Day 22

 Thursday May 16

This could be a very short Blog:

We went to Berneray. The fog rolled in. We drove home via Ian and Sue's caravan.

A bit longer.

We had our best moth catch so far last night. 13 Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpets, Garden Carpet, Shark, Dark Swordgrass, 6  Flame Carpets, 2 Double-striped Pugs, Knot-grass Scalloped Hazel, 2 Buff Ermines and an Emperor.

We took our lure with us to Berneray, it still works, two Emperors came in to investigate almost immediately. After we'd been to Borve. where we hoped that an end to the interference of ploughing would produce some birds on the machair, about 60 Ringed Plovers in a flock and two skittish Rock Doves in the murk - we stopped at the seal watching lay-by. 

 

North Uist's Rock Doves have been proved, by recent DNA testing and research, to be the only pure ones left in the UK.

A small flock of Eider caught my eye, the furthest bird was a Red-throated Diver, new for the trip. Ian and Sue pulled up, they'd been looking out for us. We showed them last night's moths. Ian told us that they were leaving because thick fog had rolled in. We had to go and see. We couldn't even see Harris and Lewis. We could hear Arctic Terns flying over and saw three Gannets as we re-crossed the causeway back to North Uist.

One of the many roadside stretches of water held our first ducklings of the year, a family of monochrome Mallard against what remained of the light.

 

Sue and Ian's caravan is very smart with plenty of storage space.They've decided to skip their visit to the Highlands and go straight home via Perth and Yorkshire. Their intended Glenmore camp site will be packed with families at half term. Bedlam.


 

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