Dumfries and Galloway Trip - Day 3a

Day 3 on my mini-birding trip to Dumfries and Galloway saw me venturing to the west-coast of the Rhins of Galloway to the pretty little harbour town of Portpatrick.  Ever since my first visit to this wonderful part of southern Scotland I have been wanting to see the famous Black Guillemots or Tysties which are well-known for nesting in the harbour walls here, and today didn't disappoint although the light could have been better.

I took a cross country route through some marvellous scenery for my journey and I briefly stopped at an ancient stone circle known as Torhouse before arriving at Portpatrick.

I spotted a distant bird in the harbour mouth almost as soon as I got out of the van and so I hurried up to the lighthouse end of the harbour to discover it was a Cormorant.  But after only a few minutes two or three Black Guillemots flew low over the water from the open sea before landing in the harbour proper and I immediately realised I was at the wrong end!

So I turned my binoculars on the open sea to look for Divers and was amazed to find a distant but definite Red-Throated Diver almost immediately. I went up to the top car park to get a photo and here I met another motorhome owner and his wife. They were a very nice couple and I chatted with them for some time about where they'd come from (Motherwell) and whether it was possible to overnight here and other such motorhome talk.

After this I went back to the van, picked up my tripod and headed off to the north end of the harbour where most of the Black Guillemots had congregated.  The harbour echoed with their calls and many were sitting inside holes in the harbour wall where they will eventually nest.

I spent a good two or three hours here trying to get flight shots of the birds coming from the sea and up to their nest holes, but the light really wasn't good enough to get the detailed shots I wanted.  However it is a place to which I will return on a sunny day because the potential is enormous.

As well as the Tysties there were also Pigeons and Jackdaws nesting in the harbour walls and I managed some slightly better shots of these birds when the sun put in a very brief appearance.