We're not really birdwatchers, as such, or at least, we would not have described ourselves as such until last years trip to the Hebrides. We have always when we have been up there been regular visitors to the Balranald reserve, where the picture above of a Ringed Plover was taken, but more in a "Let's have a nice walk, oh look there's a bird over there" sort of way....rather than in a "Have you got the binoculars, oh, better take the teleconverter for my lens" way. Somewhere along the line though things seem to have changed. Last year the TC spent more time attached to the camera than not. And when we returned from holiday we joined the RSPB......oh, and I bought myself a 300mm lens.....but obviously we're not really birdwatchers......
In the course of last years trip we saw more than 50 different species of birds, many for the first time. The rarest was an Iceland Gull (resting at Balranald in the course of its migration) and the most exciting probably a White Tailed Eagle (seen at too great a distance to photograph). We saw Golden Eagles almost daily, including on our final afternoon watching, from the cottage, a pair of them quartering the hillside opposite.....amazing. It's been wonderful over the past few years to see them becoming more and more plentiful as well - hopefully the Sea Eagles will go the same way - in a weeks time we'll be finding out!
Robyn
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