Go north .... keep going north, take a 3 hour ferry even farther north and you finally reach Uist in the Outer Hebrides, an archipelago of islands set in azure blue seas, with dazzling white sand beaches, not many humans, but LOTS of wildlife as a result.
Regular readers of this blog might just recall the story of my trip to this amazing place last year?
It's a mark of what an impact that trip had on this wildlife photographer, that I took the unusual step of a return to the same spot, in the same week of the year, to do it all again.
This felt a bit like turning up every year and setting up your windbreak, blanket, bucket and spade as soon as you set foot on a beach, instead of walking along to find the perfect spot further away; however ..... this was in fact, the 'perfect spot', albeit as you will discover, not everything was exactly as we found it last year.
Accompanied again by my good friend Ian, wildlife matters got off to a proverbial flier on the ferry over from Mallaig to Uist. Encouraged by Ian to take my camera up onto deck, 'just in case' we saw anything interesting on the crossing, we were delighted to see that we'd be sailing on a rare flat calm, increasing the prospects of decent photography opportunities if anything showed.
Let's gloss over my various classic neurodiverse / natural stupidity induced calamities before we even boarded the ferry; the highlight being dropping my camera body on the ferry carpark tarmac, an incident which is now keeping the Fixation camera repair team and a large group of underwriters very busy 🙄.
Fortunately the (now established) very expensive damage, left the camera just about usable on the trip, preventing a 'man overboard' incident before we'd even started!
The mood was lifted significantly about 2/3rds of the way across the sailing, with shouts of "Dolphin" on the top outdoor viewing deck. A quick scramble to a lower deck for a better angle and we were treated to great views of a family pod of Common Dolphins approaching the ship, with their usual exuberant intent.
They are such seemingly joyful creatures and our resultant elevated mood rose even further as we felt the ship swerve to avoid an assumed Mother and juvenile pair of Minke whales, glimpsed briefly before they headed back down to the depths.
The Outer Hebrides, along with almost all of the UK had suffered a cold, wet and miserable spring, not ideal for the birdlife that heads north to breed. The locals told us that if we'd been there a week earlier, we'd have been on the receiving end of a truly wet, windy and cold weather, where 'dreich' didn't begin to cover it!
Fortunately our week was blessed with relatively fine weather, however the wildlife photographer can always find something wrong with whatever weather appears; 'too bright', a frequent moan as we battled with heat haze - never happy!
My trusty X5 turns into a safari vehicle on weeks like this. The best way to get great photographs is to stay hidden from the wildlife by staying mainly inside the vehicle, with camera lenses pointed through the open windows and sometimes .... the open sunroof!
The morning game 'drive' started at dawn and finished late morning, with a brief middle of the day break before heading out again at c 15:30 until sunset. That far North in mid Summer meant 04:00 starts and 23:00hrs finishes - long days indeed!
Packed beaches on Uist!
Our visit in 2023 was astonishing for the sheer density of wildlife sightings. It seemed that we couldn't turn a corner without something new to fly in front of our excited eyes!
The 2024 expedition turned out to be a different kettle of fish .... in fact, less fish in a smaller kettle would best describe the difference.
We had to search harder and longer to deliver the kind of encounters hoped for after last years visit. We covered almost exactly 1000 miles in a week of driving around the Uists in search of Short-eared Owls, Eagles, Harriers and anything and everything else that popped into view.
Last year we found a couple of spots fairly early on that could be relied upon to provide sightings each time we visited. The first few days of this visit proved harder to find reliable sightings locations, nonetheless 'sparse' sighting on Uist are still a bountiful harvest of avian splendour compared to almost anywhere else in the UK.
Early Shortie sightings
An early week highlight was a drive down a rough track towards an area that had yielded great sightings last year. Eyes peeled ahead, left, right and sometimes behind, we were struggling to find any flickers of flight that would give us reason to stop and fire off some (camera, obvs) shots.
The standard speed of our driving when hoping to see wildlife could best be described as 'snails pace', which was a very good thing when I spotted a curious brown smudge on the stony track ahead.
A grab of binoculars, followed by an exclamation of recognition and we were presented with a clearly very young juvenile Short-eared Owl (Shortie), taking a bit of R&R in the middle of the road.
Jay walking Shortie youngster
It's these kind of moments that make your week, your month or even your year (to borrow a Friends theme tune for a second!)
