Birding, North Uist

I had some business to attend to in North Uist this morning so took the opportunity to spend some time birding during the afternoon.

First stop was Grenitote to see if the Snowy Owl that had been spotted yesterday was still around. Sadly not, and after a couple of hours searching and looking closely at all the white carrier bags and other debris distributed around the local crofts the bird wasn't to be found.

Never mind, lunch at the RSPB reserve at Balranald - turkey leftovers from Easter sunday, yum!

I had been hoping to get some more, decent, shots of the Harlequin Duck that has been hanging around on the beach near RSPB Balranald - sadly the bird, although seen, remained pretty distant and all the shots i got i deleted!

Walking back from the Harlequin site a Merlin (Falco columbarius) carrying a prey item flew overhead and landed on a croft around 100m away. The prey item was a Turnstone and i managed to get a reasonable shot of the Merlin - even though it was quite distant, even for my big lens.

Balranald reserve is a place i love and return to again and again. I have a short-term (4 months) contract starting on the 15th April, working for the Machair Life+ project and will be spending one day a week at the reserve - can't wait!