June Blog

Summer is almost upon us in just a few weeks time. We have had warm sunshine and cold and wet days but the wildlife have been amazing to watch including the Swifts who I’ve seen and heard a lot you can hear their sound easily the big screeching sound.

At the beginning of May I traveled back to The Outer Hebrides but stopped off at Portree on Isle Of Skye for two nights. Isle Of Skye is beautiful and a great haven for birdlife, so it was great to have some time on the island before heading to The Hebrides. I went on the Fairy Pools walk which was amazing and on arrival at the car park I was greeted by a Chaffinch. The Chaffinch was so tame it was walking right under my feet so I managed to get a few photos and a video.

The walk on The Fairy Pools was quite magnificent, I would recommend it to anyone I did have my Binoculars just incase I saw anymore birds sadly I didn’t at the Pools but saw a few Great Tits on tree in the garden at the house were I was staying with my family.

It was great being back up in The Outer Hebrides as I have said in many blogs it’s a great place for birds and birdwatching trips and tours so this week was no inception of its fantastic birdlife and wildlife. At the beginning of my time in The Hebrides I travelled up to Berneray, the drive up through North Uist is always lovely and I do see birds on the way in passing fields and lochs and when I was in a Berneray I saw the famous Seals at the Seal viewpoint which was magnificent.

On the Tuesday Mum went off with her cousin & Dad decided to go fishing in South Uist and dropped my Uncle Bill & myself at Bornish for a hour’s walk or so. I have never been to Bornish before and it was a great walk with great birds including Wheatears, Eider Ducks, Sanderlings,Oystercatchers,Shelducks, Lapwings & Graylag Geese. The place was almost like a Nature Reserve so I’m certain next time I’ll be back there for more Birding.

Sticking to South Uist one day it was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to go to Eriskay and as you can see from the pictures it is the place to be when it’s sunny.

Every morning before breakfast we would have a walk to Culla Bay which was across the field from the house “The Restful Nest” we have been using that house for many years now so it’s like home to home for us it’s a ideal accommodation. One morning noticed some birds going to some sand holes on the dunes so straight away I knew they were Sand Martin’s so I was lucky to capture this shot of one of them but sadly I never managed to film them during my stay.

A trip in The Outer Hebrides wouldn’t be complete without a trip to RSPB’s Balranald Nature Reserve. On arrival noticed a lot of twitchers at the car park looking at the nearby field, this is the time when The Corncrake is around and that was indeed what they were looking at and we all did manage to spot it. We saw it pop its head up, head down move a few yards and pop back up again and call, I didn’t manage to get a photograph but my Dad Ian Buchan managed to get a fantastic shot of The Corncrake and very kindly allowed me to use his photo to use on this blog and here is that amazing snapshot.

Sadly my time on The Outer Hebrides was coming to a end so on another trip to South Uist on our last day I took these snapshots of lots of Sanderlings.

I really enjoyed my time in The Outer Hebrides and Skye and I can’t wait to return. This month I’m traveling to Spain and at the end of the month I’m taking part in The Great Scottish Walk raising money for The Scottish Seabird Centre, until then have a great summer.