Day 18

 Sunday May 12 l

Our best moth catch of the trip last night. Two female and two male Emperor Moths were the pick of the bunch, We've trapped female Emperors before but never a male. As with raptors, the females are larger than the males.

Female

She left us some eggs

Male Emperor - damaged unfortunately

 

We started with the drive down to Kallin on the east coast, the centre of the islands' shellfish industry. A small harbour with Namara's  processing plant around the corner, surrounded by mountains of discarded shell.

 

We are a small seafood processing company located in The Isle of North Uist, in The Outer Hebrides, surrounded by some of the cleanest and pollution free waters in the world. We own some fishing vessels and take fresh catches on a daily basis from several other boats. Our local harbour is adjacent to us and the boats catch a diverse range of shellfish.

All our products are sourced from the pristine waters around the Outer Hebrides. Some such as lobster and crab are caught mainly on the Atlantic seaboard on the west of the Hebrides. Some such as langoustine and scallops are caught on the eastern seaboard or the Minch as it is known. 

The banks of the rutted lane leading down to the small factory and shop are covered in swathes of primroses during spring. 

Then, we tried for the Phalaropes. No luck -again. If only one bird has returned, there's bound to be limited interest in the nesting area.

We'd enjoyed our visit to Peter's Port, enough to visit it again. We were the only car there so could park where and at what angle was best for us. I don't suppose that the cars who arrived later thought it was a good idea! There was still a Great Northern Diver in the bays, a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers made an occasional appearance, an Arctic Tern fished just out of my camera's shot. Best was a large Dog Otter, first spotted by Pam, who fished for at least half an hour in the water between the rocky islets. He was very successful, I scoped him with a large fish still wriggling in his mouth as he swallowed it. Again, he was too far away for photography. The young man who first joined us, dressed in camo gear with a large lens mounted on a tripod, had never seen a Diver before and also loved the Otter. It's always a pleasure to show appreciative people wildlife.

Time for another go at Loch Mor, the Phalarope nesting site. Snipe, Ruff, Redshank and Shelduck, no Phalarope. A large minibus drove up and parked. It was our old acquaintance Ian who guides for Heatherlea. He pointed out a White-tailed Eagle sat on  a rocky mound and had seen the Phalarope there early this morning. Maybe that's the answer - we've been afternoon visiting. 

It was very misty as we drove home, it later became a heavy shower. By this time we were safe indoors, watching the Blue-faced Leicester tups put in the front paddock this afternoon.