scotland « Trevor On Tour

*Looking across Brodick Bay to Goat Fell*, *Isle of Arran*

We spent the half-term week with Josh, Al and the girls on the Isle of Arran – they’re planning to relocate to the island in the coming months. As you might expect for mid-February the weather was mixed, with mainly strong winds and heavy showers (a bit of snow on the tops) but we did get the odd sunny spell.

As a teenager and then later, when Mum and Dad lived on Benbecular, I’ve visited a good number of the Scottish islands but never Arran, which is often described as ‘Scotland in miniature’. The seventh largest of the Scottish islands, it cover 167 sq miles, has a perimeter road of approx 90k and reaches the highest point at Goat Fell of 2,867 feet. There are just under 5000 residents but being close to the Scottish mainland, with generally a good ferry service, receives over half a million visitors annually.

Before I went I checked out Arran Birding and made contact with local birder Jim, who was very welcoming and helpful. We spent the week sight-seeing, house hunting, entertaining our grand-daughters .. and birding! Over the five full days we were actually on the island we managed to find 70 species which, in Jim’s words, ‘.. you have done exceptionally well for a first visit in February.’ Here are a few of our highlights:

*First morning exploring the beach in Lamlash – a surprise Whooper Swan*

*There was a reasonable assortment of shorebirds immediately opposite our Airbnb – including Curlew*

*Another early surprise was Little Egret – which have arrived on Arran in recent years but spread quickly*

*We saw a good variety of ducks – Red-breasted Merganser being the most common*

*Best of the wildfowl were five Greenland White-fronts which we found at Shiskine*

*Other wildlife highlights included this Otter, watched whilst we ate our sandwiches in the golf club car park*

*There were plenty of gulls to scrutinise – this Common Gull was wearing a non-standard colour-ring – Jim is helping to track it down*

*Arran is home to some very special birds – including Golden Eagle. We eventually found a pair in the northern ‘highlands’*

*Out with the family, including brother Bryan, on Sannox beach*, *with Goat Fell in the background*

Assuming their house sale / purchase goes through OK, doubtless we’ll be spending more time on the lovely island of Arran in the future.

*An obliging Barred Warbler on our autumn trip to Shetland – back after a 50 year* *interval*

As an alternative to our usual autumn trip to Cornwall, looking for migrants, we’ve come to Shetland. It’s been over 50 years since I was last here, on a teenage camping holiday. The birding highlight of that trip were the Snowy Owl on Fetlar* – the last year they bred successfully I think. We drove up to Newcastle on Thursday to stay with Neil and Nicola before heading off to Aberdeen with them to catch the overnight ferry to Lerwick. Birding on the way, we’d amassed a list of 65 before nightfall – including another Eastern (Siberian) Stonechat at Amble and a heap of interesting sea duck in Gosford Bay. There was no birding from the ferry – it was dark when we set sail and still dark when we docked – so our first taste of Shetland birding was a dawn stroll along the shore of Clickimin Loch, with it’s iconic broch. One of the first birds we saw was an obliging Barred Warbler. This would have been a Kernow highlight but here they are a little more regular. Let’s hope it’s not the only highlight.

* Rob if you are reading this perhaps you could post a copy of your original pics?