For my last full day in Scotland, we went to Handa Island as the weather was due to be good. For those who do not know what Handa Island is, it is one of the largest seabird colonies in Scotland. It has a large range of wildlife including Skuas, Terns, Puffins, Red grouse, Otters and much more.
By far the easiest animals to see are the Skuas. They have both Arctic and Great skuas. It is easy to get close to them without them being disturbed. However sometimes, if you get too close, they will attack, especially if you are near a nest.
You can see most of the skuas when walking through the island. The path through the island takes you to the main seabird colony, around what is known as the Great Stack. Here you can see puffins, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars. The Puffins are usually quite far away so it is difficult to photograph. I did manage to get quite close to a razorbill though by lying over the edge of the cliff. Here you can see it yawning.
Here is a calling fulmar, also near the great stack.
Carrying round the Island, we saw plenty more species but the main highlights of the day came towards the end... when we were running out of time on the island. We were nearing the beach where you get the boat back to the mainland when my Dad said 'STOP'. He said that we saw a duck sized bird run across the path. I thought about this and realised that what he saw was a red grouse. And that is what was just around the corner. Unfortunately though, it ran off into the bracken where it was next to impossible to see. While my dad walked on, I stayed back to try and get a shot of one of these birds. I edging closer to one red grouse walking out of the ferns and took a few pictures. However, little did I realise that there was another red grouse crouched down in the heather right in front of me. I saw it before I stepped too close and managed to get some photos. After taking a few shot, I backed away slowly so I didn't make them fly away.
I carried on to the beach until I came across a great skua feeding on a dead rabbit. Sure enough it flew to a point where it could watch us carefully. I carried without stopping, just in case the skua thought I was going to steal his food. When I got to the beach, I was just about to sit down when I saw what I originally thought was a guillemot out at sea. I took a few shots as I hadn't got a decent shot of a guillemot yet on that day. I took two shots and reviewed the shots. However, on closer observation I saw that it wasn't a guillemot or even an Auk. It was a red-throated diver! My first ever. This persuaded me to brave the cold sea. The bird wasn't phased at all by the 14 year old wading through the water towards him so I was able to get some nicely detailed images.
If the diver wasn't enough, the great skua from earlier had brought its prey to the beach to feed on, just a little further along the beach.
When the boat came, we asked if the driver could take us closer to the diver. The driver didn't mind and neither did the diver! Unfortunately though, we got to a point where the bird was strongly backlit and my closest shot of the bird didn't come out very well. But oh well, not much we could do about that. So the next day we went home. It was the end to a great weekend in Scotland. I was so happy at the end of the trip. Even more pleased that I'm going back there at the end of the Summer. :P
All images © Samuel Aron
