Another Fine Day

 Wednesday, May 19

Kallinn is a small fishing port on the east coast of Grimsay. Pam expressed a wish for a return visit - we did so in a previous year. Whilst we were getting ready, we had a message from Sue, saying that she and Ian were watching two Red-necked Phalaropes on Loch Mor. This was the second time that they'd seen them mating, we all did two years ago. That was an easy decision to make. We'd go the pretty way.

When we first arrived at the west end of  Loch Mor at Balevanich, a Red-necked Phalarope flew along the edge of the reeds before leaving in the direction of Loch Fada. Despite waiting patiently in the east end passing place, we didn't get any further views. Lunch and the Range at Ardivachar in South Uist. beckoned.

The future of the UK's largest missile range, based in the Western Isles, will be secure until 2028 following an announcement by the range's operators that it has been awarded a £1bn contract amendment from the Ministry of Defence.

QinetiQ, a leading science and engineering company, the contractors operating the Hebrides Range on behalf of its owners the MoD, will invest approximately £60 million in modern tracking equipment, instrumentation and range infrastructure at the range which has facilities spread across three locations - Benbecula, South Uist and St Kilda.

For us, unless the red flag is flying, it's a large area of machair, which is home to many waders and seabirds, especially during migration. The bay on the approach road is also very attractive to migrating waders as it is a deposit for mounds of stinking seaweed. It clears your nose alright.

After a look at the machair, which was not very lively, apart from about thirty Arctic Terns, either resting, or taking off in a screaming whirl of buoyant flight, long tail streamers bouncing behind. We retired to the cliffs to eat lunch, entertained by a tractor pulling a boat.

 

Using my scope, it soon became obvious that the apparently empty beach was teeming with small waders. 

Dunlin and Sanderling huddled on the rocks, Turnstones  tossing seaweed about on the abandoned heaps. Little Terns were mating on an island, the male holding a gleaming silver fish in his beak, thrashing it from side to side as he performed. Was it hors d'oeuvres, or a thank you present?

Intrigued by the action on the seaweed, I noticed a few different waders, Purple Sandpipers, a bird unfamiliar to us in summer plumage. So difficult to find them in the camera viewer, they blend exceptionally well with their background. I had a go.

 

Time to move on - we saw our third aeroplane land or take-off at Benbecula Airport. Only yesterday, I'd remarked that we'd never seen one. Almost immediately, one landed - a small passenger plane. Although Benbecula Airport is now a civilian airfield, a military presence remained and the RAF Benbecula name continued when a radar station was established. ... The station was downgraded in the late 1990s to a remote radar head and the RAF pulled-out of the main airfield site at Benbecula. Stalham High School's secretary's husband was stationed here as a flight control instructor.He was transferred from Neatishead RAF and changed places with the Benbecula man, who was a local Hebridean. Neither of them willingly. Bureaucratic stupidity.

Kallin is situated at the south east tip of Grimsay. Grimsay is about four miles long by two wide, and is aligned from north west to south east. The harbour, built in 1985, has a growing fishing fleet. The boats from Kallin fish for shellfish using creels and flatfish using long lines. The area is also an important centre for fish farming.

Grimsay is difficult to distinguish in the confused mass of shifting tidal sands, sea, lochs, islands and islets that occupies the area between North Uist and Benbecula.

The area is generally known as "North Ford". Until 1960 it was one of the most difficult obstructions to passage along the length of the Western Isles. A ferry linked Carinish on North Uist and Gramisdale on Benbecula, but could only operate at high tide. And there was a ford, the North Ford, usually only crossed with the help of expert guides. The route of the ford was marked with cairns, but shifted unpredictably with the sands, could only be passed for an hour either side of low tide, and was four miles long. For significant parts of each day the North Ford was too wet to ford, and not wet enough to cross by ferry.

This all changed on 7 September 1960 when the Queen Mother opened the North Ford Causeway. This five mile arc of single track road links North Uist and Benbecula via the western tip of Grimsay. 

The approach is bleak for most of the way. As we approached the coast, it was obviously a sheltered valley with copses of trees, more affluent looking houses, shrub and flower planted gardens. The latter are unusual on these wind lashed islands. One of the lochs had fine beds of flowering Bog Bean, which put the straggling examples on Committee Road to shame.

Where we stopped to eat an apple, a  lovely female Stonechat graced the nearby fence.

Home via Bayhead for my papers. The forecast for to-morrow is not good. We'll see.