Scotland the best

Birdwatching

Pack your binoculars and look out the log book. We’re off on a whistlestop tour of avian havens Handa Island

Take the boat from Tarbet Pier, Sutherland, 6km off A894 5km N of Scourie or from Scourie itself (both 07780 967800) and land on a beautiful island run as a nature reserve by the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

Boats (Apr-Sep) are continuous depending on demand. Crossing 30 mins. Small reception hut and 2.5km walk over island to cliffs which rise 350m and are layered in colonies, 200,000 strong: fulmars, shags and the UK’s largest colony of guillemots. Allow 3-4 hours.

You’ll be eye to eye with seals and bill to bill with razorbills.

scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk

Caerlaverock

On B725 near Bankend, Dumfries & Galloway.

The WWT Caerlaverock Wetlands Centre

● Barnacle geese at Caerlaverock

is an excellent place to see whooper swans, barnacle geese in their thousands.

Has a Fairtrade home-cooking café as well as farmhouse-style accomodation.

More than just birds – natterjack toads, badgers, so not just for twitchers. The Sir Peter Scott hide is pure entertainment. wwt.org.uk 01387 770200

Bass Rock

A guano-encrusted massif sticking out of the Forth: the largest island gannet colony in the world. Davie Balfour was imprisoned here in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Catriona (aka Kidnapped II).

For daily trips on The Sula, see sulaboattrips.co.uk, 01620 880770 or inquire at the Seabird Centre.

Loch Gruinart, Loch Indaal

RSPB reserve. Take A847 at Bridgend, Islay, then B8017 turning N and right for Gruinart. The mudflats and fields at the head of the loch provide winter grazing for huge flocks of Barnacle and Greenland geese.

The Rhinns and the Oa in the south also sustain a huge variety of birdlife.