Back to Perth

Simon's sciatica continues to improve and he was up and out to the swimming pool before we were even up. We packed up, bade farewell to Simon and headed into Portree for an eagle watching boat trip. It did exactly what it said on the tin - great views of White-tailed eagles which got even better when one came to retrieve a fish that was thrown from our boat - Check out RCB. We then headed to the other side of the bay where we had good views of a Golden Eagle - not a bad haul!

There'd been a Bee-eater reported at Ord a few weeks back when David & Clare were on Skye. Obviously it would be well gone by now, but we decided to have an explore down that way as it was a part of the island we hadn't been to before and were rewarded with a Great Northern Diver in the bay. Being close to Armadale we decided to take the ferry to Mallaig on which we had fine views of Manx Shearwaters - officially a lifetime first, although I'm quite sure we've seen shearwaters from ferries before. At Mallaig harbour we had fun watching the gulls fighting over the leftovers in the fish boxes.

For our next detour we headed towards Loch Sunart and Strontian, just because once upon a time there'd been a Black Duck reported there. No Black Duck, but our third boat of the day as we caught the Corran Ferry. Dinner at the Clachaig, before finally returning to Perth - probably by the most circuitous route possible, but an impressive bird list for the day.