Roadside photos

Female Wheater and corncrake. Today we explored North and South Uist. 

Although I love photographing wheaters (the top photo), the corncrake in the poorer photo is really the star of the show. 

Corncrakes have dramatically declined in the Uk and are now confined to a few areas - mostly a small number of islands and coastal areas in Scotland and Ireland, They are secretive birds with a loud rasping call. This was the target bird of the trip and I was very pleased to see it even though it was for a very short time. We could hear the bird from the side of the road,  but as soon as it eventually showed itself a big white van came past and scared it off. I didn't have time to focus properly on the bird and simply fired off some shots in the hope of getting something as a record before the van crossed in front of us. ( It's a wonder the van doesn't appear in the shot.) 

extra: buzzard taken from the car