120704 Skottland-Scotland , day 11 Wednesday Jura

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120704 Wednesday, day 11, Jura

 

 



Raining in Port Askaig Harbour

Woke up at 7.30. Then breakfast at 8. We had our dark coffee and dark toast. :) It was a rainy morning so it did not look good. We left for the ferry to Jura at 9. Raining all the way to Port Askaig Harbour. The ferry left at 9.02 and was on Jura at 9.08. It took only 6 min to go across The Sound of Islay to Jura. :) No need for drinking coffee on the ferry. Or try to be birding.

We went north and stoped at one place and did a little birding and "sealing" before going to the Destillery. We spotted a herrier and a short-eared owl.

 

 We were taking the tour around the distillery and had a very unexperienced guide. A young woman that was not at all used to talk to a group. Or handle a group. She started the lecture long before everybody had come into the room where we were. So I had to ask her to slow down and wait.

Well, this tour was slightly different from the others. We was allowed to smell the head, heart and tail liquids and in the end of the tour we were allowed to smell in some barrels. The sherry barrel had a very appealing scent.  :)  Isle of Jura Destillary After the Destillary we went to check out a small art shop they had downhill. And checking out the small harbour and view over the ocean.

 

After that we went birding for an hour before coming back to Juras only hotel for lunch. Today I was a bit annoyed. For the first time I wanted to have a cup of coffee and a whisky cheesecake as dessert. And for the first time the others decided desert was not needed. So I could not have it. :(

 We was supposed to do some birding  on the north part of Islay, but we stayed on Jura as the weather started to be really good. And it payed off. We spotted some female hen harrier feeding a young. And some Short-eared Owls (jordugglor). And a nice view of a Common Stonechat (svarthakad buskskvätta). The view over The Paps of Jura  was quite amazing. I really like those mountains.

 

Above, Craighouse I think. 

This Ringed Plower (större strandpipare) stood on one leg as long as I saw it. Maybe it only had one.  We also got good sightings on Stonechat (svarthakad buskskvätta) and short-eared owl (jorduggla).

 

And now we were running out of time. Of course interesting stuff  happens in the last moments so you don´t really can enjoy them. We had to hurry a bit not to miss the ferry back to the mainland or we had to stay on Jura for the night. That was not really an option.

We arrived 10 min before the ferry should depart, but they were almost in the landing and no traffic. I guess they kept track of the visitors on Jura. We were the only car returning to the mainland adn as soon as we were onboard they left to take us over. Then we had a 30 min drive back to Bowmore and the hotel.

At 19.00h we were at the nearby hotel for dinner. Same as yesterday. I ordered some chicken breast with Cheddar cheesecovering.  It was very good. Then we went to the lounge to deal with the birdlist. A short but nice list today.

I took a shower and wrote this of course. Did check out the blogs too.

120701-04 Harbour Inn, Bowmore Islay http://www.harbour-inn.com/

Tomorrow we meet at breakfast and are supposed to be packed to leave at 9.30.

 

 The view over The Paps of Jura was quite amazing.

Map of Jura


Himmelsk 102   Sky Watch Friday

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120701 Skottland-Skottland , day 8 Söndag, Färjan svenska

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120701 Söndag, dag 8, halvägs genom resan

Morgonskådningen, kl 6.30,  lades till Machrihanish Seabird Observatory igen. Det regnade en hel del i början med det lade sig så småningom. Jag har börjat klura ut hur sulorna ska fotas så nu börjar det bli riktigt roligt. De flyger in på ett visst sätt när de ska dyka. Andra gånger går de ner till vattnet och det ser ut som om de använder vingen till att rotera sin färdriktning. Dom vobblar då. Intressant! Jag har också sett flera olika dräkter. Det är vackert med alla klippor, vågornas brytning och fåglarna.

Vi hann med att äta frukost innan vi skulle åka med färjan kl 10.30.

