U3A Skye Nature Group

U3A Skye Nature Group

The group, which currently comprises around 8 members, aims to organize one “field trip” and one social meeting each month. The latter give us the opportunity to come up with feedback and new ideas.

To date we have conducted three field trips, to Coral Beaches, Loch Snizort Beag, and Loch Mealt, which have focused on bird life. A further five have so far been planned for 2011, at Dunvegan, Trotternish, Neist Point, Waternish, and Strathaird, and in these we’ll be looking at trees, flowers, marine life, and birds. No field trips are restricted in their scope, so the likes of butterflies and other insects (possibly excluding midges), lichen, and fungi will all be subject to enthusiastic, if not entirely expert, scrutiny.

2010

4 Nov            Meeting at Aros Centre

13 Nov          Coral Beaches: 4 people attended. The weather was sunny but cold. We spotted a few basking seals in Loch Dunvegan on the way up to Coral Beaches. Overall we didn’t see a great deal of bird life, with possible sightings including a black-throated diver and/or an eider duck, but the combination of small bird size, distance, frequent diving, and lack of expertise on our part meant that these were far from confirmed sightings. However, from the vantage point of the elevation at Groban na Sgeire and thanks to the Swarovski telescope we did spot 2 young white-tailed eagles, with wing markers, on a hillock on the small island of Isay. These were soon joined by 2 adult eagles and the family took to the air and flew out of sight over the hillock. A few teal and whooper swans were briefly observed as we passed Loch Suardal on the way back to Dunvegan.

2 Dec            Meeting at Aros Centre cancelled because of Arctic conditions and no events were arranged for this month.

2011

22 Jan           Loch Snizort Beag: 7 people attended. The weather was dull and cloudy. Parking on the A850 near the entrance to the Skeabost Hotel was convenient and access to the loch was straightforward. It was low tide but initially the only bird to be seen on the mud flats was a single gull. Eventually, with the help of binoculars and the telescope we did spot 9 teal, 2 curlews, 2 goldeneye, and 2 mallards around a channel of moving water. A point of interest is that goldeneye are winter visitors from Scandinavia and that the majority of teal are also winter visitors, though it’s not known where they spend the summer season. In view of the sparsity of bird life we walked down to the Old Skeabost Bridge on a convenient footpath alongside the A850. Here we had a look around the ancient ruined chapel, “The Cathedral of the Isles” on the tiny St. Columba’s Island.

                                     

                    From the Old Skeabost Bridge, looking north west over the River Snizort, St. Columba’s Island, and Loch Snizort Beag in the distance.

3 Feb            Meeting at the Aros Centre to organize future events.

26 Feb          Loch Mealt and Staffin shoreline:  Three people attended. We didn’t spend much time on the lochside because of the bitingly cold wind (some of us had forgotten our waterproofs and boots), a heavy rain shower, and a dearth of wildfowl, but we did manage to spot a male merganser with two females. In a weather-induced change to the schedule Anne drove us up the road to Uig for a magnificent view of the Quiraing and Staffin Bay. Back down on Staffin Beach we managed to spot a red-throated diver in winter plumage and witnessed a spectacular seaward diving manouevre by an unidentified sea bird; a juvenile gannet and an unspecified shearwater were two possible candidates.

       

                                                                          The Quiraing

10 March          Meeting at the Aros Centre at 1.30

                    Future Events

26 March          Trees of Dunvegan
 

16 April             Trotternish flower observation walk
 

21 May             Neist Point (marine life and birds)

25 June             Waternish Peninsula (marine life and birds)
 

July                  Limestone plants of Strathaird/Torrin(?)

                        Meetings at the Aros Centre are generally held monthly