North Uist, Outer Hebrides trip. May 2025 (part 2)

 Our first full day on the islands, we decided to not get up too early after all the travelling of the previous day. From the cottage I saw several pairs of Red-throated Divers calling and flying around.

Red-throated Diver

 

There were plenty of Rock Doves about. The ones here are apparently as pure "Rock Dove" as you can get. 

Rock Dove

 Next breakfast, then off out for a drive round. A Kestrel hovering at the side of the road was the next subject.

Kestrel

 

 

One thing we noticed straight away, was the abundance of Short-eared Owls. They seemed to be everywhere, and in areas that I hadn't seen them in the past.

Short-eared Owl

 It was nice to see a Whooper Swan while we were driving around. The orange colouring on it's head due to the iron in the water, where it has been feeding.

Whooper Swan

 

The rest of the day was spent wandering around at RSPB Balranald. It was a recce really, to see what was about and to think about particular photo sessions that I could do there. I did notice that the wader numbers seemed to be lower than usual. The next few images were from the afternoon's wanderings.

Ringed Plover

Common Gull

White Wagtail

Skylark

Scarce and Rare Birds on the Wirral

With a period of Easterly winds the Wirral got more than it's usual share of rare and scarce birds over the last week or so. At Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB Reserve (or BMW as it is known) there was a good list including a Red-necked Phalarope, Cattle Egret, Little Stints, Curlew Sandpipers and Pectoral Sandpiper. Some of these were present for most of the week, if not longer.
Tied in with some high tides I spent a couple of days out with the camera to see what could be done. BMW isn't great for photography and from the old hide unfortunately the birds are a little distant. So this would only be good for record shots. Still, I had a go and managed to photograph the Red-necked Phalarope and Pectoral Sandpiper.

Red-necked Phalarope

Pectoral Sandpiper

On the North Wirral coast I photographed Curlew Sandpiper on the beach at Hoylake and the diminutive Little Stint which was roosting with about 500 Dunlin at Leasowe.

Curlew Sandpiper

Little Stint

Here are some of the more common species I encountered in a productive couple of days with a bit of decent sunshine.

Dunlin (It's not marching)

Grey Heron

Mute Swan

Ringed Plover (juvenile)

Sanderling

Ringed Plovers

More images from the Outer Hebrides. I spent a considerable part of my trip photographing waders. I was keen to get a good number of shots of them in breeding plumage, a complete contrast to the overwintering birds we have here locally on the Wirral. The other reason is that they are very approachable. Once you have settled down they will literally run around within a couple of meters, oblivious to your presence.

Ringed Plovers do breed locally to the Wirral, so I wasn't intending to take many shots of these. The white sandy beaches made for some nice low level shots though.