Handa Island, Part 4, 7th June

....continued from (Handa Island, Part 3)....

We arrived at a small headland that looked directly towards the Outer Hebrides. There is a very small pond here and on one of last visits we had watched a Great Skua bathe in the peaty water at very close range. Whilst we watching it spruce up another had flown in and tried to get in the spa as well only to be met with great hostility by the occupant. We had had first class views of the Skuas full on threat display in which it raises its wing high above it, flashing the large white wing patches skywards, whilst emitting a really deep snarl towards its adversary which very wisely went to look elsewhere to have its own clean up.

Great Skua bath time.

"Go away!"

On this trip, however, the pond was empty and undisturbed but we did notice a Fulmar nestled down in amongst the thrift flowers. Like the one seen earlier this bird also looked to be affected by the rising temperatures although it wasn't panting quite as badly as the other one had been.

The bird that was laid on a rock ledge just a few feet away did look bothered by the heat however. The Great Skua resting there actually looked distinctly unwell with its head slumped down to the ground and its feathers all fluffed up. This was one very sick and unhappy bird. I feared the worst for it and wondered what could be wrong with it, maybe it had ingested something bad or came off second best in a dispute over a mate or a territory. In any case I felt moved to inform a warden of its plight later in the day and they said that they'd check it out.

"Poor thing"

Rather more happily a young Wheatear, fresh out of the nest, stood on a low rock waiting patiently for its parents to bring it food. It looked so vulnerable out in the open by itself but it wasn't long before it was fluttering down the hillside towards mum. Nearby what I perceived to be a young Skylark was partly concealed in the short grass and looked similarly unprotected. The Skylark flew quite easily away when spooked by a passing walker so I was worrying unduly there.

Wheatear fledgling

Skylark juvenile (I think)

The path leaves the coast after passing a few rocky inlets and beaches where some Eider Ducks loafed just offshore and Red-breasted Mergansers were fishing. Surprisingly we saw no Ringed Plovers during our walk, they are normally quite common on this side of the island. A wooden boardwalk leads back into the interior, over normally damp moorland and back to the ruined village. I say normally damp since this year, in keeping with the entire country, the whole island was incredibly dry and a lot of the damp areas had dried out. Hence the Snipe and Dunlin that could usually be seen from the boardwalk were absent. Hopefully they'd be breeding safely in a wet spot elsewhere on the island. As soon as you head away from the sea then you enter Great Skua territories again and birds are observed flying to and fro while others stand over their domains. Having taken so many photos of them already I resisted the urge to take too many more, but ultimately couldn't help myself!

Displaying Great Skuas 

In the middle of the afternoon the day was now at its hottest and we were both flagging a bit especially considering that our reserves of water were virtually depleted. As we approached the village, much to Mrs Caley's delight since the end of the walk was in sight, we could hear Sedge Warblers chuntering away in the isolated bushes. I listened intently to one of them because I thought I could hear some mimicry contained within the song but further scrutiny failed to convince me that it may be the rarer Marsh Warbler. Then, excitedly, I noticed four Skuas wheeling away in the distance. There is another species of Skua that breeds on Handa and up until now I hadn't seen a single one and I was, quite frankly, worried. But now at last I had Arctic Skuas riding a thermal and displaying high above. Arctic Skuas are smaller than Great Skuas and are much more dynamically designed with long falcon like wings. They are the jet fighters of the piratical bird world as opposed to the bomber like Bonxies. In the past we've had cracking views of Arctic Skuas here but that wasn't going to be repeated on this tour since the birds stayed quite high up. The photos below were taken on a previous visit to Handa.

"Light morph" Arctic Skua, June 2015

"Dark Morph" Arctic Skua, June 2015

We were glad to see the warden's hut emerge at the base of the slope since we were well and truly done in. Taking a final short rest at the last gate a light morph Arctic Skua finally flew over on a much lower trajectory enabling some better views and photos and thus completing another good day spent on the island.

At the west beach a pair of Great Skuas were stood looking pretty threatening towards anything that might encroach too closely. I'm pretty sure they are always there taking charge of the sand and environs. I imagine that the small bay must be a loafing area for non-breeding and juvenile birds.

We waited for the boat to be hailed from the mainland and a little later saw it approaching. We were soon on board and heading at speed, far too fast for my liking because I couldn't study any of the birds on the water, back towards the harbour. I finally spotted a Red-throated Diver but my attempts to capture any decent shots were hopeless. I fared a bit better with a lovely Black Guillemot as the boat slowed a little and my last shot of the day provided a bit of symmetry to the proceedings as another, or maybe even the same one as earlier, "bridled" guillemot floated past.

Black Guillemot

"Bridled" Guillemot

It was a great day out but Handa is hard work, it's a long walk if you traverse the whole island, so on reflection we considered that next time we'd maybe just visit the seabird cliffs and then return straight back to the ruined village and cut out the trudge around the west of the island. That way we'd have time to visit somewhere else on the North West coast, perhaps tripping up to Durness and taking a look for Corncrakes.

The End!