The journey there was a bit scary as there was a snow plough out trying to keep the A66 open.
Also the ferry company had put a warning message on their website stating that due to poor weather conditions our ferry could be delayed or cancelled. Finding B&B for 32 people could be fun!
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| view from the bus on the A66 |
The snow was only on the A66 and the tops of the hills, so the rest of our journey to Ardros san was ok. It was raining by the time the ferry arrived, and only a few of us went outside to look for birds.
Apart from black guillemots in the harbour we only saw two ordinary guillemots during the crossing to Arran. It was raining on Arran so we didnot see any birds on our journey to the hotel.
Our hotel is near the sea, so before breakfast on Thursday several of us were up and outside looking at the birds and I soon spotted an otter. After breakfast we walked south along the coast and started our list of birds for the trip.
eider,ringed plover,redshank, curlew, shag, rock pipit, pied wagtail,common gull and great northern diver got us off to agood start, then we added wheatear and white wagtail.
After lunch we set out for Kings Cave a walk of about 3 miles. It was windy and cloudy, not ideal conditions, but at least it was dry.
Our list grew as we added meadow pipit, stonechat and raven.
I was hoping to see nesting fulmars on the return leg of our walk but no joy, just lots more great northern divers.
Friday morning after more otter watching we set off for a local piece of open moorland.
I had just got the group organised looking in one direction when I spotted a male hen harrier skydancing.
We watched him for about 30 minutes before he flew out of view. We then walked along a forest road butcould only hear birds singing.
Lochranza was our next stop where we added grey wagtail, red squirrel and red deer to our list.
Lunch at the distillery was interupted by the cry of eagle. Sure enough a golden eagle was soaring in the sky and we were able to watch it for at least ten minutes. Back on the coach for a few minutes and then we stopped in a layby and had good views of two more eagles. Another short coach journey and a stop in a car prk. Just after we all alighted we saw a female hen harrier flush two snipe and more views of eagles.
Back on the coach and drove via Brodick towards our hotel. We stopped along the road called "The String" and saw anoer eagle,buzzard and raven. Saturday saw us heading for Lamlash where we walked out to Cla.ughlands Point. We added few new birds to our list including red thoated diver.
After lunch we visited Whiting Bay where we saw lots of red breasted mergansers close to the shore.
Time to head back to the hotel and on the way we stopped in a laybye to scan the hoizon.The road in front was going downhill ino a valley, so we had hillsides to scan for birds on our left and right.. With 32 people watching the skyline we were bound to see something. The only problem was 32 people saying whats this bird? Then it happened, an eagle soaring on our left was attacked by a peregrine so the eagle just went higher, the peregrine dropped out of view behind a hill only to re-appear a few minutes later and have a skirmish with a female hen harrier and during this a red grouse flew away. We were able to watch the hen harrier for several minutes.
Sunday it was back up the west coast, stopping at several points to see divers and an otter.
John the coch driver said that this was the first tome it had taken him 2.5 hours to drive 7 miles as we kept stopping to see birds. At one stop we saw two sandwich terms fishing, another summer migrant to add to the list.
Not many bird photos due to a varity of reasons, weather, birds not very close and the time it took for me to find and identify birds for 32 people.A very pleasant trip and a list of 79 birds and another island for a group visit.
Dr. James Cassels who is the bird recorder for the island provided me with lots of valuable help and information which helped make the trip a success.On behalf of the group a very big thank you.
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