Outer Hebrides – June 2024

June 10, 2024

Wildlife in the Outer Hebrides

I spent 7 days in the Outer Hebrides at the start of June.  This was my first trip to these islands and I had great plans to visit Barra, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, Berneray, Harris & Lewis.  This was all to be done from my base in North Uist.

The main reason I was staying in North Uist was to photograph the short eared owls that are out during daylight hours.  Other species, on my list & also in the area, were hen harriers & corncrakes. I didn’t have many hen harrier photos and I had never photographed a corncrake before.  Other species, in the area, were otters, white tailed eagles, golden eagles, red deer & many sea birds, waders & smaller birds. Most of these, I had photographed before, so they were pushed into second place, as if it were.

Reality kicked in, when I realised that there was so much wildlife in North Uist alone, that I would have to revise my travel aspirations over the 7 days. I ended up visiting South Uist, Benbecula & North Uist & that was it.  I would go back in a flash & next time I would try and add on another few islands.

I would recommend a trip over to the Outer Hebrides for the aqua blue waters, the scenery, wildlife & a bit of tranquility. The weather could have been better but it didn’t spoil my trip in the least!  In fact the 25-30mph winds, helped me photograph some of the birds in flight, as they could not fly that fast into the wind! The hen harriers also seemed to fly a lot closer to the ground & flew in a fairly straight line when flying into the wind. This made it easier to photograph them as well.

Travel times from Edinburgh

I travelled from Edinburgh to Mallaig which should have taken me 4 hours, had I not taken a detour to Ardnamurchan. The Calmac ferry crossing to Lochboisdale in South Uist from Mallaig was 3.5 hours. A further 1 hour took me from Lochboisdale to my accommodation in North Uist. It was a long journey, considering I was still in Scotland but well worth it.

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