Good evening all. Well I am on the Isle of Arran. I have told you that we visit here as we have family here and usually camp in Lochranza, it is always in the summer. We had an unexpected invitation to come over to a family birthday and reunion, after booking leave, the cat into the cattery, a self catering cottage, leaving at 7.30am, ferry over, 7.5 hrs travel, here we are! We have a lovely little cottage for a few nights, fully furnished, it's just lovely and with a bottle of red wine and some fresh flowers on arrival! On reading the guest book, many birds and red squirrels come to the garden, where is my bird food, at home! Well I packed everything I thought we would need! We met up with some family on the ferry and took them home, on the way one shouted, there is a huge bird sitting on that rock, it must have been a buzzard the other said, no far too big, I think it was the Golden Eagle!! My eyes are going to be peeled, hopefully I will get a few photos of some birds, wildlife and the views and post them when I get home. Lovely run down and over, dry, no wind, rain, snow, ice so fingers crossed!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Hello fellow forum friends, well we are back on lovely Arran, for a whole week. We came over on Saturday. Yesterday was drizzly rain all day, but very close. Today was lovely and the sun came out. Next few days are supposed to be lovely. Staying in the wee cottage we rented in February. It's really a lazy holiday, visiting the relatives and doing not a lot. Will see what I can photo and post something! Two deer ran past the cottage last night, just as it was getting dark. A lovely dragonfly was going about this afternoon. Had a lovely red squirrel in the garden this morning, not like the black/red squirrel in the photo on page one. The usual garden birdies, forgot to take bird seed but will get some in the little shop tomorrow. From reviews in the visitor book, over the last weeks, porpoise and dolphin were seen in the stretch of water (Kilbranon Sound) over to the Mull of Kintyre, so will keep my eyes peeled.
Sounds idyllic, CL. I'm sure you'll have a wonderfully relaxing time there. :-)
My bird photos HERE
What PA said! Lots of pics please CL!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
I really miss the Isle of Arran as I was there for one week in early July in 2017 and the weather was perfect that week with dry sunny weather and the Isle of Arran was one of the few places I’ve been to, that I felt so sad at leaving as it’s such a beautiful unspoilt Island and it’s unlikely I will ever return to that Island.
Regards,
Ian.
Sounds like the perfect holiday spot Catlady and all the better if you get a decent spell of weather. All those species sound fantastic so look forward to your updates; have a great time and a relaxing one too :)
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Regards, Hazel
I'm very jealous Catlady,we were on the island roughly this time last year and apart from loads of other good sightings I had some of my best Golden Eagle sightings in about 60 years birding and that was nothing to do with the fumes from the local distillery.
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
Sounds fabulous Catlady, seems like everyone dreams of a holiday there. Hope you manage a few photos for us to drool over:-)
Lot to learn
Very nice and hope the weather stays fine for you Catlady.
Jim
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A quick update for today. Had a run around the island, I think it is 56 miles. Lots to see, it was glorious and sunny, bought some lovely Arran chutneys and marmalade. Going to the Arran cheese shop, to stock up and Arran Aromatics to get some perfume, one day. Had a huge white goose running in front of the car, it kept looking back, before it turned left! A mummy peacock and her little babies were around and this morning saw 6 dolphins swimming up and down right outside the window, in the stretch of water over to the Mull of Kintyre. No photos yet!
Sounds like absolute heaven Catlady, I'll be looking at the map to see where you are shortly and now on the to visit list ! thanks for the update; keep having fun and enjoy it all :)