the Outer Hebrides Road Trip pt. 8 .. a day in transit to the Isle of Lewis ..

This morning we left Moorcroft Campsite for the last time, starting our journey north to the final campsite of our road trip: Eilean Na Froach on the Isle of Lewis.

Stopping on the Committee Road, we had the best two hours of birdwatching since the excitement of the Red-necked Phalarope day!

We observed Short-eared Owl, Buzzard, Kestrel, a dark phase Arctic Skua, Common Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Meadow Pipit and Raven. The "shortie" was visible for the entire visit as it hunted over the distant muddy brown, and beige tussocks of Heather and Molinia. A pair of Golden Eagles launched themselves from the hillside behind us, following the line of the hilltop back and forth for a short while, before disappearing over its crest.

As we prepared to leave, I got onto a male Hen Harrier sitting out on the edge of a woodland block. It showed briefly, but long enough to allow A to get onto it as well. Then a Cuckoo called, and I found it in a tree. The only Cuckoo to reveal itself so far this holiday.

At RSPB Balranald we heard several Corncrake calling from the small iris beds and rank grassland around the Reserve’s farm buildings. Walking through the machair to the shoreline, we discovered floral treats along the way. The machair was only just beginning to bloom, and it was a reminder that if we wanted to experience this habitat in its full glory - we would have to push back our annual May travels into mid-June at the very least.

Machair and wildflowers
RSPB Balranald, North Uist

The wait at the ferry terminal, and the ferry crossing itself yielded: Little, Common, and Arctic tTrn; Gannet, Cormorant, Guillemot, and Black Guillemot; Hooded Crow, Common Gull, Goldeneye, Great Northern Diver and Bonxie. Confined to the car for the sea crossing, we had limited views, so I was pleased with the meagre haul.

Berneray Ferry Port

restricted views on the Ferry Crossing 

Later driving through Shawbost I noticed a solitary whooper swan, afloat on a small loch.

We arrived safely at Eileen Na Froach around 9PM some 12 hours after leaving the campsite on North Uist, having travelled a total of 91 miles by road in just over 3hrs, and a single hour's ferry ride across the Sound of Harris. We are both absolutley shattered and over-stimulated.

From the van, we can hear the harsh "Crex Crex" of the Corncrake calling in the fields about us - at least three individuals by my reckoning? The continuous drumming of snipe adds a rhythmic dance to the soundscape. Talisker and Barra Gin takes the edge off our respective exhaustions.

Tomorrow we will make a pilgrimage to Calanais, and it's Acolytes. A day of stones. I am so excited. Slainte m'hath!

Slainte m'hath!

the Outer Hebrides Road Trip pt. 7 .. a beginning and an end of sorts ..

"Is this the end of the beginning?
Or the beginning of the end?"
Tony Iommi, John Osbourne, Terrence Butler 2013

This morning, with heavy rain forecast, we drove to Lochmaddy and visited Taigh Chearsabhagh. The museum and arts centre which is currently hosting a photographic exhibition of the works of Archie Chisholm: 

The photographs of Archie Chisholm

Archie's B&W photographs of  the Western Isles taken at the end of the 18th and early part of the 19th Century evoke the social history of the isles, its inhabitants, and the joys and hardships of a Crofters life.

After the museum visit, we returned to the Raptor Viewpoint beneath Barpa Langass, picking up a wind-hanging buzzard on the way. A pair of stonechats at quarry on the A867, were added to the bird list.

Raptor Viewpoint - Barpa Langass

The weather conditions were dry but very windy and we soon tired of seeing only gulls loafing through. I took the opportunity for a second turn around Sornath Coir Fhinn, before “bagging” the only hilltop of the tour – by walking up Beinn Langais, a highpoint at 91m surrounded by the flatlands of bog, open water, and brown and purple moor.

Sornath Coir Fhinn

views from Beinn Langais

the obligatory "summit selfie"
Beinn Langais

I had the top to myself for only the briefest of moments before a couple appeared on the hill’s horizon in the northwest.

Following a rapid descent, I was van side, and waking A up from an afternnon doze. We drove to the Raptor Viewpoint on Committee Road. This viewpoint was the primary inspiration for undertaking this road-trip, and our journey to this point really started in May 2008.

That year, we were staying in a cottage overlooking the Loch of Tarbert on Isle of Harris. One morning we took the ferry to Berneray – principally to visit RSPB Balranald on North Uist. In the lead up to the holiday, I had been following the “local” bird news and was keenly aware of a snowy owl sitting on a fence post on Berneray, and I really needed to see this bird. We had tried to get a ferry crossing for the first full day following our arrival on the Isle of Harris. Unfortunately, the ferries were all fully booked so we had to hold off a few days, and the bird had flown the day before our crossing. I felt gutted.

We visited RSPB Balranald, enjoying crippling views of corncrake, and corn bunting. The day also coincided with the first return of red-necked phalarope to Benbecula, a single female observed. Restricted to a tight ferry schedule, Berneray was too far. I felt gutted.

The RSPB warden tipped us off about a good site to view hen harrier, a layby on Committee Road. We drove there instead. In the layby, was a campervan, and the friendliest of birders who was halfway through a three-month tour of the Outer Hebrides. He had just seen the male hen harrier fly in with food, but both the bird (and nest) were lost to view beneath the height of the heather.

So that was that, and we returned to Harris. I felt gutted. However, A had a much more pragmatic approach to the experience, filing away the location, the ambiance, the need to be flexible and mobile. Committee Road, a layby, a campervan, hen harrier; Benbecula, a red necked phalarope. The seed of this road trip planted.

Raptor viewpoint, Committee Road
North Uist

#VanLife, Committee Road

The raptor viewpoint, produced little in the way of birds, the only notable sighting, being the arrival of the solo birder whose recent protestations about “safari birders” had fallen once more down the deep well of irony.

Back at Moorcroft campsite, the owner arrived to take payment for the overnights.

“Is everything OK with your stay?”
“Just a little disappointed with the wind” I say and smile, not meaning it.
“Is it not windy enough for you?” comes the swift response, and a smile too. It is just weather.

After dinner we walked to the Chambered Cairn, carrying a few beers, listening to Julie Fowlis, playing quietly from the phone in my pocket. In the fading light, a large orange moth and an unidentified diver spp. were both seen, along with a male hen harrier flying low across the bleak moor. Somewhere unseen, within the landscape a Cuckoo calls. We watch the sun setting behind the stone monument, to the accompaniment of Cope’s “Raving on the Moor”.

We will head north tomorrow, to our final campsite of this road trip - on the Isle of Lewis.

Chambered Cairn and Sunset, Nr. Moorcroft Campsite,
North Uist