Zim Girl's 4th Big Year 2021

[Zim Girl]

On Saturday we made a trip up to South Lakes to embark on yet another 'wild goose (green woodpecker) chase'.  Needless to say we didn't find one, just heard it laughing at us in the distance!  But, we did run into something else instead.  As we were hunting through the wood, sitting on a branch directly in front of us was this .

 

83.  Tawny Owl

Helsington Barrows  -  29/05/21

 

One day we will find that green woodpecker!!

 

[Zim Girl]

We were up early on BH Monday to have a couple of hours in the Forest of Bowland before the hoards of tourists arrived.  We were hoping for Flycatchers or Redstarts and there were reports of Common Sandpipers in the river.  We didn't find the first two but we did manage the third, as well as a few others.

 

There were plenty of these flying around but way too fast for my camera so had to wait for them to land at the nests.

 

84.  Common House Martin

 

Tower Lodge, Trough of Bowland  -  31/05/21

 

[Zim Girl]

85.  Pied Wagtail

Trough of Bowland  -  31/05/21

 

[Zim Girl]

86.  Barn Swallow

Trough of Bowland  -  31/05/21

[Zim Girl]

Finally the sandpiper.  It was mooching around the rocks and then flew up onto a post for a closer view.

 

87.  Common Sandpiper

 

Trough of Bowland  -  31/05/21

[Galana]

Well done with the Sandpiper. I love the waders using posts as lookouts.

 

If I wish you Safari Njema you can partially pretend you are heading for Africa tomorrow.

Edited June 4, 2021 by Galana

[elefromoz]

nice Avocets and good to hear their breeding well. Your numbers are moving along now, hopefully you'll do well in Scotland too

[michael-ibk]

Have a great time in Scotland! Funny about bogey bird - I do get Green Woodpeckers every year but I have never seen a Tawny Owl! That´s one of those I really, really want to get.

[Galana]

3 hours ago, michael-ibk said:

but I have never seen a Tawny Owl! That´s one of those I really, really want to get.

Go visit the tortoise in Llandudno. They visit his garden. I am told the best vantage point is his Toilet window.

[Zim Girl]

On 6/9/2021 at 8:58 AM, elefromoz said:

nice Avocets and good to hear their breeding well. Your numbers are moving along now, hopefully you'll do well in Scotland too

 

On 6/12/2021 at 9:10 AM, michael-ibk said:

Have a great time in Scotland! Funny about bogey bird - I do get Green Woodpeckers every year but I have never seen a Tawny Owl! That´s one of those I really, really want to get.

 

So just got back from Scotland this weekend.  Had a great time in both the Isle of Mull and the Cairngorms.  Highlight of the trip was definitely the day trip over to the Treshnish Islands from Mull to see the puffins.  Absolutely fantastic experience to see them so close as well as quite a few other seabirds.  Photos will follow eventually!!

[elefromoz]

 yes its a great day out to the Treshnish Isles, very fond memories,  looking forward to hearing all about the trip.

Scotland is the place to be at the moment

[Zim Girl]

Back to Big Year and I will make a start on some of the birds we saw while on our 2 week trip to Scotland in June.  We began with 7 nights on the Isle of Mull, chosen mainly for the chance to take a trip over to the Treshnish Isles to see the large colonies of seabirds including the 'must see' puffins!  First, I must thank @Towlersonsafariwho gave us lots of great info on Mull which all proved to be very useful.

 

We used Turus Mara for the boat trip over to the Treshnish Isles and we booked their 'Big Bird' trip which gives you a full 4 hours on Lunga island to be with the seabird colonies.  As part of the trip you are taken to Staffa island first for half an hour to see Fingal's Cave. Lunga is the largest of the islands and is the main centre of bird breeding.

 

We were lucky with the weather which stayed dry and reasonably warm, although the outward boat crossing was pretty rough.  However none of that matters when you reach the island.  You make a short climb up to be on top of the grassy cliffs and then you are in puffin heaven .

 

Well it was as amazing as I could have possibly imagined it to be.  Wall to wall seabirds!  You are advised to carry on walking past the initial puffin burrows (almost impossible to do) and carry on along the trails to eventually reach the Harp Rock stack at the end of the island where the Guillemots nest.  On the way you will see nesting Kittiwakes and Fulmars on the sides of the grassy cliffs.  You have to watch where you walking to avoid bumping into the Shags which nest under rocks by the trails.  Puffins and Razorbills can be seen all the way along until you reach the rock stack and then stand and marvel at the sights and sounds of many hundreds of Guillemots.  

