A trip to Inverness

I prepared for this one. I got the big lens out and kept my camera on the passenger seat all the way down the Strath Halladale road. What did I see? That's right, absolutely nothing! Two buzzards, which were little more than pinpricks in the sky, and a hedgehog which had hidden in the undergrowth by the time I'd stopped and jumped out of the car.

So it was more in hope than expectation that I set out from my hotel room early the following morning in search of the dolphins that can often be seen from the sea walls. As it turned out, I got a bit lost and ended up at Carnac Point instead, which is just to the west of the Kessock Bridge. No dolphins (surprise, surprise) because the tide was too low, but I had fun watching this grey heron:



They're not the most aerodynamic of birds:



Preparing for landing:



Landing gear engaged:



Touchdown!:



I attempted an artistic shot of the Kessock Bridge - this was my best effort:



I went up the Crask road on the way back. I had my camera on the front seat again, just in case there was a spectacular sunset over Ben Loyal, but the long lens was in the back because I thought with my luck there was no way I was going to see anything. Wrong. This was a couple of miles south of Altnaharra:





It's the rutting season for red deer and this stag was walking his hinds up the hill towards another group. I couldn't see the second stag, but I could certainly hear him - the two were roaring at each other:





That was that, or so I thought - it was so dark by the time I left the passing place I was pulled into that I had my headlights on. But no, a few miles past Altnaharra I found these two young red deer - and this is where I thanked Canon for image stabilisation! These shots were taken at 390mm focal length with a shutter speed of 1/60th and the only support was my elbows braced against the car window.