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!