became apparent. 

Firemore Beach, Loch Ewe

There's a nice beach just a few miles north of Poolewe on the eastern side of Loch Ewe, called Firemore beach. The grasslands here have a nice array of machir flowers, whilst the bay often holds divers. Today we also saw ringed plovers and a flock of twite.

Field gentian.

From the Ullapool to Stornoway ferry

It's always worth the £22 to travel as a foot passenger on the Loch Seaforth, Ullapool to Stornoway ferry. The ferry leaves Ullapool at 10:30 and arrives back at 16:30 following a very brief stop at Stornoway when you literally have just enough time to leave the boat, get your return boarding pass and then reembark. However, this isn't about visiting the Isle of Lewis, it's about marine wildlife watching on the cheap in the Minch.

Of course the boat doesn't stop or turn back for a closer look at cetaceans or sea birds, it just keeps on going, straight ahead, in it's relentless fashion and if you missed something or didn't get a good enough view for an identification, then that's just too bad. Write it off.

Today we did ok, a minke whale surfaced in front of the vessel just once but good enough to confirm identification, whilst on the return journey we saw three distant blows that were almost certainly fin whale.

Common dolphins, Summer Isles

Some more excellent cetacean watching today with Seascape Expeditions at Ullapool. We came across a pod of about 10-15 common dolphins which included some tiny calves, probably just a day or two old. Wonderful to see, one of them was so small that at first I thought that it was a fish jumping 😆. I've never seen such tiny calves. Also some tail slapping today.

Adult common dolphins measure between 1.7 - 2.5m. Therefore looking at the size of this youngster you would have to conclude that it is certainly less than 1m and perhaps as small as 0.75m which would indicate a new born animal. Far more experienced observers than I have commented on these photos on the Facebook group Hebrides and NW Scotland cetacean sightings and have said that the calf looks neonatal because the dorsal fin is not fully stiffened up and in this photo in particular you can see the fetal folds.

Cetacean watching in comfort

Our accommodation is at Aultgrishan just north of Gairloch on the road to Rua Reidh lighthouse. We chose this place because of it's excellent location for cetacean watching and we weren't disappointed. Obviously from here we're not going to see whales and dolphins close up, but today we managed to see common dolphins, harbour porpoise and a single minke whale whilst sat in the garden with a cup of tea and a biscuit! Only problem is, it's difficult to switch off when you're in a location like this!

 

Ptarmigan in the mist at Sgurr a' Chaorachain, Applecross

An in between whale watching trips day today, so we headed for Applecross in the hope of finding some of the easiest ptarmigan in Britain. Only easy because the spectacular road, full of hairpin bends and steep inclines, goes up to 650m (around 2000ft) and you don't have to climb the mountain on foot to see them. However, get there in low cloud as we did and these highly camouflaged birds become a lot more difficult.

We parked up near the top of Applecross Pass and followed a track which led up to a mast, just because it seemed the easiest way to do it in the conditions that we were forced to endure, scanning the rocks as best we could in the circumstances, but with little hope in our hearts. However, finally after about 1km and an ascent of little more than 100m we spotted two shapes on the rocks that eventually moved and revealed themselves to be a male and female ptarmigan. They stayed there for about 10 minutes before finally flying off into the murk never to be seen again. A very atmospheric experience, or at least that's what I tell myself, far better than seeing them on a sunny day!

White-tailed eagle at a nest

We were returning to Gairloch after visiting Applecross and spotted an adult white-tailed eagle flying over the road and away over a hillside. After a short distance we came to a small layby overlooking a sea loch with a wooded island. We agreed that it looked like a likely place for a white-tailed eagle to nest so we unloaded the scopes and folding chairs from the boot and settled down to wait. After about an hour the adult returned and appeared to land on the far side of the island. 

We threw the birding gear into the car and drove round to a point where we could view the other side of the island. Sure enough, there it was, an eagle sitting in a tree and even better, above it was the nest. We couldn't see into the nest and there were no obvious birds on or in the nest, but we did see a wing stretch on one occasion, so very happy with that!

Black-throated divers, Gairloch

Loch Gairloch often holds impressive flocks of breeding plumage black-throated divers in late summer, and today we came across a flock of 11 at Strath Bay. I'm not sure that there is a more stunning bird on the British list, and once again it is proven that real birds are black and white!

Humpback 'Davies' off the Summer Isles

Another breathtaking trip with Hebridean Whale Cruises, Gairloch this evening, we encountered a humpback whale, two minke whales, a few common dolphins and a harbour porpoise. The humpback performed absolutely brilliantly.

I was scanning the sea looking for cetaceans, when I noticed the mountain Suilven in the distance, part shrouded in mist yet still clearly distinguishable. This is one of my favourite mountains right in the heart of InverpolIy,  and I thought to myself, I'd love to see a humpback jump in front of that. Then suddenly one did! Right out of the water before crashing back in again with a huge splash! We watched it jumping for several minutes and then it began feeding.

Suilven.