Lochaber area - West Coast of Scotland

We had a two week stay in Scotland the first week should have been on Islay, but due to the high winds we couldn't get on the island, so after lots of phone calls and gnashing of teeth we managed to swap our two weeks around.

So we started at Glenuig on the west coast, the main objective here as last year were the Pine Martens in the Cottage Garden. This is a video from one of the camera traps we put up, I have loads on the video camera too, but decided most were too big to put up on the blog.

Another regular visitor was a Badger, again here's a bit of camera trap footage:

So apart from this we went out most days, these are some of the highlights:
A mean looking Buzzard giving us the eye!

 Golden Eagles over Glenmoidart,

 Oystercatcher at Glenuig,

 Otter, one of three seen, all at a distance from the Wildlife Hide on Loch Sunart,

 Common Seal - Loch Sunart,

Not quite Monarch of the Glen,

 Grey Heron - Loch Sunart,

 Goosander - Loch Aline,

 Golden Eagle - near Loch Linnhe,

 Goldeneye - Loch nan Ceall, Arsaig

 Red-breasted Merganser - Loch nan Ceall, Arsaig

 Great Spotted Woodpecker at the Cottage.

Scotland West Coast, Lochaber Area and Pine Martens!

We decided to explore somewhere new in Scotland this winter and stay on the coast, west of Fort William at Glenuig. This is in the Lochaber area.
Our main reason was to book a particular cottage where we were told that Pine Martens visit regularly, whilst the cottage didn't have all the mod cons we would normally like it would be worth it if we saw Pine Martens.
Was it worth it? I should say so we saw them every night, at least 3 different ones, judging by the spot markings on their chest and even two in the garden at the same time. I even managed some OK photos!

 oh! and a Badger as well!

Birding in the area wasn't as easy as our usual haunts, but we did find a few;
Great Northern Diver,

 Stonechat,

 Oystercatcher,

 Red-breasted Merganser

 and Tufted Duck

Plus as you might expect, plenty of Red Deer;

We did get a glimpse of a Golden Eagle over one of the ridges around Loch Sunart, way to far for a decent photo, so I didn't even try.