Gyr Falcon – Loch na Reivil, Hougharry, North Uist, Outer Hebrides, 2nd April 2016
Gyr Falcon sketches based on those in my 2016 notebook (and as such, based on those made at the time).
Historical dips, or at least failures to twitch, but most notably the failed twitch to North Uist with the pregnant Gillian in April 1998, and the failed twitch to North Cornwall with (the not pregnant) Elizabeth in December 2007, were one of the back-stories to this twitch. Oh, as was the notorious occasion when, as part of our ‘Let’s Do Scotland’ trip, Dave McAleavy and I travelled by ferry from Aberdeen to Lerwick in May 1990. We hadn’t really planned to get to Shetland via Orkney and as such we hadn’t planned for an overnight stop-off in Stromness en-route, and so sneaked back onto the ferry to sleep that night, and then twiddled our thumbs in Stromness before we sailed the following morning. Once we finally departed for Lerwick, we were up on deck. We were admiring the mightily impressive Old Man of Hoy as we sailed past when someone casually remarked, “There’s been a Gyr Falcon up there...”. D’oh! Frantic scanning ensued, to no avail. Worse, debatably, we would have had time to get there earlier that morning, if only we had known about it!
However, as an alternative to such bad luck stories, another argument could be that I merely bided my time before finally catching up with a prime occurrence of this must-have species. I certainly bided my time with this individual, which despite it (or at what was most likely to have been it) having been on North Uist, or the Uists, since at least the 6th December 2015, I finally caught up with it on Saturday the 2nd April 2016.
Circumstances prevailed against me going before early April even though it had eventually become a bit more reliable, being associated with the general area around Benbecula in general (rather than North Uist, or indeed the Uists!) for at least a couple of weeks.
This meant setting off to hopefully catch up with it on April Fool’s Day, an irony not lost on me given my track record. Neither was the dubious delight of driving past numerous signs warning of ‘Hidden Dips’ and even ‘Blind Summits’ on the A roads through the Highlands and beyond to the Islands, or at least Skye.
The crossing from Uig to Lochmaddy was surprisingly calm, at least in terms of sea state, given a storm earlier had possibly caused the previous sailing to be cancelled.
I perhaps wasn’t quite as calm, especially as dusk tantalised to the extent that I might have made it to the scene (had the ferry sailing not been delayed by some 30 minutes) in half decent light. That and the fact that the directions on RBA being entirely misleading, certainly in relation to my ‘intelligence’ from Ken Shaw, et al., and, sign of the times, Facebook. The directions on RBA stated, “W. Isles. GYR juv. Female white morph still North Uist at Balranald RSPB by road near visitor centre and showing well. View from a sensible distance and stay away from swan carcass”.
Now, call me stupid, but this, to me, implied that the target of my quest, or at least its most recent food source, was somewhere (very) near the Balranald RSPB visitor centre. It was for this reason that I parked up there, and settled down for a surprisingly ‘good’ night’s sleep in the car. And it was for this reason that, from dawn onwards, I travelled and walked the local road network for at least two hours forlornly looking for a swan carcass which was within 30 or 40 m of the said roads.
Finally, I decided that it had to be elsewhere, and to my failing logic, the next most likely place was Loch na Reivil, just north of Hougharry, a place I remembered from two years before when Gary and I ‘Did the Hebrides’ and stayed in the nearby Sgeir Ruadh bed and breakfast with Mrs K. Simpson.
Once there I chatted to a bizarre elderly couple who were looking for the Gyr Falcon too, and indeed they showed me the much vaunted Mute Swan corpse. I gently, and then increasingly less so, suggested that they should move away from the corpse and watch from their car. This failed to register, so I tried to set a good example by retreating myself and parking up some way off.
Having set myself up in the car, I almost immediately became aware of alarming Common Gulls, and as I traced them I realised, in a complete heart attack moment, that they were mobbing a fucking great big white thing perched on a fence-post on the peninsula in the lochan.
I frantically waved and gesticulated at the couple, who were still wandering around aimlessly near their car, and therefore near the swan carcass. They remained defiantly oblivious..... . In complete frustration at their general ignorance (both in terms of still wandering around near the corpse and totally ignoring me – and so potentially not seeing the bird they were ‘looking’ for) I resorted to driving at them at speed in the wrong gear to ‘put them right’.
Once there I chatted to a bizarre elderly couple who were looking for the Gyr Falcon too, and indeed they showed me the much vaunted Mute Swan corpse. I gently, and then increasingly less so, suggested that they should move away from the corpse and watch from their car. This failed to register, so I tried to set a good example by retreating myself and parking up some way off.
Having set myself up in the car, I almost immediately became aware of alarming Common Gulls, and as I traced them I realised, in a complete heart attack moment, that they were mobbing a fucking great big white thing perched on a fence-post on the peninsula in the lochan.
I frantically waved and gesticulated at the couple, who were still wandering around aimlessly near their car, and therefore near the swan carcass. They remained defiantly oblivious..... . In complete frustration at their general ignorance (both in terms of still wandering around near the corpse and totally ignoring me – and so potentially not seeing the bird they were ‘looking’ for) I resorted to driving at them at speed in the wrong gear to ‘put them right’.
Anyway, perhaps I needn’t have panicked, as effectively the bird remained on the same fence-post until much later in the day, long after I had watched it for a good while, helped the couple get on it, allowed them to use my ‘scope (as I was feeling guilty!!!), walked closer and watched and sketched it for a good while more, departed to Lochmaddy, checked into the Lochmaddy Hotel, watched Brighton and Hove Albion versus Burnley and lunched in the solitude of the public bar, and eventually returned.
