Arrived in Oban late and the next morning saw 16 black guillemots around the harbour and using the pipes in the wall. The hooded crows were nice to watch. A bonus unexpected and seemingly late record for long-tailed duck came in with eiders from further offshore.
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| Pair of Black guillemot |
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| Black guillemot |
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| Hooded crow |
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| Long-tailed duck |
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| Long-tailed duck which was associating with eiders |
After a full day at Oban around lunchtime then next day we took the ferry to Tiree. A pod each of dolphin sp. and harbour porpoise were delightful to see. Until Corrachadh Mòr (the westerly most point of mainland Great Britain), birds were mainly kittiwakes with occasional common guillemot and a couple of razorbill. A black guillemot or two were seen.
Turning out into the open sea, several reasonable size flocks of manx shearwater were seen with their stiff wing beats and glides, and sharply delineated, clean white undersides with black borders. Larger flocks of auks were seen, with small number of puffins (5+) affording distant but identifiable views of orange-tipped rounded bills, and their smaller size than the common guillemots.
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| Blurry pic of puffins |
On arrival at the Tiree port there were a couple of summer plumage great northern divers. The evening had a blustery and overcast feel, and no corncrakes were heard on a short walk around the crofts.
The next morning a hike around the coasts of Ben Hynish and surrounding area, yielded a summer male twite with a pink rump, several crex-ing corncrakes, drumming snipe, nesting common gulls and cuckoo, amongst others. A single whinchat was seen perched on various fencelines.
The coastline at west Hynish was reasonably productive with pair of displaying common sandpiper, pairs of wheatear, good numbers of ringed plover and dunlin which breed on the island and good numbers of sanderling which use the shores of tiree as a staging post. A bonus single purple sandpiper was seen amongst the waders on the rocky beaches.
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| Two shags on a coastal rock |
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| Arctic tern in flight |
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| Twite |
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| Twite |
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| Purple sandpiper |
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| Skerryvore lighthouse |
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| Whinchat |
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| Ringed plover moving between areas of machair grassland |
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| Brown hare |
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| Nesting common gull, in a colony around a small loch |
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| Nesting common gull |
The next day was a sort of rest day, walking to the store at Crossapol which was well stocked. A reasonably large raft of eiders was sat on the sea with the three staple waders of the coasts seen on the beach, dunlin, ringed plover and sanderling.
A couple of summer plumage great northern divers were seen offshore and walking back via the croft coast gave good views of one diving amongst the rocks. Several arctic terns were seen offshore, along with about 3 little terns. Arctic terns seemed to be the most prevalent tern, with only a couple groups of two common terns positively identified across the island. We were particularly looking at the grey breast and belly of arctic which contrasts with its white cheek, and when they perched the tail streamers were longer than the wings.
On the walk back and in the early evening two white-tailed eagles flew over east. One ringed adult with fully white tail and one sub adult with partially white tail. A pair of red-breasted merganser were in the loch and a starling nest with young was located in the phone box. Great views of a drumming snipe, in a diving display using it's tail feathers to create the otherworldly humming sound, were had near a moorland bog.
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| Arctic tern |
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| Arctic tern |
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| Adult white-tailed eagle which flew over |
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| White-tailed eagle |
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| Pair of red-breasted merganser |
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| Sunset |
The last full day on Tiree and walked around another coastal peninsula. Sand martins were seen around suitable nest holes in exposed sand beneath machair grassland. Much of the island is this machair grassland with a thin topsoil atop sand.
Around 15 calling male corncrake were heard around the section of island visited. A great view was had of a corncrake, which stood out on a path beneath a gate for a few moments after a van went past.
The areas with most calling corncrakes seemed to be marshy grassland with high water levels, and plant species including marsh marigold, yellow iris, cuckooflower, field horsetail, and silverweed. With the reintroduced birds in the washes, which originated from the Hebrides, perhaps some habitat management for these species could facilitate a slight recovery of this species in England.
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| Brown hare |
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| Whimbrel |
The island holds important numbers of breeding waders including redshank, lapwing, snipe, oystercatcher, dunlin and ringed plover. Some of the starlings were heard mimicking the crex crex call of the corncrake across the three days. The ferry back was quieter - by Tiree bay had several great northern divers, about 37 Manx Shearwaters were seen out in the sea, and a harbour porpoise.
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| Great northern diver in summer plumage |
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| Great northern diver with food |
The birding was finished off with some more black guillemots in the Oban harbour, including one seen near the weatherspoons in a new area for us next to the train station.
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