Saturday 15 May 2010

Patience

Thursday was a bit of a grotty day with the forecast saying rain for most of the day and clearing from the West. I drove through a fair bit of rain to get the last of the guests on board before we headed out to start the tour. We bagged a Mountain Hare as we looked for the Blackwits that had moved on. No sign of the Whimbrel either. We continued searching and eventually turned up the Golden Plover, a small flock of Whimbrel with a Curlew for comparison and a cracking Snipe as we headed off.
The low cloud and blustery wind was giving us a few problems in picking up birds but keeping a look out we were very pleased to locate a family of Stonechat - a male bird with 2 youngsters. As we headed off along the road an adult WT Eagle appeared to our left and flew, low, over the top of the motor and was lost to sight as it looked like it was going in to land. We relocated the bird sitting out on a reef in poor conditions as the rain came down again. Nice views of Greenshank, Ringed Plover and Dunlin at lunchtime before we made a decision to see if we could jam in a Golden Eagle. Unfortunately the cloud base was just too low to get a view so we headed off. The Eiders were showing distantly so we scanned for Otters in calm water but failed to find anything. We moved on to more choppy waters and we were lucky enough to catch sight of two Otters moving towards us. They put on a great show and it was interesting to see the young Otter climbing onto it's mothers back while they were still out in deep water. I thought the mother would lead the youngster to land but they just kept on going! A Common Sandpiper was 'peeping' on the shore trying to attract our attention - I obliged.
After viewing the WT Eagle at the nest and connecting with the Magpie we headed back along along the road. The Eiders had moved to the near shore so we stopped for a better look.
With the weather clearing slightly we decided to give the Golden Eagle another go. No sign of any birds in flight but scanning the hillside with the scope gave up one of the adults sitting - top notch. It wasn't too long before both birds were flying around, calling to each other and carrying prey around to convenient eating areas. A stunning display!!!
Another cracking day out despite the weather and showing that patience pays off.

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