Day 23 - South Uist and Benbecula
The tide was out when I got up. There has been a Greater Black Backed Gull in the same spot on the edge of the land where the sheep got stranded at high tide last night. It has been continuously pecking at something in the water. Thus morning it was joined by a hooded crow, who clearly wasn't welcome. I looked through the binoculars and it seems to be feeding off a dead lamb or sheep.
We headed off south to see South Uist and the remaining sites of Benbecula. We drove directly to Lochboisdale in the south of South Uist. It has more to offer than it's counterpart in North Uist, Lochmaddy. There were a few more shops including a bakery where Paul bought a bacon roll for his second breakfast! There were 3 public gardens in the town. It is the terminal for ferries to Mallaig.
We then started moving north and went to several sites of interest on the way.
After lunch we went to see the Old Loch Skipport Pier. It involved driving through the RSPB reserve of Loch Druidibeg. The pier is now in ruins but the scenery was fabulous.
We then stopped at the Loch Druidibeg RSPB reserve. The very small parking area was overtaken by 2 motor homes, parked side on. If they had parked head on more cars would have got in. Paul managed to squeeze in but we couldnt go far as we were blocking in one of them. We were told by others that White Tailed sea eagles were nesting nearby. I sat watching for about 30 minutes but didnt see anything except a couple of gulls and a Meadow Pipit. We headed off only to see an eagle soaring towards the end of the road.
Our last stop in South Uist was to see the Lady of the Isles statue.
We then made our way back to our accommodation via a few stops
It was really sunny and warm when we got back so we had a drink outside of our accommodation. The tide was coming in and a lamb got separated from its mother. There was a lot of "baa'ing" but eventually the lamb swam across the water and was reunited with its mother.
A bit later we heard more baa'ing and another lamb had managed to get into the field of the owners of our accomodation. The mother was by the waterside. The owner came down with his dog to see what was happening and managed to reunite the mother and lamb. We told him about the Greater Black Backed Gull eating what seemed to be a dead lamb or sheep. He said that sometimes they drown trying to get across at high tide. He said he would check tomorrow.
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