October has flown by, helped by 10 days on the isles of Islay, Jura & Arran off the west coast of Scotland.
The reason for my trip was to try and catch some of the rutting activity of our largest land mammal – the red deer. The north coast of Arran has a good reputation for large numbers of red deer (apx. 2,000) and on the Isle of Jura the deer out number the human population by 30 to 1. There are apx. 7,000 deer on Jura. In addition to the red deer, I wanted to firstly find & then try to photograph Choughs. In Scotland, they are only found on Islay & Colonsay. In addition to spotting choughs, barnacle geese were also on my wishlist. October is the month when 70% of the Barnacle Geese population arrive on Islay & spend winter on the island. Also on my growing ‘Islay list’ were hen harriers, marsh harriers, golden eagles, seals & feral goats. After a considerable amount of research, off I went, with my fingers crossed.
There area couple of RSPB reserves on Islay (The Oa & Loch Gruinart) & these were the first places I visited. I was very lucky to see a huge amount of barnacle geese at Loch Gruinart on a very wet & windy first day. The 45-50mph winds, with driving rain, made photography a little challenging. Thankfully, the rest of the week was a ‘breeze’ in comparison! As the week went on, I managed to spot otters at Port Charlotte on 3 occasions, hen harriers & marsh harriers at Loch Gruinart several times, golden eagles and choughs at Ardnave. There were seals aplenty at Portnahaven and more hen harrier activity on the west coast, by Loch Gorm, towards the end of each day. Sunsets on the west coast most evenings were simply stunning!
As I was walking around the Oa Peninsula, I could really feel the expanse of the Atlantic in front of me – as I stared directly west, I realised that the next stop was Greenland & Canada! Moments later, a herd of 8 feral goats were suddenly only yards from me, right on the cliff edge. These lovely looking creatures are hardy souls that live their lives right on the edge!
I also managed a couple of trips to Jura for the red deer – the ferry only takes 5 minutes from Port Askaig. There is only one public road up the east coast of Jura – it’s about 25 miles up to Ardlussa and it’ll take you about 1hr 10mins to get there. Whilst there were lots of deer scattered about, it was the rising sun over the Small Isles Bay that initially took my breath away. A very scenic spot, just 15 minutes into your journey on Jura. I stopped at various points and just took in all the bellowing and rutting activity from the stags. Fascinating to watch, as they tried to protect their hinds from the competition!
It was a similar situation in Arran when I got there on day 1 – I headed towards the north of the island where I had seen deer before & I wasn’t disappointed this time round. There were plenty of deer to be seen on the hills & by the time I got to Lochranza there was a constant noise of bellowing stags all around. I also stopped for longer on my return journey (day 10) & it was evident that several of the stags that I had seen 10 days previously, had been in a battle. There were missing antlers, there were lots of gashes and scrapes and a new stag was watching over the hinds, on the golf course! There were also plenty seals around the coast of Arran and golden eagles circling the skies as well.
I’d certainly recommend a trip to Islay, its a beautiful island and a very friendly place. I didn’t do any organised trips as I was just out on my own but there are boat trips you can do and plenty whisky distillery tours to go on. I just did day trips to Jura and I would probably stick to that for next time as well. And finally, the reason I was stopping in Arran was because it simply meant a lot less driving and a lot more wildlife photographing opportunities!
Here are some photos from this month’s trip to Islay, Jura and Arran.
PLEASE CLICK ON ANY PHOTO BELOW TO ENLARGE THE SLIDESHOW