Skye

I am now back after a weeks holiday 'with her indoors' on the spectacular and beautiful Isle of Skye. It wasn't a birding holiday as such, but of course being a birder and being outdoors all day everyday meant that I was always birding.

I am not going to bore you with details of days out but some of the interesting stuff (well to me anyway) I saw is as follows.

Hen Harrier - just one 'ring tail' seen driving to our remote cottage in the poring rain on our first day.
Hooded Crow - ever present and cracking birds; I wish we had them 'down south' in the north of England!
Wheatear - breeding birds on the mountain side behind our cottage. It was great to see fresh out of the nest streaky juvs! By the time we get them in the autumn they have undergone a body moult and lost their streakiness.
Red-throated Diver - even though they breed on Skye we only had one bird and that was in full summer plumage, as you would expect; awesome!
Black Guillemot - we saw these virtually everywhere around the coast and never tired of seeing them.
Manx Shearwater - large rafts of these were off the northwest coast; one of may favourite birds.
Raven - they were quite numerous and vocal practically everywhere; particularly along the rocky headlands. Watching a family party of seven 'playing' on the updrafts was particularly memorable.
Cuckoo - heard singing every morning from the cottage garden.
Golden Eagle - we saw three birds; two togeether along the northwest coast and then one over the cottage one evening. I wonder how many visitors to Skye string Buzzards into eagles? Unfortunately we didn't connect with any White-tailed Eagles; damn!
Bonxie - just two birds close in when I managed to do some sea watching.
Dolphin sp. - three viewed from our restaurant table as they swam into Broadford Bay on our last evening on the island.

I didn't manage to take any pictures of the birds but I have included a few landscape pics below to give you a flavour of Skye if you've never been.