It's the 'different' views and photos of wildlife that thrill significantly more than the kind of views and pictures it's 'easier' to find. Aware that I risk disappearing up my own wildlife photography backside at this stage, I do however think it's worth trying to share how exciting moments like this are for people slightly obsessed with both wildlife and capturing an interesting image.
This shot required a careful slow and quiet exit from a partially open car door, descent into a prone position on a stony surface, all whilst staying in the cover of the vehicles shadow, to minimise any disruption to the subject, which inevitably eventually flew off with an indifferent disdain, possessed only by the truly wild.
What a moment and if I say so myself ... what a picture!
Let's just pause for a moment to remind ourselves that it isn't just the big showy raptors that inhabit the remote Northern Isles. The Machair of beautiful wildflowers and grasses, the brackish watery inlets and freshwater loch's provide a landscape ideal for all manner summer breeding birds.
Uist land and sea scapes
Wheatear, Stonechat, Redshank, Red Grouse, Curlew, Pipit (top left to bottom right)
No close up views of young Cuckoos this year, but we did see one on a post in the distance once (honest!)
The first full day ended with something truly worth staying up for, with the drive back to our super Airbnb on Benbecula filled with a sky full of colour, as the sun set as far west as it does anywhere in the UK.
It was after 23:00hrs, we were tired and ready to head off for a good nights sleep, when I saw a dark silhouette flitter across the burning sky. We both grabbed our cameras, frantically adjusting settings for such low light conditions and managed to capture 'our' local Shortie making its final passes over the machair and a small loch, in search of a late supper.
End of the day Shortie ...
... hunting in the dying embers
A new day and time to look for perhaps the raptor most visitors hope to see cruising this beautiful island; the elusive and ghostly form of a male Hen Harrier.
Heavily persecuted by game keepers on Grouse moors on the mainland, these charismatic birds find space, peace and prey on the Outer Hebrides. They are rare elsewhere in the UK, but spotted frequently on our drives around the archipelago.
Both failing to get a decent shot last year, we were hoping to do better in 2024. This was easier said than done it turns out, as sightings came as fleeting glimpses and followed by the virtual supernatural ability of both male and female Harriers to leave the scene almost as soon as they had been spotted, until ..... one priceless moment!
Male Hen Harrier - the grey ghost - result!
Me and Ian took it roughly in turns for one of us to drive and the other to sit in the back of the car.
It's hard to say which position was more advantageous, with the driving role enabling quicker spotting and the chance to position the car, but with the rear seat allowing access to windows to both right and left without requiring some gymnastics from the driver to pirouette over the gear stick, in order to reach the front passenger window.
In this case, it was my vantage point in the rear that enabled me to focus quickly on the emerging Harrier, whilst Ian safely stopped the car, vainly grabbing his camera to watch the bird fly out of sight. Been there - bought that t-shirt when Ian captured the best Owl with prey shot of last years visit and I missed the shot .... completely - bloody hell!
We did get further views of both male and female Harriers throughout the week - what a treat.
Female Hen Harrier - a 'Ringtail'
Sometimes the birds are big, brave bold and fierce enough that you don't need to hide from their sight inside the car, unless of course there's a risk that you look like a tasty snack yourself!
So it was that we spotted a large wingspan flying in a purposeful manner towards some ground nesting birds. Climbing out of the car and peering into the skies above, we hoped for a flyby in a gloomy sky to help us identify our target.
Eventually, the .... Golden Eagle (!!!) obliged with a slightly nearer and lower flightpath, prompting some open-mouthed appreciation of both its presence and our luck.
More driving, more searching - tough to get close sometimes, but still enjoying (almost) every second, with Shortie sightings always capable of giving you a lift.
Shortie on a post
straight into the camera gaze
Bonus Buzzard
I took thousands of photographs in that week (I blame my 20 frames per second camera!)
The job of selecting the best shots, processing each one to get the best from the RAW image whilst representing what you actually saw, takes time too .... lots of time!
My 'Uist trip 2024 top shots folder has 132 pictures (I was aiming for the Top 50!) and that represents my best effort to select only the absolute highlights of the trip.
This Blog post would be dozens of pages long if I tried to include every special moment with a story and a picture ... and nobody wants that!
Time then to pick the final few moments worthy of a story and a pic, but which moments to choose?
After the 'slower-than-last-year' start reported above, things really gathered pace with another hopeful visit to a favourite spot near the shores of the largest loch on the Uists, Loch Bi.
We meandered further past the turning point in a typical, 'let's see what's happening on this randomly chosen set of turns, only to find one of our very favourite things on a strip of land between shore and loch ... a soggy owl on a post ... hurrah!
