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Aug 05 2012
Visit to Bempton Cliffs : 4th August 2012
Visit to Bempton Cliffs : 5th August 2012
Anne and I decided to go away for our 6th anniversary and since it was on our minds to try to get over to RSPB Bempton Cliffs one of these days we decided that this would be a good opportunity. We drove over eastwards and as we drove the weather picked up quite a bit and by the time we reached Bempton Cliffs it was a really nice afternoon. It was going to be our first sight of a mainland Gannetry and I was particularly interested to see the Gannets from above rather than below as has been our previous experience.
Aug 03 2012
Visit to Moore Nature Reserve : 3rd August 2012
Visit to Moore Nature Reserve : 3rd August 2012
The weather has been pretty poor so when it looked like we had a window of opportunity we jumped at it and went out to Moore Nature Reserve for a walk. Often we walk through Rigby’s Wood and on to Middle Moss Wood and Birchwood Pool but this time we walked to the left of the car park up the grassy slope that leads to the high land that overlooks Lapwing Lake. Anne had not walked this route before so it was a different view of Moore from that she is accustomed to. It was a bit late in the season though and lots of the birds were in hiding or just not singing. The land is very overgrown compared to early or late in the year as well and this makes it a bit different. However, there were a couple of nice sightings to be had anyway.
Jul 31 2012
Summary July 2012
Summary July 2012
Garden
The awful weather continued into July as all records for rainfall in the UK were broken. Thankfully we were on holiday on Mull from the 7th – 17th where, contrary to the rest of the country, the weather was beautiful. Details of this holiday can be seen below but suffice it to say that it was a shame when we got back to Manchester and more rain. When I examined the bird feeders it had obviously been extremely damp and warm and all the feeders needed to be cleaned and replenished – before we had unpacked naturally. Slowly the weather got a bit drier as the month went on and towards the end of month we were having some good sunny days, the last five days, though saw the return of the rain and that is how the month ended – wet !
Jul 16 2012
Scotland Holiday Day 11 : 16th July 2012 : Isle of May / Bass Rock
Scotland Holiday Day 11 : 16th July 2012 : Isle of May / Bass Rock
On the Sunday we spent the day doing family visits and so on in Edinburgh and Musselburgh but we added an additional day onto our holiday so that I could have a chance to take a boat trip out to the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth as I had done last year. I was so impressed with both getting there and being there that I just wanted to do it all again. As it happens the weather was not the same as our previous sail out to the island – it was lovely and calm all the way and totally dry. This time I did not want to go on the guided walk but just to roam around the island on my own taking photographs and just sitting and looking at everything.
Jul 14 2012
Scotland Holiday Day 9 – 14th July 2012 : Red Kites at Doune
Scotland Holiday Day 9 – 14th July 2012 : Red Kites at Doune
On the Saturday we had to get the ferry from Mull to the eastern coast of Scotland. Today would mostly be driving but we thought that we could fit in a little bit of birding. We drove from Oban across the Trossachs to Crainlarich, Callander and Doune. We stopped at Lerrock’s Farm in Doune because we happened to be passing at just the right time for us to drop in to see the feeding of the Red Kites that we had also attended last summer. We were hoping to repeat the same experience but we were were told that a lot of people had already booked so the hide would be busy.
Jul 14 2012
Summary of Our Birding on Mull, Iona and Lunga : July 2012
Summary of Our Birding on Mull, Iona and Lunga : July 2012
It may be that we had left it a little bit late in the year to visit Mull but we can hardly saw we were disappointed. We had seen sixty-two species including two of our target birds, Golden Eagle and White-tailed Eagle; we had heard three Corncrakes and had best ever views of Hen Harriers and Short-eared Owls. Neither of the last two were new to us but Manx Shearwater and Glaucous Gull were. We had added nine species to our year list for 2012 and generally defied the weather by having a fantastically sunny and pleasant week on the island. We had visited a great Puffinry on Lungs and seen FIngal’s Cave but the star of the show was Mull itself – a fantastically nature-rich island and one I hope to be able to return to very soon – perhaps even next year. Continue reading
Jul 13 2012
Scotland Holiday Day 8 – 13th July 2012 : Mull
Scotland Holiday Day 8 – 13th July 2012 : Mull
It was our last day on the island and we had a long drive next day so we started out thinking that we would have a simple day by driving down to Fishnish Bay and take a walk along the coast without much driving. There are a couple of good parking places around here so we took our packed lunch and planned to have lunch after our walk. As it turned out the walk was not really as close to the Sound of Mull as it had looked on the map. Effectively it ended up as a walk through a forest on quite a hot day. Also it was a little late in the year for singing woodland birds so many of them were already a bit skulking.
Jul 12 2012
Scotland Holiday Day 7 – 12th July 2012 : Mull
Scotland Holiday Day 7 – 12th July 2012 : Mull
On our seventh day of holiday – our sixth day on Mull – we decided to have a more leisurely day and to drive around a few parts of the island that were on our “to visit” list that we hadn’t seen yet. We decided to start with Loch Frisa which is, of course, the home of the original pair of White-tailed Sea Eagles that were introduced on Mull. We took the Dervaig road from Tobermory and parked the car just off the road in a little car park and started to walk down to the west end of the loch. The left side of the path was rocky hillocks and the right hand side was brambly scrub land and bog. The time of year was not particularly good for birding it being a little late in the season but there were still plenty of birds popping up briefly from the undergrowth.
Jul 11 2012
Scotland Holiday Day 6 – 11th July 2012 : Lunga and Staffa
Scotland Holiday Day 6 – 11th July 2012 : Lunga and Staffa
On the Wednesday we had arranged a boat trip to Lunga and Staffa with Staffa Tours. The island of Lunga is the largest of the Treshnish Islands and is a famous seabird colony with a large Puffinry. Our boat set off from Tobermory and crossed the Sound of Mull to Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan peninsula on mainland Scotland. We picked up a few more passengers and then set out for Lunga all the time looking for sea mammals and birds both on the water and on the island cliffs we passed by. A lot of the passengers on the boat were also bird enthusiasts so there were lots of eyes peeled looking for eagles. As we passed Cruachan Treshnish, the 216 m high mountain at the very edge of the western coast of Mull just past Calgary Bay, we could see two small dark shapes perched on top of the mountain and these were clearly too big to be anything other than eagles and they were, in fact, Golden Eagles, a pair of which are known to have lived in the area for a long time.
Continue reading
Jul 10 2012
Scotland Holiday Day 5 – 10th July 2012 : Sea Eagles at Loch Na Keal
Scotland Holiday Day 5 – 10th July 2012 : Sea Eagles at Loch Na Keal
The previous day we had gone to Glen Seilisdeir to see the White-tailed Eagle’s nest in the forest bu we wanted to have a closer experience of these birds so to this end we had also booked a boat trip with Mull Charters who did 10am boat trips up Loch Na Keal to the area where the eagles fished.This involved us driving down to Salen Bay and turning left to cross the island at it narrowest point to get to Gruline and then we took the B8073 to the Ulva Ferry. As well as being the pier for the short hop over to Ulva which is supposed to be a very beautiful island, it was also the setting off point for our boat trip. As we stood waiting for our boat and gazing into the harbour where there were a few small boats moored another person waiting for the same boat as us pointed out to us an otter frolicking in the water of the harbour !