Splash

I don’t think we have seen Barra at its best today. Wind and frequent showers, some very heavy, made it uncomfortable for sightseeing; everything closed on Sunday gave little other choices.

We went up to the airport, as we had heard that the café there was open on Sunday and was very good. Dismayed to find it absolutely full of tour people, just tipped out of a coach. Queued for a long time. We eventually got a table and the coffee and cakes were excellent. Then we followed everyone else to await the Glasgow plane landing on the beach. Fascinating to watch and it stayed fine for the landing. I was surprised how much water it landed in and with a great splash, but I preferred this picture with the reflections. (Someone might be reminded of when they were actually on a plane that landed.)

And that’s about as good as it got. In the brief sunny intervals we saw glimpses of lovely sandy bays, but it was never fine enough for long enough to explore more. Fortunately our hotel has a comfortable lounge with lovely views so that’s where we returned to.
 
Then we did an extraordinary thing. We had been asked on two occasions whilst about - did we know where the rare bird was that birders had arrived to see. We hadn’t a clue of course. Then we got talking in the lounge to a couple who yesterday had made the journey from Yorkshire to Oban and across on the ferry to Barra last night, just to see the bird – an American Redstart. And he had some wonderful photos of it. When the sky brightened, we decided to go and find this bird. Which we did. Well, we caught glimpses of it in a tree, never close enough to take photographs, it was obviously hiding away from the wind and rain. I never would have thought that I would make that much effort to see a bird, but I did.
 
Getting a little worried about the high winds forecast for tomorrow when we get the ferry back to Oban.