My Scottish Adventure (Part 2)

Skye

It was another long drive across Scotland, this time, we were visiting the Isle of Skye. It was raining on the way there, but once we crossed the bridge onto the island, it had stopped and became a nice a nice day in the end. At least there were plenty of great scenery to look at along the way, even if it was raining.


The bridge to Skye

Some of the great scenic views along the way!



Broadford

Once on Skye, we stopped at the coastal town of Broadford for lunch. The tide was out and exposed a large stretch of kelp covering the coastline. This attracted a lot of hungry birds searching the kelp for food. I couldn't resist doing a spot of bird watching while I was here. There were birds everywhere, mostly oystercatchers, redshanks, gulls (especially common gulls), a few herons and plenty of crows. But these crows weren't your everyday black carrion crows, these were hooded crows.



Oystercatcher

Grey Herons

Great Black-backed Gull with a juvenile gull



Hooded Crow

Hooded crows were once thought to be a subspecies of carrion crow until more recently. They are now considered as a separate species. These grey crows with black heads and wings seem to be more common in this part of Scotland than carrion crows. In fact, throughout my week in the Highlands, I have never seen so many 'hoodies' in my life! They were in fields, along coastlines and even by the mountain roads we travelled on each day while we were there. For me, they were one of the smaller highlights of my holiday.


Black Guillemot?

While I was at Broadford, I also did a spot of sea watching. There were a few shags and Arctic terns about, but there was also a strange looking bird that had me puzzled for a while. It was really distant, but this photo shows the bird in question. It is a rather pale, grey bird floating on the sea, but I believe this was a juvenile black guillemot, which is a more common Scottish seabird during the early summer months. The adults look more impressive looking with black bodies, white wing patches and bright red feet. It was a shame this individual wasn't an adult, but it is still my first ever black guillemot if it is one.



Shags

Golden Eagles!

After lunch, we then drove up the island's coastline to the town of Portree. The landscape was stunning with mountains, lochs and waterfalls. This was eagle country and we were keeping an eye out for them while we were driving. There was so much to look at, that it was hard to admire the scenery and eagle watch at the same time. But suddenly, Mum spotted two large birds circling above the mountain tops. We stopped the car, pulling up by a nearby layby and looked up. They were far too big to be buzzards and their wings were massive, allowing them to soar majestically over us with hardly a flap of a wing to be seen. These were eagles! Golden eagles! A pair of them! We gave Mum a big pat on the back for spotting them before moving on.

With a White-tailed Eagle (sculpture) at the Aros Centre

With one of the two species of eagle in the bag, we carried onwards to Portree in the hope of spotting a white-tailed eagle next. In a way, we did manage to spot one, however, it was only a sculpture outside the Aros centre. It doesn't count! We had a walk around Portree's harbour before making the long journey back off the island and to our chalet at Glengarry Lodge. We had a great time at Skye with those golden eagles being the jewel in the crown during our visit to this beautiful place.



Portree