Soggy Owl in the morning gloom
A happy hour or two was spent watching this Shortie and perhaps a couple of its mates, cruising over the yellow wildflowers and then coming to rest on picturesque posing posts, if you were quick enough to catch the scene!
Yellow eyes and flowers in the gloom
Probably my favourite Shortie-on-a-post shot of the week
Things were looking up as the week progressed and got even better at the end of the same day, when we returned to the favourite Loch Bi spot, in lovely early evening light.
The wind direction was just right to be able to watch the Shorties quartering across their favourite filed with us positioned with sun and wind behind us.
Shorties in great evening light - fly towards the camera
Out of the Blue
The Shorties flew into the wind to land on a post, so close to the car that as hard as I tried, I couldn't get all of the bird in frame when trying to capture their landing. Nothing for it then but to crop in further to reveal the detail.
Cleared for landing!
Allez oop!
... made it!
... standing tall!
There were at least two different Owls around that evening, with what appeared to be an adult and a youngster squabbling over the airspace at one point, providing a chance to catch their aerial joust.
Jousting Shorties
I wish you could bottle up moments like this. You are concentrating so hard to make sure you capture the best photos that sometimes you miss the whole scene. A little experience helps sometimes and I managed to tear my eye from the viewfinder, to take in the wider view. I'm glad I did, because this is what I saw ...
Don Quixote Owl
I was struck by how the ancient evolved wild world and the new world of modern technology could seen in the same blink of an eye.
My favourite capture of that early evening session, has to be the shot I used to head this blog post. Such a privilege to be sitting quietly within 5 metres of this magnificent creature, in great light, in a beautiful place.
Happy, happy days!
The week was drawing towards a close and the weather was deteriorating a little. 'Windy' in the Hebrides is something completely different and the wildlife tends to take cover until it blows through, not great for photographers!
Fortunately, we had a typically unpredictable amazing encounter before his happened and it was time to head south for home.
We'd seen a lone Shortie from the road only 10 mins south from where we were staying a few times, both first and last thing.
The difference on this morning was that we could see a youngster too .... in fact "there's two!" which soon became a cry of "wait .... there's three!" .... and once we'd worked out that the adult was hunting with serious intent and successfully, we had counted 4 juveniles positioned on posts, on rocks and in the heather, awaiting a feed!
It's not often that you find yourself in the near perfect position to watch something you've never seen in the wild before. On this occasion we could see the adult hunting, make a catch and head towards one of it's youngsters sat on a post, itself in a frenzied encouragement to its parent to bring the vole to him/her, in the classic "me, me, me" chant.
"Me, me, me!" - young Shortie begs for food as it sees parent with a Vole
here's your breakfast .... open wide!
thanks Mum/Dad
Adult gives us a glance as if to say "these kids are exhausting!"
We watched as the adult Shortie worked hard to feed it's young, bringing in their favourite food - the hapless Short-tailed Voles, so abundant on the Uists (but not on all Outer Hebridean islands).
Breakfast is served!
The youngster gathered together in two's and three's (sadly not all 4 at the same time hmmph!).
This collection of relatively vulnerable youngsters, became more so when my peripheral vision caught a movement in the sky to our left.
A swing round from the Owls towards the new arrival, a sharp intake of breath and much scrambling to get the right settings and some focus, as a huge adult White-tailed Eagle (WTE) cruised into view no more than 30m from our vantage point!
We understood that the islands WTE's had been predating the huge flock of swans on the nearby Loch Bi. This individual must have been headed there, only to have it's attention grabbed by a potential early morning snack (our Owl youngsters!)
The huge predator banked from it's flightpath to take a closer look ...
Eyeing up a snack
evaluating whether its worth the effort ...
... deciding not .... and flying off in pursuit of a more substantial meal
Yikes ... Eagle ... take cover!
Has it gone now?
As the wind blew stronger and stronger, we realised that sightings would become harder to find and the last day and a half yielded little as a result, despite eating up miles and miles in our searches.
If that was to be the final action of the week, then we couldn't really grumble, as Uist had already delivered scenes that will live long in the memory.
It might be a while before we recreate the substantial long northward travel, sleep deprivation, countless slow crawling miles over long drives, but I'm sure when the memories of our trips over the last couple of years return, we'll be drawn to this incredible wild world in the far North, once again.
Farewell and thank you (for now) to the Uists
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🥰
Great stuff Andy ❤️