 

As you can imagine I took an obscene amount of photographs.  It is just impossible to sit and watch all these birds so close to you without taking 'just one more shot'.

The 4 hours gives you plenty of time to walk around, take photos but also allows you time to just sit and watch the birds.  The puffins in particular are so funny, jumping in and out of each others burrows and interacting with each other.  It was a fantastic day and I would definitely do it again some time, the opportunity to be so close to wildlife was incredible.

 

And so to the birds and starting with the main attraction.

 

88.  Atlantic Puffin

 

 

 

 

Lunga Island, Treshnish Isles  -  June 21

 

[Zim Girl]

89.  Razorbill

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

90.  Kittiwake

 

 

[Zim Girl]

91.  Northern Fulmar

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

92.  Common Guillemot

 

The rock stack where they nest.

 

 

 

Some of the northern breeding birds are known as 'bridled' and have distinctive markings on their face that looks like they are wearing spectacles.

 

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

93.  European Shag

 

Nesting under the rocks.

 

 

[Zim Girl]

Towards the end of the day we climbed up to a higher point on the island and found a pair of Great Skuas.  They certainly weren't as impressed to see us as we were to see them and kept dive-bombing us.  Hopefully they had a nest up there somewhere so we didn't hang around too long.

 

94.  Great Skua

 

 

 

This is a blurry picture of one of the birds as it came straight at me.  I just couldn't focus in time before I had to duck!

[Zim Girl]

So that was all the regular seabirds that you can expect to see on the island, but we also saw several Rock Pipits as well.

 

95.  Eurasian Rock Pipit

 

 

Rest of Mull coming soon!

 

 

 

[Towlersonsafari]

Hurrah!  lunga is a wonderful place to visit and you are right, the puffins are fascinating to watch- very impressed you stood your ground when being dive bombed by Great Skua- they don't mess about. lovely photo's @Zim Girl

[TonyQ]

Wonderful photos. It really is a great place to visit - you bring back a lot of memories.

I look forward to hearing about the rest of your Scottish trip!

[Kitsafari]

marvellous shots of the 18cm wonder of a puffin. each time I see a photo, each time I'm hoping I'll get there one day.

 

wow on that thousands of guillemot stack!

[Dave Williams]

On 6/12/2021 at 12:48 PM, Galana said:

Go visit the tortoise in Llandudno. They visit his garden. I am told the best vantage point is his Toilet window.

 

@michael-ibk It's a bathroom hide not a toilet! 

 

 

@Galana was on Lunga around the same dates as you were Janet, who knows same boat even. It seems quite a few of us headed north to Scotland along with countless thousands of others most of whom seemed to be racing around the NC500 in flash cars or motorhomes.

First impressions when you reach one of these breeding islands is never to be forgotten. Never forget stepping on the Farne islands to be amazed that there were birds everywhere. We all hold desires for foreign travel but forget the UK is one of the best places to see seabirds in the world.

Just need a handful for the ton now! 

 

 

[shazdwn]

What a fabulous place!

[Zim Girl]

21 hours ago, Towlersonsafari said:

Hurrah!  lunga is a wonderful place to visit and you are right, the puffins are fascinating to watch- very impressed you stood your ground when being dive bombed by Great Skua- they don't mess about. lovely photo's @Zim Girl

Yes, it was the highlight of the trip.  That Skua was coming at me at head height, I stood my ground initially trying to get the shot but bottled it in the end!

 

20 hours ago, TonyQ said:

Wonderful photos. It really is a great place to visit - you bring back a lot of memories.

I look forward to hearing about the rest of your Scottish trip!

Thank you Tony. More pics coming up soon.

 

20 hours ago, Kitsafari said:

marvellous shots of the 18cm wonder of a puffin. each time I see a photo, each time I'm hoping I'll get there one day.

 

wow on that thousands of guillemot stack!

The numbers of birds was just amazing, and the noise!!

 

1 hour ago, Dave Williams said:

@galana was on Lunga around the same dates as you were Janet, who knows same boat even. It seems quite a few of us headed north to Scotland along with countless thousands of others most of whom seemed to be racing around the NC500 in flash cars or motorhomes.

First impressions when you reach one of these breeding islands is never to be forgotten. Never forget stepping on the Farne islands to be amazed that there were birds everywhere. We all hold desires for foreign travel but forget the UK is one of the best places to see seabirds in the world.

Just need a handful for the ton now! 

I think he was actually there a week or two after us, Dave.  Actually, we were expecting it to be very busy but we didn't come across any crowds either on Mull or in the Cairngorms.

We were very impressed with Lunga, should have gone years ago, especially as it is only a 5 hour drive and 2 short boat trips away!