Islay & Jura in Autumn — The Eagle Islands Wildlife Tour

As seen on BBC's 'Wild Isles'

Winners of the National Thistle Award 2022/23 for 'Best Outdoor or Adventure Experience'

Tour Dates: 1st - 8th November 2025

Highlights

• Seven FULL days on Islay & Jura
• Daily encounters with Golden & White-tailed Eagles
• With as many as 30,000 Barnacle Geese and 6,500 Greenland White-fronted Geese we will be in for a spectacle
• Witnessing the arrival of not only geese but Whooper Swans from Iceland
• Enjoy communal roosts of Hen Harriers and sightings of Merlin & Peregrine
• The shores of these islands are excellent for Otters
• Jura is home to as many as 5,000 Red Deer as well as Roe Deer
• Common & Grey Seals can be found all around the coast
• As well as the geese there are thousands wildfowl & waders including Purple Sandpiper and many seaducks
• The expert leadership of Calum Urquhart
• Stay in high quality accommodation
• Small group size 4-10.

Islay, also known as The Queen of the Hebrides, is a wildlife haven with resident Otters, seals and deer and in autumn this rugged island explodes with tens of thousands of birds. Take a short ferry ride to Jura and share the landscape with numerous pairs of Golden and White-tailed Eagles soaring overhead, over 5,000 Red Deer grazing the stark hillsides and good numbers of Otters along the coastline. There really isn’t anywhere better to be in Autumn than on these southern-most Hebrides searching for the best of their wildlife. 

Itinerary

Day 1:

Meet in Glasgow and travel west through Argyll to join the ferry over to Islay. We will keep an eye out for interesting animals along the route and the ferry crossing can be good for Porpoises, dolphins and seabirds. We will settle into our base on Islay for the next 7 nights.

Days 2-5:

We will have four full days to explore the magical island of Islay. In autumn it is home to tens of thousands of Barnacle Geese, alongside them hundreds of Greenland White-fronted Geese and also often rarer species such as Cackling Goose and Snow Goose may be found. The estuaries and floods attract flocks of Golden Plovers and Lapwing, up to 2,000 Teal, Pintail, Wigeon and Shoveler, whilst of the mudflats Knot, Grey Plovers, Bar-tailed Godwit and Dunlin will all be actively feeding.

Along the open coast and sand dunes we will enjoy the enigmatic Chough and hopefully Snow Buntings whilst Purple Sandpipers may well be clinging to the rocks. Grey and Common Seals are common along the coast and with a bit of patience we should be rewarded with an Otter sighting or two.

With so many wildfowl and waders its not surprising that the island attracts an incredible number of eagles and we can expect to have daily encounters with White-tailed and Golden Eagles. The former can form small aggregations of up to 10 birds (sometimes more) in certain hotspots. Hen Harriers, Merlin and Peregrine are all widespread and at dusk Barn Owls can often be seen hunting the field margins and we may be lucky and find a Hen Harrier roost.

Days 6-7:

In stark contrast to our days on Islay, Jura is a formidable and rugged landscape. Here large herds of Red Deer graze the moors overseen by Golden and White-tailed Eagles soaring from the Paps of Jura. Wild Goats cling to the crags and along the shorelines Otters can be frequently found foraging in the seaweed strewn bays. Our focus will be finding and getting good views of Otters and hopefully some close eagle encounters too.

Day 8:

Depart Islay and make our way back to Glasgow where this tour will finish.

Visit our website for more details about his tour.

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