Just back from a few days on the Isle of Lewis where the theme of westerly gales and tough birding continued. I only managed a trip species list of 63 over three and a half days birding- including a number of seabirds seen from the two Minch crossings. Best birds were undoubtedly a 1st summer Mediterranean gull near Stornoway- a very scarce bird in Scotland and a very smart and very obliging Corncrake. Probably best to point out that I did not disturb the corncrake- it was creeping about in relatively scant vegetation (everything is late growing this year) and I took the photos from a public road, using my maximum focal length of 400mm and have cropped the shots significantly. As it was a very blustery day the bird was clearly oblivious to my presence due to the noise of the wind and the moving vegetation between the bird and my fortuitous vantage point. Having captured a few images I watched it creep about in the nettles until it was eventually lost from view.
 |
| 1st summer Med.Gull |
 |
| Arctic tern |
Wonderful Corncrake shots!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike- took more than a decade of visits to the Hebrides before I saw my first a couple of years ago- just got really lucky with this bird!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful images, especially the Corncrake, fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bob- I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time with regard to the Corncrake.
ReplyDelete