Birdwatching in Sutherland by Tony Mainwood, from Scottish Bird News No 27 (September 1992)

Sutherland is a large district with a wide variety of habitats offering opportunities for good bird watching at any time of the year. Being only sparsely populated by humans there are many aspects of the birds of the area remaining to be discovered though there are a number of well known 'hot spots' such as Loch Fleet, Dornoch Firth, Embo, Brora, Handa and Cape Wrath. In winter time the main attractions are on the east coast with waders and wildfowl in abundance making use of the rich feeding in the intertidal areas of the sea lochs as well as inshore waters along the coast. While migration watching is usually not spectacular as the east coast is rather tucked in and in the shadow of the Buchan coast, suitable autumn weather conditions can bring large onward passage of Redwings and Fieldfares following the coast down from Caithness and arrivals on the north coast can be easier to detect. A number of scarcer passerine migrants have been recorded in recent years. In summertime attention is worth focusing more on the hills and the magnificent seabird colonies in the north-west at Handa and Cape Wrath.

The East Coast

The east coast sea-lochs and shoreline of Sutherland provide excellent bird watching at any time of year but are particularly rewarding in the September round to April period. Visiting waders and wildfowl are not only present in large numbers but are also easily accessible by car so that even if the weather is wet and windy a variety of suitable watching points are available where birds can be viewed at very close range. Information on the numbers of birds involved has been built up over more than 20 years of estuary counts.

This is particularly true of Loch Fleet where the road along the south shore provides a number of convenient passing places to pause in as well as a car parking area at Skelbo Point. Waders gather at three main places to roost at high tide - Skelbo Point, the beach at the mouth of the Fleet and the saltmarsh area in Balblair Bay - with up to 1800 Oystercatchers, 250 or so Curlew, frequently over 400 Redshank, up to 150 Ringed Plover, sometimes over 1000 Dunlin and occasionally up to 1000 Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit though the last three species are more mobile in their habits and are more often in their largest numbers at Dornoch Point and along the shore towards the new Dornoch Bridge. Numbers may sometimes be in excess of 3000 Dunlin, 1500 Bar-tailed Godwit and 1500 Knot at Dornoch - but not every year! It is always worth being on the lookout for the odd Black-tailed Godwit among the Bar-tails. Embo and Brora are better places for Turnstone and Purple Sandpiper with smaller numbers of the other common winter waders. Sanderling are usually confined to small numbers (usually less than 20) at Brora while Dornich is the favourite spot for Grey Plovers with up to 30 occasions. It is unusual to see Greenshank in winter time but spring arrivals and autumn gatherings at the Mound Pool on Loch Fleet are regular. Dornoch seems to be the favoured site for the scarcer migrants such as Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper and Ruff in the early autumn.

Wildfowl also feature strongly in the winter with up to 10,000 Wigeon recorded at Dornoch in the past. Loch Fleet usually holds over 2000 Wigeon in winter and there are smaller numbers of Mallard and Teal. Both Green-winged Teal and American Wigeon have been recorded at Loch Fleet in the past ten years. The Shelduck numbers start to build up from late November as they make their way back from the moulting grounds. Other dabbling ducks, apart from regularly up to 150 Pintail at Dornoch, are rather infrequent but sea ducks are another East Sutherland speciality. The winter Eider flock at Loch Fleet has reached 3000 in the past but numbers in recent years have not been much over 1500. Male King Eiders have been recorded every year since 1973 with one or more appearing to have taken up permanent residence. Up to 3 have been recorded at a time and with immatures seen on a number of occasions there have obviously been a variety of individuals involved. The last couple of years have seen King Eiders being a bit more elusive and sightings last winter suggested that a bird was spending much of the time well off Brora and only coming close inshore occasionally. Long-tailed Ducks are regular in moderate numbers, though fewer than in the 1970s, with Embo being a good place for good views. Scoter are featuring again in good numbers after a decline from the late 1970s, but now the larger numbers seem to be in spring off the Dornoch/Embo area, with up to 1000 Commons and 400 Velvets with two or three Surf Scoters and what appears to be a regular Black Scoter in the past three years. Late March to early May has been the best time.

Also from the shore, particularly from Embo and Brora, Red-throated, Black-throated and Great Northern Divers are all regular in winter but good counts depend very much on the sea conditions being calm. The same goes for the grebes with Slavonian the most frequent but occasional Black-necked, Red-necked and Great Crested. With regular sustained sea-watching now being conducted at Brora a pattern of movements of the commoner seabirds such as Razorbill, Guillemot, Puffin, Gannet, Kittiwake, Fulmar etc is now building up. NE to E winds are the most productive for shearwaters and skuas. As well as the expected Manx and Sooty Shearwaters, Great, Arctic and Pomarine Skuas, sightings have also included Great Shearwater, Cory's Shearwater, Grey Phalarope and a clutch of scarce gulls including Sabine's, Bonaparte's and Ivory in addition to Iceland, Glaucous and Little Gulls.

