Our drive, this day, was quite a long one but very beautiful. We drove south back down to the end of Loch Lomond, drove along the bottom and then came up the other side. We drove the length of the western edge of Loch Lomond up to Tarbert and then on to Inveruglas and Crianlarich before headin west to Tyndrum and Dalmally.
At the A85 we drove down the north bank of the Loch Awe, crossing the loch at Bridge of Awe and then heading for Taynuilt and along the south bank of Loch Etieve eventually reaching Dunstaffnage early afternoon. It was a beautiful journey if a bit tiring and we didn’t really have much time for bird watching stops as we tried to cover the milage. We did make a slight diversion as well to go to the gardens at Ardchattan Priory on the north bank of Loch Etieve which awas full of song Thrushes and Swallows. We had a look on the shore and immediately discovers a Ringed Plover that wasn’t very happy at the presence of people in this extremely remote place.
We checked in at the Wide Mothed Frog hotel at Dunstaffnage and took a walk out to Dunstaffnage Castle which was somewhat spoiled by the roadworks presumably needed to cater to the new European Union sponsored European Marine Science Park – a series of seriously ugly and out-of-context buildings of generic euro-design as you will find anywhere. Awful!
At the castle we had a close encounter with a Hooded Crow chick and, as we walked along the coastal path around the castle we encountered a few more. This gave us our first Hoodies of the year and we also managed to get year tick Ravens.
We had decided to stay out at Dunstaffnage (or Dunbeg really) because we fancied a change from Oban and the photos of the place looked really nice but the weather didn’t do it any favours and it was quite cold and not really that good for sitting outside in the sun overlooking the harbour. It was a stopping off point, though, and we looked forward to our ferry to Mull the next day
Bird Sightings : Loch Lomond to Dunstaffnage 15th June 2018
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Mallard | 6 |
| Great Crested Grebe | 1 |
| Great Cormorant | 1 |
| Eurasian Oystercatcher | 6 |
| Common Ringed Plover | 1 |
| Herring Gull | 1 |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | 1 |
| Hooded Crow | 3 |
| Common Raven | 1 |
| Barn Swallow | 14 |
| Common House Martin | 20 |
| Great Tit | 2 |
| Eurasian Blue Tit | 3 |
| Blackcap | 1 |
| European Robin | 1 |
| Eurasian Blackbird | 2 |
| Song Thrush | 1 |
| Common Starling | 10 |
| Pied Wagtail | 2 |
| European Goldfinch | 16 |
| House Sparrow | 30 |
| Eurasian Tree Sparrow | 2 |