Lady Anne Wildlife Cruises

Along with photographing Short Eared Owls ( The Outer Hebrides - Part One) I had planned two trips out with Lady Anne Wildlife Cruises. My thinking was that by doing two trips I would maximise my photo opportunities and also safeguard against missing a trip if one was to be canceled. That turned out to be a pretty good plan as the first trip was indeed cancled due to high winds. A replacement trip was quickly offered later in the week, so no photo opportunities were missed thankfully. Day one was very wet but calm and we saw lots, day two on the other hand was a lot brighter but more windy so sightings were a bit less. This is often the way wildlife photography goes, you are completely at the mercy of light, weather and just the chance of even getting a sighting of anything. If it was easy it would be less of an accomplishment when you do get an image. I can highly recommend this trip. The Nye and Rosie were very friendly and knowledgable about all of the islands and wildlife we saw. We even had a fantastic encounter with juvenile white tailed eagle circling the boat at one point. A great trip which I shall be returning for next year.

I have just returned from a fantastic trip to North Uist in the outer Hebrides. After an epic drive taking us up from Dumfries and Galloway through some of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine we arrived on the Isle of Skye to catch a ferry across to Lochmaddy, Uist. After a very long journey our beautiful grass roofed holiday accommodation in North Uist was a very welcome sight.

SHORT EARED OWLS

My plan for the week had been mostly to focus on finding Short Eared Owls to photograph. I had heard of a couple of locations in the area which would be worth a look so I planned an early rise the next morning and headed out to see what I could find. I was in luck, my first morning out gave me my first sighting. I spent a couple of hours watching this beautiful owl hunting. The light was difficult to begin with and a couple of heavy rain showers were thrown in too. I don’t think bad weather is always a bad thing, it can add some fantastic atmosphere and a sense of the true conditions that the wildlife has to survive in.

For the rest of the week I saw short eared owls every day. Often in poor light and often at too much of a distance to actually get good photos. It didn’t matter though, because I just loved watching them and enjoyed the moment without even lifting the camera. Whilst driving around looking for owls I managed to see so many deer, white tailed eagles, kestrels, buzzards, curlews, lapwings, amongst so much other wildlife. I saw many male and female hen harriers at a distance and I was desperate to get good shots of them but it wasn’t to be, well not this time anyway. Uist really is an amazing place and we have already booked to go back. These pictures are from the rest of the week at various locations throughout North Uist. Whilst we did have some short visits next time I hope to spend a little more time exploring Isle of Benbecula and Southern Uist.