Breeding seabirds

The north and west are richest in bird life in the breeding season when the seabird hordes make use of the strategic nesting areas such as Handa and Cape Wrath. Handa has long been a bird reserve, now with management transferred from the RSPB to the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Boats run daily except Sundays during the summer and a visit is a must if you are in the area. May and June are the most spectacular with the Great Stack Guillemot colony filled to capacity with birds leaving with their young from early July. The Great and Arctic Skua populations have increased over the years and with the marked path going through what has become breeding areas very close views of some of the birds are possible as they have become very tolerant of passing human visitors. On the east coast, a small part of the huge Caithness cliff colonies of seabirds spills over the boundary into Sutherland and it is now possible to take a boat trip out of Helmsdale along the sea cliffs as far as Berriedale to view the birds. Again May to early July is the best time to see the colonies at full strength.

Mountains and moorland

For the energetic summertime hill walking is both exhilarating for the spectacular views and rewarding for what you might turn up. Eagle, Peregrine, Merlin, Raven, Ptarmigan and Ring Ouzel are all potential features while there remain possibilities of Dotterel and maybe even Snow Bunting from time to time on occasional tops. On the lower surrounding ground Dunlin, Curlew and Golden Plover can be found with Common Sandpipers around the loch edges and in the burns while the Greenshank has its British headquarters in the bogs of Sutherland. The possibility of stumbling across exotic waders should be borne in mind and great care taken always remembering the special protection afforded under the law to rare breeding birds. Greylag Geese nest in a few peatland lochs and a couple of hundred or so congregate at Badanloch to moult in July. Some of the larger lochs hold Black-throated Divers while Red-throats will make use of much smaller lochans. Wintering Whooper Swans may be scattered over a variety of lochs in the north-west and Barnacle Geese from the Greenland populations spend the winter on the offshore islands of Island Roan and Eilean Hoan off the north coast and can be watched and counted from the mainland. Handa and the islands in Badcall Bay are also wintering sites for Barnacle Geese. Great Northern Divers are a feature of the north coast in winter and spring with Balnakeil Bay, Loch Eriboll and the Kyle of Tongue offering shelter. Seawatching from prominent points in the north and west has always offered potential with Strathy Point, Farr Point, Stoer Point and Handa all turning up a varied mixture of seabirds. At all of them the weather conditions may be fairly critical with the west coast sites proving excellent with strong north-west winds. On Handa gales on 21st May in 1991 resulted in 110 Pomarine and 120 Long-tailed Skuas being recorded while a north-westerly gale on 16th August 1990 resulted in 1500 Storm Petrels and 2500 Gannets.

Woodland

Much of the woodland of Sutherland is man generated with the large areas of conifers being planted in the last 50 years and only remnants of native Scots Pine to be found in Strath Carron and Glen Einig. Oak woods such as those at Spinningdale and Tressady are estate planted and birch woods are often restricted to the steeper rocky areas to which grazing animals cannot get.

Chaffinch and Willow Warbler are probably the dominant breeding passerines with Blue, Great and Coal Tits widespread. Redstarts and Spotted Flycatchers are also fairly common but Wood Warblers and Tree Pipits are more restricted in their distribution with the area around Loch Migdale and Spinningdale oak wood being particularly good. The track along the north side of Loch Migdale makes a particularly pleasant walk and the East Sutherland Bird Group has a regular May field meeting with Wood Warbler, Tree Pipit and Redstart as particular favourites, while Redpolls, Siskins and sometimes Crossbills all add to the variety. Other warblers are relatively scarce with only a handful of Chiffchaff records each year. Sedge Warblers quite restricted in their numbers, Whitethroats apparently scarcer still in recent years and Garden Warbler and Blackcap almost rarities. Blackcaps are probably commoner as winter visitor to bird tables than as a breeding bird and summer singing birds may well be unmated males as is probably the case for most records of Grasshopper Warbler. Redwings usually breed in small numbers but many probably go unrecorded.

The Crossbills in the north-east of the county are thought to be exclusively Common Crossbills, presumably resulting from past irruptive arrivals from Scandinavia, while those in the south-east are predominantly Scottish Crossbills and little overlap seems to occur. The young conifer plantations provide feeding and nesting areas for Hen Harriers but Short-eared Owls seem to be relatively scarce. The mature trees provide nesting sites for good numbers of Sparrowhawks and Buzzards and while Long-eared Owls are known to occur in small numbers many are probably overlooked. Crested Tits do breed in very small numbers but finding them is much a case of luck and again birds may well be overlooked.

Sutherland offers many opportunities for a variety of bird watching activities from an enhancement to general exploration of the countryside, through planned visits to see some of the specialities of the area, to serious study of individual species or habitats. Whatever your interest your observations could well add useful information to the ornithological knowledge of the area so it would be much appreciated if visitors would pass their records to the Local Recorder.