Wildlife photo walk on the Isle of Eigg

Today, I am on the STUNNING (I know I say that a lot, but it really is stunning) Isle of Eigg in the small isle of Scotland West Coast. We have anchored here overnight, and I have about 1 hour in which I can get out and go photographing, before we head off on the boat.

On my row into shore, I am followed by some curious seals, which very kindly, hang around once I have beached the dingy and allow me to take their photographs.

The beach has some beautiful silvery sand and like a lot of the west coast of Scotland, has some dramatic rocks surrounding the coastline. There is an abundance of bird life here and the air if filled with calls of terns and oystercatchers.

I head up over the rocks, on the grassland behind them, where once on top of this little hill, I spot a Grey Heron, unfortunately, it spotted me first and is already flying away, doh! The arctic terns are flying above, who move much faster that I anticipated! However, after some perseverance, I manage to capture some images I am happy with. I was using the aps-c mode of my Sony A7iv here, to get me to 600 mm. While I could just crop in after the fact, and get the same image, I find that with this camera, if the subject is bigger in the image, it finds it easier to focus on the subject.

Continuing on down towards the rocky shoreline, I spot a bird I have not seen before. With a bit of help from the Merlin Bird ID app, I identify it as a ringed plover. It is a beautiful little thing, and I am really happy with the images that I created.

Moving around the top of this little headland, I spot 2 different bird species, sharing the same rock. Now while this isn’t the best image, or even the most unique (there are many, many, photos online of images where more than one bird species are present) it was lovely to be able to see the size difference between these common shore birds.

Ringed Plover, Oystercatchers and a Herring Gull

Moving on, I spot where the gang of oystercatchers are hanging out before heading down back towards the dingy and the other side of this little bay.

Here I spot a common sandpiper, chirping away on the rocks, and it moves with me down the beach, giving me a few different backdrops to photograph it against. (It is always nice to have an accommodating subject like that...)

Further down, I hear a new bird call, and thanks once again to the merlin app, I was able to identify this as a meadow pipit. These birds are about the size of a European robin and are on the UKs amber list of conservation concerns due to a decline in numbers.

A little further on, I reach a farm fence, and decided to turn back, as my time here was coming to an end (and I didn’t want to attempt to traverse around the fence on the slippery rocks). On my way back to the dingy, I had another encounter with a common sandpiper which rounded off my little wildlife photography walk on the Isle of Eigg.

I had a short, but wonderful time here on the Isle of Eigg, and it is definitely on my list of places to come back to and spend more time exploring.