TIUMPAN HEAD
A dramatic headland with birdlife to match
This area can so easily be missed on a visit to the Isle of Lewis, but a drive up the Eye Peninsula is well worth it, especially if you want to see breeding seabirds or try your luck at spotting whales and dolphins in the North Minch. This is the best place in the UK to try to see Risso’s Dolphin. You can start checking out the breeding waders along the roadside, and look out for Stonechats. The loch itself draws many feeding ducks with good numbers of Wigeon, Teal and Tufted Duck, plus potential oddments
such as Ring-necked Duck and Scaup. Barnacle Geese drop in, and breeding waders include Common Sandpiper, Snipe and Redshank. Arctic Terns are found here in summer and even Black Tern has dropped in. But most of the action comes off the sea, both passage and breeding birds. The famous skua passage produced a record 780 Pomarines one year, while divers are a great bet, with White-billed, Great Northern, Red-throated and Black-throated all seen here. Sooty Shearwaters join the mass of Manx Shearwaters in
late summer, while both Storm and Leach’s Petrels have been seen. A good list of gulls includes Ring-billed, Sabine’s, Glaucous, Iceland and Kumlien’s, with possible American Herring Gull, too. Other sightings include Little Auk, Little and Sandwich Terns, with Richard’s Pipit and Rose-coloured Starling drawn in by the lighthouse. Breeding Guillemot, Razorbill, Puffin, Kittiwake and Fulmar can be found along the cliffs.