Friday May 6
No internet access at our Hebridean Cottage - none that allows me access anyway. Shall have to phone the owner - in Elgin - to-morrow as Karen suggests. Odd to have a caretaker who knows nothing about the internet and wasn’t here to greet us either.
We both had a good night’s sleep, comfy mattresses. We have to vacate by 10 anyway so we took our time in leaving before driving to Uig and the ferry. We got there very early, as did many others. Only Shags and Cormorants in the harbour this year. We read for a while, then checked in, collected our tickets and parked at the very front of Row 2. A walk to buy a hot drink took up some time, then I did the DT crossword.
The ferry was 35 minutes late. It arrived when we should have been leaving. Nuisance. As instructed, hazard lights on - parking near the lifts signal to the CalMac workers - we parked on board and took the lift to the upper deck. Bliss compared with several flights of steep steps. We sat at the back on a covered deck which has bars around it. More sheltered than the top deck.
We saw a couple of Red Breasted Mergansers soon after leaving, nothing else until rougher water near northern Skye. Groups of Guillemots, fewer Razorbills and even fewer Puffins and Black Guillemots, were discernible beyond the wake. Gannets, Fulmar and Kittiwake occasionally passed. As the islands fell away so did the birds.
The crossing only takes an hour and 45 minutes but we retired inside to the warm 20 minutes before we arrived. Another lovely looking day but only 11C.
Great to be driving on Uist again, water separated by land. We missed our turning but soon turned round, anxiously scanning all the houses we passed until we found the right one. I opened the stiff drive gate and Pam parked on the grass in the front of the walled garden. The porch opens into another porch. There are two sitting rooms on either side, one with a dining table, a very large kitchen diner, a small downstairs bedroom and utility room and a bathroom. I haven’t been upstairs yet but there are two more double bedrooms up there.
Having failed to make the internet work, we drove to the RSPB reserve of Balranald, the turning is a quarter of a mile up the road,
We didn’t hear any Corncrakes at all. Plenty of Lapwing, Tufted Duck, Curlew, Whimbrel, Shoveller and Mallard. Black-headed, Common and Herring Gulls in a field being ploughed, it looked more like a beach than soil. As we reached the RSPB visitor centre - half a small Bothy, the other half the toilets, Pam called ‘white gull’. A juvenile Glaucous Gull flew past. We found it again on the return journey when I took a few photographs.
We both had a good night’s sleep, comfy mattresses. We have to vacate by 10 anyway so we took our time in leaving before driving to Uig and the ferry. We got there very early, as did many others. Only Shags and Cormorants in the harbour this year. We read for a while, then checked in, collected our tickets and parked at the very front of Row 2. A walk to buy a hot drink took up some time, then I did the DT crossword.
The ferry was 35 minutes late. It arrived when we should have been leaving. Nuisance. As instructed, hazard lights on - parking near the lifts signal to the CalMac workers - we parked on board and took the lift to the upper deck. Bliss compared with several flights of steep steps. We sat at the back on a covered deck which has bars around it. More sheltered than the top deck.
We saw a couple of Red Breasted Mergansers soon after leaving, nothing else until rougher water near northern Skye. Groups of Guillemots, fewer Razorbills and even fewer Puffins and Black Guillemots, were discernible beyond the wake. Gannets, Fulmar and Kittiwake occasionally passed. As the islands fell away so did the birds.
The crossing only takes an hour and 45 minutes but we retired inside to the warm 20 minutes before we arrived. Another lovely looking day but only 11C.
Great to be driving on Uist again, water separated by land. We missed our turning but soon turned round, anxiously scanning all the houses we passed until we found the right one. I opened the stiff drive gate and Pam parked on the grass in the front of the walled garden. The porch opens into another porch. There are two sitting rooms on either side, one with a dining table, a very large kitchen diner, a small downstairs bedroom and utility room and a bathroom. I haven’t been upstairs yet but there are two more double bedrooms up there.
Having failed to make the internet work, we drove to the RSPB reserve of Balranald, the turning is a quarter of a mile up the road,
We didn’t hear any Corncrakes at all. Plenty of Lapwing, Tufted Duck, Curlew, Whimbrel, Shoveller and Mallard. Black-headed, Common and Herring Gulls in a field being ploughed, it looked more like a beach than soil. As we reached the RSPB visitor centre - half a small Bothy, the other half the toilets, Pam called ‘white gull’. A juvenile Glaucous Gull flew past. We found it again on the return journey when I took a few photographs.
The machair has been electric fenced this year, two Whimbrel in the distance, no other birds. The tide was out, about 50 Sanderling scurrying the water’s edge, a few Ringed Plovers, Common and Arctic Terns. The weather is too good.....
Back at the cottage, still no connection, so I’m writing this on Office for uploading some other time. The moth trap is set up in the front garden, I wonder if we’ll trap anything in an exposed garden surrounded by moorland and water. Here’s hoping.
Back at the cottage, still no connection, so I’m writing this on Office for uploading some other time. The moth trap is set up in the front garden, I wonder if we’ll trap anything in an exposed garden surrounded by moorland and water. Here’s hoping.
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