Hebridean Flora and Fauna

Snipe

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The flora and fauna on the recent trip to the Uists was simply spectacular. I'm not denying that a bit of luck was involved in turning up 64 bird species in the 5 days, harbour porpoises in Loch Maddy, an otter on the Lochportain road, and prolonged views of a school of minke whales off Aird an Runair and a whopping basking shark in Uig bay on Skye.

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Redshank

Of the birds, it was nice to see cuckoos again and also several sightings of hen harrier, golden eagles and short-eared owls. Several red-throated divers, one of which was sitting on its nest, and a couple of great-northern divers. We even managed to bag the elusive corncrake which is often only heard but not seen. As far as island rarities go, we scored a sparrowhawk and a linnet which, although pretty common on the mainland, are very unusual on the outer isles.

Nesting fulmar

The machair was in full bloom and I've actually found out how to work my "Super Macro Mode" so now I too can take photos of very small things. Its great. A muppet like me can come up with great pictures. Isn't technology amazing these days!

Kidney Vetch

Daisies

Creeping Buttercup

Heath Spotted Orchid (on the heath, not the machair!)

Back to Scotland (June '06)

Newtonferry, North Uist

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Due to my attending a conference in Rome at the start of July, I've returned home to Scotland for a couple of weeks beforehand for a wee break and to catch the world cup in a more comfortable time-zone. I've just returned from a fantastic 5 days with my parents up in North Uist in the Outer Hebrides.

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Views from the croft at No.1 Lochportain

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Amazingly we avoided any rain and instead we enjoyed a glorious few days of sunshine and relative warmth. I guess you'd say the fishing was average this time although we managed a good meal of trout one night. It's said that otters have been coming to our favourite loch and been eating all the fish. Its a good excuse and I think I might just stick to it!

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A carpet of flowers on the machair

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The animals, flowers and scenery more than make up for a couple of dodgy fishing trips though. Absolutely beautiful!

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Mum and Dad at the "Kettlespout"

.Berneray looking north to Harris

Dharug NP (28th May '06)

Dharug National Park lies on the north shore of the Hawkesbury river about 100 km northwest of Sydney. Its comprised of the usual sandstone with heath up on the plateau and with wet sclerophyll forest on the slopes and rainforest in the steep gulleys. Down next to the river there are some flat farmed sections.

Car ferry across the Hawkesbury River to Dharug NP

Jarrod accompanied me on this one and our first stop was an old paperbark swamp and surrounding meadow. I was led to believe that this was a certain spot for the chestnut-breasted finches but it wasn't. The trees were certainly chocked full of tiny little birds though. Mostly thornbills - both yellow and brown, honeyeaters - yellow-faced, Lewin's and white-eared, and loads of noisy friarbirds. I've only seen these before around Taree when I was up at Dianne's for Christmas in 2004. The highlight though was a single Rose Robin # 244. As the name suggests, a small robin with a strikingly bright pink breast. Usually found at higher altitude in dense forest they disperse to more open forest nearer the coast in the winter months.

Woods and meadow on the flats by the river

Further stops were made at a couple of picnic grounds which were supposed to be popular with some of the more elusive rainforest birds and we also took a stroll up a trail beside Mill Creek in the hope of picking some glossy black-cockatoos. The place was pretty empty although we thought we might have been onto something when we came across a load of debris falling from the canopy. Further inspection revealed a family of crimson rosellas feeding. This didn't bother the J-Rod as he kept mentioning the fact that he's already seen the glossy black-cocky on numerous occasions in the Blue Mountains! Once again it got dark and we returned to the picnic grounds in the pitch black. I just invested in a spotlight though so we got that fired up and searched the tall timber for owls and greater gliders (those crazy flying squirrel-like creatures) which were meant to live there in great numbers but once again we drew a blank. Stange screams and grunting were emerging from the trees but Jarrod assured me these were just the possums. And Jarrod knows all about hunting down possums! No sign of barn owls on the power lines going back to the ferry so all in all not much to report. But a single new species means the day was an outrageous success!

Target birds: Chestnut-breasted finch, Glossy black-cockatoo (Double negative)
Catch the Pigeon: Rock dove (boring)
Roadkill strike assessment: Roos (low)