Sightings/Reports

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I stayed at Loch Gruinart house, Islay in September 2025

Located at the north of Islay this guest house is on the edge of Loch Gruinart.  A perfectly cosy little guest house owned by a lovely couple and with great views.

The room I stayed in was the ensuite with a great view over the bottom end of Loch Gruinart.  This gave great views of several thousand greylag geese, a golden eagle and the 1st brent geese of the season.  I also had the place to myself so that was great. A great base for birding being a 5 minute drive away from the RSPB hides and unmanned centre.

There were also loads of books for guests to read, home made bread for breakfast and Sky tv in the common room.

PROS:
Great views, Comfy bed, Friendly owners, Great base for birding

CONS:
No lock on bedroom doors, No cooked breakfast, No mobile signal and very patchy Wi-Fi
SCORE: 8/10.

I was given a loan of these Kite APC, image stabilised 14x50 binoculars.

I had to do some research as I have never used IS binoculars and after these I will stick to standard binoculars.

With most IS binoculars, you have to remember to turn them on and then either remember to turn them off, or there is a timer to save battery, but even so, if you are just quickly looking at something like a bird in a tree, you don’t ideally want the binoculars to be left on for 5 minutes or so before auto powering down.  These are different in that after they are turned on, the can detect a downwards tilt and power down the IS motor.  This is not great if you have them on a tripod, which considering the weight of them, they should be on a tripod.  

They are advertised has having 35 hours of battery life.

These use ED glass to help with chromatic aberrations which considering the 14x magnification is a good thing. 

The 50mm lenses do really well in low light levels.

The ones I used came with a green rubber case to protect the binoculars, which unfortunately made them slippy to hold according to my partner. 

Issues:

I have long fingers and even I found these uncomfortable to hold and use the focus wheel at the same time.  My partner said her small hands struggled to hold them and found them slippery too.

They weigh over 1kg which makes them really heavy and awkward for using on long walks or outside of hides.  These should really be used with a tripod.

When turned on the edges of the lenses blur. 

PROS:

The IS does work really well when people are walking about in hides making things move or when standing shivering on the side of a mountain in high winds.

CONS:

The price, at £1600 these are not cheap.

The weight, needs a tripod instead of being comfortable around the neck.

Awkward to hold, and use.

Blurred edges when turned on.

SCORE: 3/10, Having used binoculars for over 30 years I have to say that these are the worst I have ever used.