Just as we were thinking we would never get a good photo of a Short-eared Owl on the Committee Road, hey presto, one turned up and Peter was able to stop and take several good shots, one of which is the in the header picture for today.  Look at those eyes – they look huge compared to the rest of his body.

owl3

Apart from the owl, today has been quite low-key – the weather has turned out to be quite cloudy and VERY windy!

We stopped at the cafe at Cladach Kirkibost and had their soup, served either with a roll or, in the Scottish manner, a scone.  Very good and I was able to put the day before’s blog post on.  The connection at Balranald was hopeess in the morning.

From there we took the main road down towards Benbecula and what once was the tiny island of Grimsay but is now joined to Benbecula by another causeway.  The light on Grimsay was quite extraordinary – with deep shadows and golden highlights.  Some photographs…

grimsay mountains

sheepandgull

Gulls amongst the Sheep!

mountains2

merganser2

Red-breasted Merganser

loch

lilypads

Even the pads of the Water Lilies are attractive – soon the flowers will appear

loch2

gosling

Where’s my Mummy?

Another island that is strictly not an island now is Floday.  There was a causeway and a few loch-side houses, some of which didn’t appear to have any roads to them and seemed to be isolated. They all had boats tied up though so supposedly that was their main method of transportation!

In the loch was a line-up of Oystercatchers plus a single Shelduck.

oystersshelduck

Another old croft which has probably been refurbished for holiday use.

flodayhouse

The sun belatedly came out on our return journey over the causeway to Balranald.

causeway

Back at Balranald the weather became wild and the wind whipped up enough to shake Bessie and there was a long un-announced downpour.

Now, tomorrow, the BBC has reassured us, will be sunny and slightly less windy.  Hope so.