Caithness
Puffins aplenty, Gannets galore and a frenzy of Fulmars – the beautiful Scottish county of Caithness has it all…
Head to this Scottish county to see a wealth of sensational seabirds, including Puffins
Most birdwatchers’ experience of Caithness is probably restricted to the A9 on the way to the ferry to Orkney, with only glimpses of the potential the area has to offer for birding, in itself. Certainly, that just about summed up my past visits, but knowing some Cumbrians who visited once a year for a cetacean event at Duncansby Head, I felt maybe there could be more to this area than most people realise. So off I went. I was based at John O’groats, which is an ideal location given the county is only about 30 miles from north to south and 30 miles east to west, with an area of about 712 square miles. This location guarantees good ‘seawatching’, as the Pentland Firth meets the North Sea here, with two major seabird colonies on either side and the islands of Orkney stretched out in front. My accommodation, part of the Natural Retreats estate, gave excellent views to the sea, even though I was not in the closest lodge to the shore. I visited in May, with migration still ongoing, but with plenty of species already sitting on eggs, and it didn’t take me long to make my first visit to a sea cliff with a seabird colony on it. This was Duncansby Head, which is only 1.5 miles from John O’groats. The road goes all the way up to the lighthouse and walking south, I was soon looking at impressive cliffs full of Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes, Fulmar and Shags. These birds were not
Fulmars were everywhere, and so tame, hardly moving as I walked past, with a good fence keeping me away from a great drop!
the only impressive thing to be found here, with ‘geos’ (deep clefts in the rock, heading inland) also abundant. It was one of these long structures where I found my first Puffin nests, tucked in the Sea Pink, Primroses and Red Campion, making the cliffs full of colour. Fulmars were everywhere, and so tame, hardly moving as I walked past, with a good fence keeping me away from a great drop! Rock Pipits were in full song and Great Skuas flashed past my head, as if they were holding territory, but were just showing off their flying skills knowing the big drop was just below them. This headland is famous for two very large offshore stacks, which are very tall and with pointed tops. These both hold seabird colonies, with the white guano brightening the dark rock. There is a very nice circular walk here as you can wander back via a moorland area with a wet bog full of Curlew, Lapwing, Snipe, Sky Lark and Meadow Pipits. I aimed for the Bay of Sannick where the grassland offers Twite and Pied Wagtail, while the bay itself promised wintering Great Northern Diver, migrating waders and Black Guillemot. On the walk back to the car park I encountered another large geo with a land bridge on it. All six sea cliffs I visited were different, in geomorphology and history. There was Noss Head, with its amazing ruin of Castle Sinclair Girnigoe looking out into Sinclair Bay with its many sandy beaches; and in 2017 lots of sand eels filling the bay with seabirds and cetaceans. Gannets and terns were diving into ‘bait balls’ of fish. Auks were so close that I had great views of them. Black Guillemots were flying up to the castle to breed and there was even a freshwater pool to attract migrants. The next visit was Dunnet Head, which is an RSPB reserve looking out to the island of Hoy and is the most northerly point of mainland Britain. Once a big military station, the cliffs here are impressive, but you have to view the best cliff with Puffins from outside the
enclosed car park. The approach road offers several lochs with potential Red-throated Divers while the moorland has breeding Arctic and Great Skuas. The walk from Sandside Head to Red Point is full of geos with an impressive seabird colony partly inland on the big geo, but the best Puffin colony on mainland Britain is found further along the Pentland Firth, close to the Caithness border at Puffin Cove, with a ‘Puffin Pyramid’! This geo has left a large stack covered in soil with three sides grass and one full of well over 1,000 burrows. I even managed to sit on top of a burrow on the mainland as the Puffins were expanding away from the stack! I only realised what it was when a Puffin landed 10 feet from me and disappeared down its hole!
Seabirds galore
The area also offers seabird cruises from John O’groats and Wick along with day trips to Orkney as well as car ferries there as well. Yes, all this to enjoy, and I’ve yet to mention the ‘Flow Country’! This mass of land has now fallen foul of forestry and expanding wind farm developments, but certain areas are still worth a visit, especially the RSPB reserve at Forsinard. I covered a lot of this habitat by road, creating a circular trip from Glen Never to Helmsdale and onto the reserve. This is a great way to get an idea of the area which this blanket bog covers. In fact, it is an area of almost one million acres, more than 50% of Caithness and Sutherland, making it the largest expanse of raised bog in the world. Birds seen from the road included Golden Plover, Lapwing, Curlew, Dunlin, Hen Harrier, Buzzard, Osprey, Sky Lark, Stonechat and Cuckoo.
Some of the lochs here may hold Black-throated Diver, Greenshank, Common Scoter and Wood Sandpiper. I visited the new tower on the reserve overlooking the bog and watched a Raven fly by carrying a Red Grouse egg! Close by is the RSPB reserve of Broubster, covering 750 acres of rough grassland, bog and loch with some cultivation. This reserve is primarily for breeding waders in summer and, in winter, Greenland White-fronted Geese and Whooper Swans. Again, the best way to cover it is to do a circular drive using the minor roads adding on Loch Calder, good for similar birds but with a much bigger area of water to check. Both Hen Harrier and Short-eared Owls are likely, with the management hoping that Corn Crake will colonise.
Wetland wonders
One wetland you shouldn’t miss is the private water of St John’s Pool, next to St John’s Loch. This has two hides from which to enjoy a wide variety of waterfowl, waders and breeding Sandwich and, occasionally, Arctic Terns. The Sandwich Terns are only the second colony in Scotland after the Ythan Estuary one, while the Arctic Terns breed here or on Loch of May close by with its own hide and wetland. The terns at St John’s Pool are often so close that ring numbers have been read showing movement from here to Gambia and Namibia! A long list of rarities has been found here including summer plumaged Grey Phalarope, Greater Yellowlegs, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, American Wigeon, White-winged Black Tern, Oriental Turtle Dove, Red-rumped Swallow and Black-headed Bunting. Photographic hides are available and strong winds often mean even more birds fly into the pool from the big loch. Dunnet Bay, which is close by, has also added several birds to the Caithness list, such as White-billed Diver, Surf Scoter and Little Bunting. In fact, a 24-hour bird race once recorded 120 species within a small radius of this area. Many inland lochs are worth a visit, especially in winter, including Loch Watten, Scarmclate and Calder, while the amazing beaches often have great wader passage, such as Dunnet, Freswick, Sandside, Keiss, Reiss and Thurso Bay. All this and I still haven’t mentioned the many ancient brochs, grey chamber tombs and other castles, and what about those Killer Whales? This is one of the best sites in mainland Britain to see Orcas along with many passing Minke and Humpback Whales, several species of dolphins, Harbour Porpoise and seals.