Brownsea Island Again

Sandwich Tern - Sterna sandvicensis

Looking through our catalogue of images recently we realised it was three years ago we last ventured to Brownsea for the terns. Spurred on by a successful visit last Autumn for the Red Squirrels, we devised a plan to go across in early July. As plans go it wasn't very complex: catch the first boat from Poole Quay at 10am, spend all day in the Macdonald Hide and catch the last boat back to Poole.

A similar plan had worked well for the Reds and this one was equally as rewarding, far better than the experience in 2013. This time the wire netting around the islands appeared higher and that, along with constantly changing light, was challenging. But there was more and varied birding action this time along with some behaviour we hadn't witnessed before.

There were a large number of Sandwich Terns, Mediterranean Gulls, Black Headed Gulls, Shelduck and Canada Geese showing close to the hide and all had chicks or juveniles with them. We had seen the courting and feeding rituals of the Sandwich Terns last time and were keen to get some more shots of that, but it was the Mediterranean Gull behaviour that took us by surprise.

We soon noticed they had a couple of chicks on the island close to the left side of the hide, but much of the time they were out of sight behind some foliage. After about an hour, one of the adults returned with a live Common Tern chick in its beak and proceeded to kill it in our full view. Once it was dead, the gull ate it whole and struggled to force it down. A short while later, the Med regurgitated it and fed it to its own chick. During the day, we witnessed this on six separate occasions, but on one of those the adult had to digest it again as it hadn't reached a state where the chick could eat it.

Six hours in the hide soon passed and it was time to head for the last ferry back to Poole Quay at 5pm. We do like the journey from Poole as you get to return around the far side of the island. The fare is naturally more than using the boat from Sandbanks, which is far quicker. However, car parking at Sandbanks is more expensive and finding an on-street space needs a large slice of luck. Still probably the best way if travelling from Bournemouth and the East, but from West of Poole like us, probably less attractive.

Summer Holiday

Short-eared Owl - Asio flammeus. North Uist, Outer Hebrides

My last blog post was about the start of our journey to the Outer Hebrides, which for a number of reasons was a holiday that nearly didn't happen. Thankfully it did, but it was an exceptionally close call.

One reason that nearly scuppered the holiday was a lack of birds. A pre-trip recce had shown only three Short-eared Owls on the islands, where normally they would number up to a dozen per day. Naturally this caused us to think long and hard about cancelling, before we had to pay the balance on the trip. However, we decided to go ahead and one of the main reasons was to renew acquaintance with the guys who ran our visit to Mull last year, along with our fellow guest on that trip, Lister Cumming.

The drive over to Mallaig from Dunblane was dry and uneventful apart from an unusual experience with a cashpoint machine at Morrisons in Fort William. As we waited to board the afternoon ferry to Lochboisdale on South Uist it began to rain and it was still raining when we docked at the other end. 

That made for an unpleasant drive to our accommodation on North Uist, but a warm welcome from our host Marcus Conway awaited us and a welcome hot meal prepared by his chef Craig. The accommodation was a beautiful and well appointed house right on the shoreline and perfectly placed for the job at hand. After dinner, a plan for the week was agreed and we turned in to get some sleep before an early start next morning.

A quick coffee at 5am and we were on our way. Within a couple of miles we had a great sighting of a Red Deer stag and in less than an hour after leaving, we were photographing a pair of Short-eared Owls out hunting. We had a successful session before returning to base for breakfast at 10am. 

Most of us then felt the need for a siesta and followed this with a late lunch, then back out again by 3pm. This session was mainly with waders and lasted a good couple of hours before we went back to base for dinner. Once refuelled, we were back out again and headed to the tern colony at RSPB Balranald. An hour was spent there, then it was back on the trail of the SEOs. 

By 9pm we were successful and half an hour of watching bagged us a lot of images before the light turned too gloomy and we packed up for the day.

