Thirteen nights in Scotland in May produced my highest ever count from a UK or European holiday … by quite a margin. And there were some notable inclusions in my 93-strong list – great northern diver, black guillemot, nightingale, red kite, hooded crow, razorbill, wood warbler, grasshopper warbler, peregrine, dunlin, osprey, kingfisher, hen harrier, red-breasted merganser, brent goose and eider duck were among my highlights, and certainly demonstrated a refreshing variety.
Wait a minute, I hear you say … a nightingale? Yes, I doubted my ears at first but for once I had a good view, too. Was it off route, or is Dumfries and Galloway a hot bed for them in the spring? Seems unlikely, but then if you can get bee-eaters on Shetland!
Anyway, whether my final total of 93 is down to some improvement as a bird-watcher is debatable, but certainly May is a good time to be visiting, and I did vary the habitats quite effectively – with three nights at Castle Douglas in Galloway (the bit usually ignored as people speed north beyond to the big peaks and wide open spaces beyond Glasgow!), a week on the Isle of Skye and three nights in Edinburgh (and even the big city yielded a few new ones).
Among the exciting birding moments – over and above my nightingale – was a grasshopper warbler reeling endlessly outside our cottage in Skye on our last morning there, and the sight of an Osprey is always impressive (and not at Loch Garten, but another long-standing if lesser known site on the Loch of Lowes, near Perth). It was a bit scary when I had to screech to a halt to avoid a covey of red-legged partridge … and that after I’d weaved down a narrow road navigating my way through a succession of four or five hares who seemed intent to race me along the tarmac.
It was a good all-round wildlife trip, in fact, since as well as the hares I also saw grey and common seals, an otter, delightful red squirrels, a few red deer and a fox.
And more general highlights? Well, Dumfries and Galloway is a beautiful, restful area (I’d been to New Zealand six months earlier and there was much to remind me of it here), and the accommodation (Douglas House, Castle Douglas - http://www.douglas-house.com) was truly the best I’ve encountered on a bed and breakfast basis. Forget hotels, this is real luxury.
And Skye … words escape me. While the weather was far from perfect, the magic of this island shone through even in those murkier moments. In fact, the brooding weather added to the sheer grandeur at times. When the sun broke through, the scenery was stunning, and it rose earlier and set noticeably later than we encounter here in Derbyshire, so the days were amazingly long … all the more to watch birds.
Edinburgh was fantastic, too, in a different sort of way and, in three days, I felt we only just scratched the surface of a fantastic heritage. Good excuse to return again soon … though this time I would not particularly recommend the north-city hotel we stayed in. On Skye, by the way, we stayed in a cottage: again I could provide anyone with details of what was a perfectly comfortable base but it probably wasn’t exceptional among a wide range of accommodation.