Ardnamurchan - Bird Life for the Ornithologist

Some information on Bird Watching in Ardnamurchan in the West Highlands of Scotland....

Rugged, windswept terrain typifies much of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula; but this a diverse landscape which harbours a variety of habitats and, consequently, a wide range of bird life.

Heron

Loch Sunart provides a relatively sheltered refuge for the eiders, red-breasted mergansers and common terns which nest on its many islands and around the shore. In the winter, great-northern divers take up residence, escaping the harsher conditions found in their breeding grounds in Iceland and Greenland.

Though variable in character, with stretches of exposed, steep cliffs and areas of secluded bays, the Ardnamurchan coast is typically rocky. In the sheltered inlets, mallard, and occasionally teal, dabble in the shallows; herons too are often to be found, stalking fish near the water's edge. The more open, sandy parts around the north also have breeding shelduck. Rock pipits flit amongst the rock and seaweed in their search for insect prey while striking oystercatchers tackle muscles.

Scavenging hooded crows are ubiquitous along the shore where they mingle with common, lesser black-backed, greater black-backed and herring gulls.

Since their re-introduction to the west coast, sea-eagles may again be seen. These spectacular birds hunt fish and sea birds and are also partial to an easier meal, taking strand-line carrion and even stealing prey from otters. although they have been absent for a number of years they are now back (from re-introduction experiment on the islands) and one is nesting on the north coast - believed to be the first on the UK mainland for many years

Ardnamurchan Point provides a suitable place for watching for seabirds such as arctic skuas, black guillemots, fulmars and manx sheerwaters.

Behind the shore, coastal woodlands form an important habitat. Internationally recognised for their conservation value, these ancient native woods of oak, ash and hazel to are home to a range of bird species, particularly during the summer when the breeding migrants have arrived. The willow warblers descending-scale song rings out with the trilling sound of the wood warbler, and there are redstart and tree pipit too, the latter usually delivering its song as it parachutes towards a prominent perch.

Boldly coloured great-spotted woodpeckers and cryptically coloured treecreepers work the tree trunks for grubs and larvae; great tits and wrens forage amongst the foliage; and blackbird and superbly camouflaged woodcock search for worms on the woodland floor. Predatory sparrowhawks, tawny owls and buzzards also hunt these woods - their quarry small birds and mammals.

During the autumn and winter, the woods are far quieter. Resident robins may still utter a little song and recently arrived redwings and fieldfares noisily and hurriedly strip the berries from the rowan and holly trees, but there is a calm to the woods at this time.

Corncrake

The coastal fringe is also the most crofted area. During the summer months, whinchats are characteristic of this habitat and one species that appears to be returning to this, a former haunt, is the secretive corncrake. It is a bird that is rarely seen, but during summer evenings its crex crex call is unmistakable.

The peninsula has areas of forestry plantation too. These expanses of non-native conifers have nothing of the character and diversity of the native woodlands but they are a home to coal tits, crossbills and goldcrests and, in places, their scrubby margins provide cover for grasshopper warblers.

This wild, open country is the domain of the majestic golden eagle and the raven, hardy birds that survive here throughout the year. The merlin, though, only comes to breed.

These elegant and quick little falcons prey on the small birds that have arrived to raise their families. The boggy pools and lochans of these rugged uplands are the breeding ground of other special birds too; red-throated divers and greenshanks can both be found here.

A myriad of burns flows from this higher ground, eventually to meet the sea, but en route these tumbling watercourses are the ideal place for grey wagtails and constantly-bobbing dippers to nest. Larger rivers and lochs, including Loch Sunart, are also frequented by the common sandpiper, a short-staying summer migrant but one which, with its shrill piping call, certainly makes its presence known.

Ardnamurchan has much to offer the bird watcher, but please respect that which you come to see and note that Ardnamurchan is home to rare birds which are specially protected by law. It is a crime to disturb these birds while they are nest building or while they have eggs or young, and to disturb the young of these species before they are wholly independent.

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