That was pretty much the way the whole week progressed and it was very successful, if a little tiring. Early starts and late finishes with meals slotted in as and when, with Marcus constantly going the extra mile to ensure we got what we were after. It was hard to believe we'd agonised about cancelling, on one day alone we saw 24 different SEOs just on North Uist.

Of course we weren't limited to SEOs, there were many other species on offer, although as per usual we only heard the Corncrake. We had a few Hen Harrier sightings, more than on our trip to Mull last year, but by far the most common birds were the Oystercatchers. We visited a few locations where there were plenty of Terns to photograph. Waders were in abundance, there was the odd Grey Seal and a chance encounter with an Otter. Added to all of that were some excellent landscape opportunities and, particularly in the evening, some wonderful golden light.

But the main aim of the trip was the Short-eared Owls and we were well satisfied on that score. Definitely a location we'd happily visit again.

All too soon the trip was over and we began the long journey back to Dorset. An early start to catch the 7am ferry, before a solid day of driving, via Dunblane and a welcome lunch laid on by Margaret and Lister, to an overnight stop in Cheshire. A more leisurely start on the Sunday saw us back home by mid-afternoon with a lot of memories to look back on and a few thousand images to process.

Stop Off in Perthshire

Red Kite - Milvus milvus. Argaty Feeding Station

There can be no doubt that from the South coast, Dorset to be precise, the road trip to the Outer Hebrides is a long haul. Dependant upon which island you're heading for, there are a selection of mainland ports you can choose from. Our ultimate destination was North Uist meaning our nearest port was Oban, but that involved a six and a half hour crossing, plus another hour of driving across the islands. The alternative was to motor on to Mallaig from where the crossing was reduced by three hours, but the drive was around another fifty miles.

Fortunately, we didn't have to contemplate this for too long as the third member of the group, who had been with us on our Mull trip last year, came up with another plan. He very kindly invited us to stay with him and his wife at their house near Dunblane for a few days before the three of us set off for North Uist. We were going to look for wildlife in and around some of the glens on his local patch, but starting with a visit to the Argaty Red Kite feeding station. 

This was our seventh visit to a Red Kite feeding station, having previously done Gigrin Farm, Nant yr Arian and Llanddeusant twice each. True to form, the weather was again less than ideal, but the experience was somewhat different. To start with there is an honesty box at start of the path up to the hide in which to deposit your fee. Apart from Nat yr Arian, which is free, Argaty is cheaper than the other two. You also get a visit from a guide just prior to the feeding, who gives an insight to the Red Kite re-introduction in the area.

There were two things I preferred about this site over the others. Firstly there are less birds, which makes picking a subject bird and sticking with it a whole lot easier. Secondly, I have a preference for Red Kite images against a foliage background, rather than the sky and this site has that aspect covered too. So a successful afternoon, despite the conditions and the promise of more to come.

It didn't really turn out that way though. Our main targets of Black and Red Grouse were keeping their heads well and truly down. We spotted one Black Grouse, but that soon disappeared and although we saw plenty of Reds, they had chicks and were keeping well hidden. To compensate we got some nice Redshank pictures, had an accommodating Whinchat, a flighty Red Squirrel, plenty of Meadow Pipits.

We paid a visit to the Scottish Wildlife Trust site at Loch of Lowes to try for shots of the nesting Ospreys there. Plenty of showers and a somewhat disinterested male bird yielded no images at all. Even being encouraged by the female didn't work so sad to say all of the distant flight shots were fit only for deletion. There was a 'duck' that the volunteer in the hide couldn't identify, which caused some discussion. A few record shots later confirmed it was a juvenile Barnacle Goose, but that was about it.

Disappointed? Not at all. We had a thoroughly enjoyable stay with our hosts and toured around some wonderful Scottish scenery. Sometimes it's nice to put the camera down and just look. Our thanks to Lister and Margaret Cumming for a cracking start to the trip.

As for the Outer Hebrides, that's something for my next blog and maybe the one after that too!