Tuesday, 2 June 2026

Sanderling City

Another walk out from the campsite - many hundreds, literally, of Sanderling on the tide line. They are on their way north - it's interesting that this is a known hotspot and that when we last visited, 3 weeks later in the year, they had obviously all left as we saw very few. 

Nice views...







A tideline of Sanderling...

A beachful of Sanderling....

A bayful of Sanderling....


And a rockful of Sanderling.

Monday, 1 June 2026

Loch Druidibeg

With a clear patch of weather - we could see out to sea and the mountains attracting any cloud, we headed to RSPB Loch Druidibeg on South Uist, for a more upland walk...

A view of the mountains before they disappeared.


Royal fern gives the islands a distinctive hue.

Oblong-leaved Sundew Drosera intermedia

Lousewort.

Windswept and rugged.

I couldn't decide - the pic above or this one ...so they both go in! 

Black Bog-rush.

Heath Spotted-orchid.

Nice textures and colours.


Short-eared Owl

 It's always nice to see Short-eared owls in the Hebrides. This one circled round before landing on a trackside post...








An evening walk: Balranald

A pleasant evening walk - with many Sanderling.

'Stinky Bay' - plenty of washed up seaweed.

The shore was alive with Sanderling.

Off they go.

Turnstone - so well camouflaged it wasn't worth putting the photos on - at least you can see it against the rock! 

Eider Ducks - beginning to go into eclipse.

Dunlin.

Sea Campion.

A colourful mix.

Common Gull chicks...


Looking back.

The Yellow Flag Iris is just coming onto flower.

A patchwork of sandy fields.

More machair flowers

Just a few more! 










 

Sunday, 31 May 2026

Machair splendour Part II

 Continuing our walk along the peninsular north of Solas, we stopped at some well preserved wheel houses before heading back through more machair fields to the coast and beach...

The tombolo.

A tombolo is a depositional landform that connects an island to land, or another island.

The wheel house.

Another Moss Carder.

More Primroses...

...and more flowers! 

The sun made a brief appearance .....


Giving those colours...

Then we got damp!

And the cloud cleared.