Once back, I watched it on the same fence-post for a good while more. Initially I had it to myself (and even resorted to waving down passing Dutch tourists in camper vans to share the experience with them), but eventually (partly due to the arrival of the afternoon ferry) other car loads of birders appeared. I also visited the RSPB visitor centre for a ‘comfort break’ and collected another car with another couple of birders who were evidently following the same directions as me..... .
I returned with them, and thankfully from their perspective, it was still on the same fence-post.... .
By this time, I hadn’t exactly lost interest, but the combination of its inactivity, and the previous night’s ‘sleep’ in the car and the lunchtime beer meant that I nodded off. ...... just a few minutes wouldn’t matter, it was only ever going to be on the fence-post...... .
After my (brief?) doze I focussed on the fence-post, and it wasn’t there!!! “WTF?” I scanned the general area and became aware of an off-white shape in the long grass near where I had walked earlier.
I binned it to confirm my suspicions. Obviously I wanted views, but it wasn’t really necessary to confirm the Gyr Falcon was indeed part hidden in the long grass near the edge of the loch.
The assembled cars were (gently) jostling for a better position just a little way further along the road. I did the same, and then, like others were also doing, I edged open my car-door and erected my tripod.
Binocular views of ‘it’ at an estimated range of 40 m were amazing enough, but through the ‘scope zoomed up to 60 x they were incredible! At this magnification the bird almost filled the ‘scope!!!
The bird was tearing chunks of raw (and fresh!) meat off the carcass of what I suspected was a Greylag Goose. Its’ new food source was largely hidden in the long grass, but at times as the Gyr Falcon ripped chunks out of it more of it was briefly visible.
This was massively dramatic action, was enjoyed (and photographed and videoed) by all with almost safari-like voyeurism analogous with that of the occupants of several Land-Rovers around say, a Leopard with a recent kill.
Although intent on eating as much as possible as quickly as possible, the bird was just slightly uneasy about the proximity of the cars and birders. Fantastically, it responded to this potential threat by taking the goose carcass in the talons of one leg, and then attempting to drag it off by walking away on the other, accompanied with some wing flapping. Enormously powerful!! An absolute BEAST of a bird!!!!
Eventually, having consumed its fill, and having failed to drag the carcass very far, it lazily flew back across the lochan to (a different!) fence-post.
No words can do justice to this bird; beyond stating it was awesome, large, white, and evidently immature and female it was just massively impressive. (Okay then, a very large falcon, with largely white plumage with intricate and subtle dark markings, mainly on the wings and back and black wing tips. It had pale blue-grey legs and feet and bill. Will that do?).
Once back, I watched it on the same fence-post for a good while more. Initially I had it to myself (and even resorted to waving down passing Dutch tourists in camper vans to share the experience with them), but eventually (partly due to the arrival of the afternoon ferry) other car loads of birders appeared. I also visited the RSPB visitor centre for a ‘comfort break’ and collected another car with another couple of birders who were evidently following the same directions as me..... .
I returned with them, and thankfully from their perspective, it was still on the same fence-post.... .
By this time, I hadn’t exactly lost interest, but the combination of its inactivity, and the previous night’s ‘sleep’ in the car and the lunchtime beer meant that I nodded off. ...... just a few minutes wouldn’t matter, it was only ever going to be on the fence-post...... .
After my (brief?) doze I focussed on the fence-post, and it wasn’t there!!! “WTF?” I scanned the general area and became aware of an off-white shape in the long grass near where I had walked earlier.
I binned it to confirm my suspicions. Obviously I wanted views, but it wasn’t really necessary to confirm the Gyr Falcon was indeed part hidden in the long grass near the edge of the loch.
The assembled cars were (gently) jostling for a better position just a little way further along the road. I did the same, and then, like others were also doing, I edged open my car-door and erected my tripod.
Binocular views of ‘it’ at an estimated range of 40 m were amazing enough, but through the ‘scope zoomed up to 60 x they were incredible! At this magnification the bird almost filled the ‘scope!!!
The bird was tearing chunks of raw (and fresh!) meat off the carcass of what I suspected was a Greylag Goose. Its’ new food source was largely hidden in the long grass, but at times as the Gyr Falcon ripped chunks out of it more of it was briefly visible.
This was massively dramatic action, was enjoyed (and photographed and videoed) by all with almost safari-like voyeurism analogous with that of the occupants of several Land-Rovers around say, a Leopard with a recent kill.
Although intent on eating as much as possible as quickly as possible, the bird was just slightly uneasy about the proximity of the cars and birders. Fantastically, it responded to this potential threat by taking the goose carcass in the talons of one leg, and then attempting to drag it off by walking away on the other, accompanied with some wing flapping. Enormously powerful!! An absolute BEAST of a bird!!!!
Eventually, having consumed its fill, and having failed to drag the carcass very far, it lazily flew back across the lochan to (a different!) fence-post.
No words can do justice to this bird; beyond stating it was awesome, large, white, and evidently immature and female it was just massively impressive. (Okay then, a very large falcon, with largely white plumage with intricate and subtle dark markings, mainly on the wings and back and black wing tips. It had pale blue-grey legs and feet and bill. Will that do?).
Gyr Falcon, Loch na Reivil, Hougharry, North Uist, Outer Hebrides, April 2016 (photograph credited to Graham Jepson, and taken at the time I was there).
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