scotland holiday-day 1,

And so it begins. A 12 day adventure around Scotland-specifically though Arran (although not totally). Having made it more than Half way up last night we made our way to the ferry terminal to catch the 12.30 ferry across to Arran to begin our holiday. Only we arrived at 10.00! that left us with 1 and a half hours to kill in an area where there was nothing to do. Or at least that's what I thought, for no sooner had I stepped out of the car that I managed to find a rock pipit taking food down into a small cave under some rocks. Some patient waiting quickly paid off with these delightful shots. I am particularly proud of the 1st one because it has a nice big juicy sea Slater in its mouth.

further inspection still reveled some black guillemots that were using the harbour terminal. I couldn't find a way to get close however until I manged to find one sat on top of a wooden beam that was easier to access. After some not very discrete sneaking I managed to get a reel of photos of which I can show you two (partly because they were all so rubbish!). Whenever the camera snapped the bird looked down the pole as though the sound was coming from the sea below.

Further exploration foudn some fearless starlings having a wash in the remains of a pool behind the post office section. Although you can see starlings anywhere I thought that, seeing as the sun was shining, That I would take some photos to show the bright variety of coulors the birds display in their plumage.

Soon however I found my-self returning to the rock pipit nest. And as a result I managed to get some even better shots than before. I can now tell you that I did not take any more rock pipit photos for the whole holiday and will probably will be a long time before I start taking them again.

My parents had wandered off whilst all this was going on, apparently gone to asda, (Although why you would want to do that when there was all this amazing stuff is beside me) but still, when they came back my dad and I walked slightly further up the rocky beach to an area where we found some ringed plovers. I took some photos but deleted them later on in the holiday to make space for more photos because I also had some better photos of ringed plover form blackwater foot. As we watched the ringed plovers wander about our ferry appeared and began to move in to port and so we end this bit of excitement at the ferry terminal!

No sooner were we on the ferry than The birds began to appear. An eider floated gracefully into the harbour and the black guillemots began to increase in number before we even set off. However no sooner had we set off than my dad pointed to a bird and said "whats that, its flying like a tern". In the past I would have got out my binoculars and calmly remembered every detail of the bird due to that and identify it later. The new skills of my camera allowed me to take a series of shots and investigate. It turned out to be an arctic skua which is only my second. what a start.

During our trip we were accompanied by a Selection of gulls including the herring gull you see below. However we were also joined out at sea by some manx shearwaters that began to appear from all over the place. At one particular site nearer the Brodick end of the journey there was a mass flock.

We were also joined by some gannets way out in the distance so by the time we pulled into the harbour we were already satisfied with the birds we had seen all holiday. From this moment I feel it is right to introduce you to the holiday objectives

1) photograph a hooded crow-(very important)

2) locate and see a golden eagle

3) find out which lochens the red throated divers nest on and see one in full summer plumage

4)perhaps see either a hen harrier or a black darter (but this is not as critical as the others)

As you can see there are some tough ones there especially as no sooner had we got off the ferry did the lack of hooded crows in Brodick seafront become apparent. May be they don't live on this island as I had so presumed.

lunch in Brodick was uneventful although some of the gulls offered us some light entertainment
as they begged for food

the campsite which were going to be staying at was right next to the sea at the bottom end of the island in a village called Kildonan which interstingly is where all the seals on the island live but where the golden eagles, red deer and divers dont live.

At the campsite we found curlews and oysterctchers plus hundreds of sparrows and a few rock pipit and pied wagtails. The lack of hooded crows was bugging me, lets hope they show their faces soon or there will be hell to pay on their behalf!!