Loch Stiapabhat – Migrants and Hunters at the North of Lewis
A few hours.
The route
Loch Stiapabhat is a shallow, reedy loch among the crofts of Ness, at the very north of Lewis, and the Western Isles' only Local Nature Reserve.
It's the first fresh water many birds find on their way south from Iceland and Greenland, so swans, geese, ducks and waders come and go, and birds of prey follow the flocks. A screened boardwalk leads to a hide that is never locked.
The day
Ness
Along the boardwalk to the hide, then a quiet hour watching the loch and the sky over the crofts.
About an hour and a half
Loch Stiapabhat
Loch Stiapabhat is in Lionel, opposite the turning into Lionel School and Spòrsnis. The A857 runs north towards the Butt of Lewis; the B8013, Slighe Naomh Rònain, goes off to the left, and there is a parking bay at the junction opposite the reserve's gated entrance. A screened boardwalk leads a few hundred metres to the Nature Observatory, a hide at the loch's edge that is open all year and never locked. It looks out over the loch, its wetland and the crofts around it. In autumn this is the first fresh water birds find on their way south from Iceland and Greenland, and the last on the way back in spring. At the migrations the birds change from day to day, and rare strays turn up. Whooper swans, teal, wigeon and pink-footed geese use the loch, with dunlin, redshank, golden plover and lapwing. In the winter half of the year birds of prey come after the flocks: peregrine, merlin, hen harrier and white-tailed eagle, with the buzzards that live here. Alarm calls and a flock lifting all at once are the sign of a bird of prey nearby. In spring and summer waders display, and you may hear the rasping call of a corncrake. None of it is promised, so bring binoculars and some patience. It's a Site of Special Scientific Interest: keep to the boardwalk and the hide, and keep dogs close among the crofts' cattle.
If it rains
The hide keeps the rain off while you watch; only the short boardwalk to it is out in the weather.
Make it a weekend
More days out in the Outer Hebrides.
Photographs by david melia and natalie sanders via Google