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.

Pine Marten Video

As an after thought here's a bit of video.....

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.

The Highlands

The Highlands covers a huge area, we were based in  the small town of Newtonmore just off the A9 about 20 minutes south of Aviemore. This wasn't a birding trip, we were giving my brother-in-law Mike, over from South Africa, a whistle-stop tour of the area. Doing the touristy things that we don't normally do. However we did manage to see a few things on our travels,
Red Deer at Loch Muick,

 Emperor Moth Caterpillar, Loch Muick,

 Red Grouse, Loch Muick,

 Reindeer!! Top of Cairngorm Mountain,

 Common Vole, Abernethy Forest,

 Chaffinch, Abernethy Forest,

 Great Spotted Woodpecker, Abernethy Forest

 Coal Tit, Abernethy Forest,

 a distant Osprey,

 Badgers and 'Tree badger', Rothiemurchus Estate. This was great evening with a guide from Speyside Wildlife in a hide in the woods of the estate, seven Badgers were seen,

 as well as two Pine Martens, our first ever sighting of Pine Martens, we were over the moon!! The photo isn't great as I couldn't use flash and the external lights still meant a very slow shutter speed.

 Long-tailed Tit, Anagach Woods (Grantown on Spey)

 Red Squirrel, one of two seen at the Heather Centre near Grantown,

 along with plenty of Siskin