Wednesday 4 July 2012

Seabirds at Stoer

One day of our holiday we walked along the stunning stretch of coast


between Stoer lighthouse



and the Old Man of Stoer.



The cliffs are home to several species of birds including black guillemot, guillemot, razorbill, fulmar,, bonxie (great skua) and raven though I couldn't help feeling there should be more of all these birds (you can read about the struggling populations of Scottish seabirds here).

There's a nice little tea and snack van near the lighthouse. The owner is a keen naturalist and keeps a list of recent sightings of birds, mammals and other species. If you are heading to Stoer, you can print this page off for a 10% discount on your first purchase from the tea and snack van. Just don't drink too much when you're there as there are no public toilets near either the lighthouse or the Old Man.

As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages, where you can find out more.

12 comments:

The Weaver of Grass said...

I am sure that the brilliant blue of the sea belies the temperature Juliet. Looks a lovely place.

Ms Sparrow said...

How kind of you to caution visitors about the lack of bathroom facilities. That can be a huge consideration for some of us!

Rachel Fox said...

That blue looks lovely! I'm missing the colour blue!!
x

Crafty Green Poet said...

Hi Weaver it was actually beautifully warm, not too hot, just perfect weather...

Naquillity said...

so glad to hear you're having a great time with warm weather. that view is breathtaking. have a great night~

Carol Steel said...

What gorgeous photos! It must have been a lovely walk except for lack of bathroom facilities.

RG said...

Tough about the sea birds - it probably will get worse.

Finally, here in the Puget Sound and the greater Salish Sea, the need to better protect the forage fish (like the sandeels(?)is becoming understood.

In fact, this Friday we are having a first of two trainings for citizen naturalists to learn where and how they (forage fish) spawn and to be able to locate and count the eggs and determine how much activity there is. Good spawning habitat will then be better protected and enhanced - we hope!

Caroline Gill said...

What a wonderful post ... and the weather is amazing! I'm glad the tysties were about ... we greatly enjoyed watching them off Achiltibuie.

MoB said...

this is such spectacular scenery. So very different from my city life

RoadBunner said...

Gorgeous photos!! The western parts of Scotland are the ones I've seen the least of so this is very interesting.

eileeninmd said...

I love the lighthouse and the gorgeous coastline. The scenery is just beautiful and what I imagines it would be. Sorry about the bird though, I will have to go and look at the link now too. Thanks for sharing your trip and the photos.

Crafty Green Poet said...

Rabbits Guy - the training sounds good!

Caroline - funny, I always call great skuas bonxies, but always call tysties black guillemots!