Port Askaig

På väg över till Islay, vilket tog ung 1.5h, kunde vi skåda en hel del fågel.  Mindre Liror, fick jag lära mig, fanns överallt. De for som skottspolar farmför färjan. Solen kom fram och lirorna glimmade i flykten. Sedan slog de sig ner vid sidan av färjan för att strax därefter ta till vingarna igen. Häftigt så det förslog för en som är ovan vid detta. Men som allt annat tog detta roliga slut. Vi kom iland och även till vårt nya hotell på andra sidan ön.

 

Mitt badrum. :)

Efter att ha fått våra rum åkte vi iväg igen för att träffa Malcolm från Islay Wildlife centre. Vår guide på ön. Vi åt middag på en lokal restaurang och sedan höll Malcolm ett föredrag för oss om fågellivet på Islay.  Det blev rätt sent men ändå stannade vi till för att se om vi kunde hitta någon tornuggla nere vid viken på väg tillbaka till hotellet. Men därav blev intet.

Däremot blev vägen till kudden väldigt kort den kvällen. J

 

120701-04 Harbour Inn, Bowmore Islay http://www.harbour-inn.com/
 

 

MAP OF Islay      English diary

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120701 Skottland-Scotland , day 8 Sunday, Ferry

Sky Watch Friday      Himmelsk 100

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120701 Sunday, day 8

 Half way through.

 



Machrihanish

Woke up 5.30. Met the birders at 6.30 and we were heading back to Kintyre and the Bird Observatory. Lots of rain and wind at first but then it calmed down a bit. Still fun to shoot the Gannets. Now I start to learn their behaviour. They have a cool habit of swooping down to the watersurface. Make a turn and dip the tip of the wing in the water. Sometimes with a result of making them wobble a bit. Seemed like fun. I think the gang, Ola really, saw at least one seasvallow (?). Not sure if there was more. I looked for Twite (vinterhämpling) but did not see any. But I learned how to shoot the gannets at Machrihanish Seabird Obervatory . :)  Map

 

Check out the "stockings" :)

 

Back to breakfast Craigard House Hotel at 9.15 and departure to the ferry at 10.30.

Now we left Campbeltown to go to  Kennacraig and the Ferry Berth. It was a large and fairly new ferry with some treats in the design. Well, for me that is.  The  Ferry departured as sceduled and we had 1h45min to do some birding onboard and whatever we wanted to do. . I had prepared a lunchpack, coffee and cookies, on the hotell so I had a thermos with me. I thought it was enough for me. Quite nice to not have so much in the stomach for once. I went out on the front balcony to look around while people eat a lot of lunch. And I took a tour around the ferry.

Mindre Lira - Manx Shearwater

It was windy. Of course I almost said. And for a moment hard to stand upright. To start with not much action on the water. Spent the time watching the sea and taking some shots. Finally there were some gannets comming into sight. And then mindre lira. And lots of them. And they came close. So fun to see them in the front of the ferry. The sun came out too and made the lirorna glimmer when they moved and circled the wateres. Finally they sat down on the water on the left side. Only to be on the wings again a moment later. Running the water before being airborne. So fun to watch. Some people did se some dolphins too but not me. :(

Decoration on the Ferry to the left.

Then we headed in between the two islands and soon the tour to Islay was over. We landed at Port Askaig. We headed for the other side of the island and our new hotel, the Harbour Inn in Bowmore. We got our rooms and 16.15 we left again for some easy birding along the shore and the low tide area.



Isle of Jura

At 18 we met Malcolm and had dinner at a smaller restaurant. After that Malcolm had an intersting lecture about what they do at the Islay Wildlife Centre in Port Charlotte, and about the birds in the area.

 

On the way back to the hotel we made a stop at the wetland hopeing for  Great Grey Owl (lappuggla)to hunt the wetland. But there was only the regular birds.

We were back at the hotel at 22.45. A bit too late for my taste. It ment No Shower.  At midnight I realised that I could not get the TV to work. I found a late woman in the staff that was on her way home. She helped me with that. To bed at 00.30.

120701-04 Harbour Inn, Bowmore Islay http://www.harbour-inn.com/
 

MAP OF Islay      Svensk dagbok

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