Last weekend we had a short trip to North Uist to visit friends and I took the chance to get out and do a bit of bird watching and photography.  In total I had 71 species of bird over the two days and I managed to capture the following shots of some of them.  The highlight was getting the one above of a short-eared owl sitting on a post watching me on Sunday morning.  There is a bit of noise as the ISO was quite high at 1000, but the early morning mist meant that the light levels were pretty low, so all-in-all I am pretty happy with the result.  Other bird highlights included seeing a corncrake, good views of corn bunting and a few black-tailed godwits.  I also had fleeting views of hen harrier, not good enough to try and get any photos though.

The good weather last weekend allowed me to get out a couple of times with my camera, firstly to Dundreggan on Saturday to visit the new Rewilding Visitor Centre, and then on Sunday for a drive around Strome and Applecross to recce a few sites I had not photographed previously.

Despite the decent weather I did not capture many good shots, more planning required in terms of tide times and light, but useful for recconnaisance purposes none-the-less.  That being said, I did capture these three images of old trees.  I never tire of photographing the old specimen trees that we find, often quite isolated in a generally over-grazed environment, but struggling to survive the combined forces of weather and deer and sheep.

The above shot is of an old hawthron tree at the shore in Applecross village.  It appears to be standing free on its roots, clinging to the gravelly soil of the shore.  No doubt this tree has survived through many a storm and its footing must be a bit precarious with shifting gravel.

The next two are old ash trees near North Strome above the shores of Loch Carron.  As a result of ash dieback disease these old trees are disappearing from our countryside at an alarming rate.  The nearby Rassal Ashwood, which was once a National Nature Reserve has the disease and many of the old trees there are suffering badly.  All very sad, but hopefully some will survive with natural resistance, and regeneration might be possible in the future - let's hope so.

The last few images are macro shots of some spring flowers captured at Dundreggan on Saturday.