LATEST IMAGES - LATE MAY
Two weeks in the Outer Hebrides in late May started with 3 days of bad weather made worse by most of the rest of the UK basking in glorious sunshine. However for most of the rest of our stay we were blessed with remarkably good and sunny weather. This was in marked contrast to our last visit when it rained every day! We managed to take some reasonable pictures and were blessed with a very good Short Eared Owl year, they seemed to be flying most of the day light hours and were seen throughout the Uists and Benbecula.
CORNCRAKE
One of the main birds that people visit the Outer Hebrides for, the last two weeks of May are probably the best time to see the Corncrake. At this time the ground cover has not had time to grow tall enough to completely hide this secretive bird.
DUNLIN (in summer plumage)
On many of the beaches we found both Dunlin and Sanderling in summer plumage and they were very tolerant of a small hide placed on the beach
SNIPE
Snipe were often seen and heard, their drumming flight must be one of the most evocative sounds, but they very rarely allowed us to get close enough with the car to take good images. This bird was an exception and stayed on the post while we took a couple of rolls from ever closer distances.
We will try and do a more extensive trip report including details of a lovely cottage we stayed at that had Corncrakes in the garden!