American Black Duck: A few weeks ago the lads agreed to come with me on the epic journey up to see the famous American black duck that has been living on the west of Scotland for thirteen years. But, with the weather reports looking pretty awful and the restricted time we had it was going to be a bit of a gamble.
Hale showers, torrential rain, snow flurries, gusts of over 70 miles an hour winds and some skillful driving we made it in once piece, thankfully.
We stayed at The Inn at Ardgour, right opposite the Corran Ferry terminal, a lovely and very accomodating hotel.
After dodging breakfast and heading out super early we ended up spending seven long, fruitless hours searching the entire length of the river, the shores of the loch and came up with no American bcal duck. We even ended splitting up a number of times to cover more ground.
It was during one of these times towards the very end of the day I was scanning the banks of the loch that sits right in front of the Strontian Hotel I picked up the same male and female mallard that had been in this area all afternoon. I then noticed two other ducks appear from the further most outcrop of rocks that lead into the bay.
At first they were silhouetted by the sun before joining the original pair and entered a more sheltered area, my jaw dropped and I struggled to steady the tripod in the combination of excitement and gusty wind that was pelting me.
The two new birds that had just entered the bay included the American black duck! Bingo!!!
I phoned the lads, who were further up the river still searching for the bird. I calmly told them to hurry up as I had just found the bird, not before long I could hear the familiar sounds of hurried steps and the sounds of trepidation. By the time they joined me the mallards followed by the black duck flew across the bay and in to the river mouth.
Here the bird peeled off from the rest of the mallard group and made its way up stream accompanied by a single male mallard. This brought the bird much closer the we expected giving us a great opportunity to reel of some images and see the bird up close. We were thrilled, the gamble paid off, the hours spent in less than perfect weather was all worth while. The bird was in the bag.
Hybridised Mallard x Black Duck: One of the the things we were keeping our eyes out for where the mallards as we knew the black duck was associating with them, we were also looking out for any birds that were the offspring between the back duck and mallards.
Patrick and I found one right up the far end of the river. Much darker bird with yellowish, but predominantly darker bill and much more feathering pattern similar to a female mallard then the pure black duck.
Otter: When you spend so much time in one of the most beautiful parts of the country you are surely going to stumble across other exciting wildlife.
We had this otter in the river mouth opposite Kilcamb Lodge, a highlight of the trip and something that gave us positive boost during the long search for the duck.
The otter was happily feeding close to shore catching small fish. We also had black guillemot near the ferry terminal, dipper on the river and some lovely looking male goosander.
Greylag Geese: A great if a a very long hard worked twitch. Thanks for the company Gary, Patrick and Tobie thanks for keeping me awake during the long journey there and back.
American Black Duck: A few weeks ago the lads agreed to come with me on the epic journey up to see the famous American black duck that has been living on the west of Scotland for thirteen years. But, with the weather reports looking pretty awful and the restricted time we had it was going to be a bit of a gamble.
