North Uist

Been very busy with university with impending deadlines, but I have to have some form of free time and so I have decided to dedicate some of this to catching up on my blogging!

Since my last post I've been out gulling (as expected) but had nothing out of the ordinary, except a Glaucous Gull which spent around 5 hours on Seaton Common, during its stay the bird must have walked approaching 20 mile around the common. Quite entertaining.

However I crumbled and ended up on North Uist for the Harlequin Duck. The trip started off amazingly with a Golden Eagle being picked up from the port in Uig, Skye. The bird was then joined by an immature White-tailed Eagle and a second Golden Eagle! They put on quite a show, these were my first Golden Eagles for approaching 3 years I believe, but I'd have to check my records. We then got onto the ship for the crossing to North Uist, the expected specialities seen on the crossing over as well during the visit; Black Guillemot and Great Northern Diver all in good attendance.

(White-tailed and Golden Eagle - Andrew Kinghorn)

We arrived on site and we soon walked out to the location of the bird, the Glaucous Gull was showing extremely well and helped me record from withdrawal symptoms from seaton landfill. It wasn't long until we were watching the stunning immature drake Harlequin Duck, wow what a bird! We scrambled out onto the rocks to get a better view and we were not disappointed.  A truly stunning bird.

(Glaucous Gull - Andrew Kinghorn)

(Glaucous Gull - Andrew Kinghorn)

(Harlequin Duck - Andrew Kinghorn)

(Harlequin Duck - Andrew Kinghorn)

After the Harlequin Duck it was time for some gulls! Oh yes, you cannot whack a bit of outer hebs gulling! A presumed hybrid Glaucous x Herring was evident and also a 1st winter Kumlien's  Gull. This bird is a cracking candidate and looks absolutely superb, I am sure when we learn more about variation in Iceland Gull I'll be more settled in my own mind on Kumlien's Gulls. The paleness of some birds compared to Newfoundland causes some concern though, but that's a total other blog post on which I ain't educated enough to comment.

(Kumlien's Gull - Andrew Kinghorn)

(Kumlien's Gull - Andrew Kinghorn)

From here a peek at the Ring-necked Duck wasn't to be missed, I had never seen a female before so this was a bit of a treat and a learning curve, far more distinctive than I was expecting. Crossing the road saw a drake Mandarin Duck (yes!) and also a Richardson's Canada Goose. From here a peek at the two Cat C Snow Geese was good, at least I can be pretty safe these are at least Cat C! The next day was basically a repeat of the first day, however far better views of the Kumlien's Gull were had, in fact I would even add we had amazing views of the bird.

(Richardson's Canada Goose - Andrew Kinghorn)

(Richardson's Canada Goose - Andrew Kinghorn)

The boat trip back was one to be remembered with at least 4 Golden Eagles and a single very distant White-tailed Eagle. Pulling into port at Uig saw another cracking Golden Eagle over the hillside, a cracking bird to finish of a cracking twitch. A one I will cherish for a long time.

Until next time, Foghorn out!