Strathy Forest

Smokey and I went for a walk into Strathy Forest yesterday, because I wanted to see if I could find the rocking stone again.



You stand on top of it and wobble from side to side and it makes an immense noise that, before the forest was planted, you would have been able to hear all over the valley:



Both times I've been in that forest I've been lucky and seen deer:



She and her two friends disappeared sharpish - Smokey was so excited by the smell that he ran the entire length of the loch and disappeared into the forest after them. Thank goodness for whistle training, but it made for one tired hound:



And my best wildlife photos from the afternoon? Taken less than 20 feet from the main road, where there are golden plovers nesting right beside the track!

An hour in the garden

Inspired by Springwatch, I thought I'd try to get some pictures of the wildlife around the garden at the moment.

I started with the starlings in the letterbox. They're still feeding madly - caterpillars for breakfast again:





Then I headed down the fields and had to take a couple of gratuitously cute rabbit shots:





In our bottom field we have a skylark nesting:



And the sheep are, as ever, a joy to photograph, though I wish I hadn't taken this one through sheep netting - I'll have to shoot her again on a sunny day:



Then I topped up the bird feeders and settled down to see what turned up. This is my shot of the day:



It got busy:



The sparrows brought their three fledglings down from the kitchen roof - here are two of them stretching their wings, though I think they look like they're about to burst into a rousing music hall chorus!



Lots more bird pictures if you click on any of the above to go through to my Flickr account, but I'll leave you with this picture of Dunnet beach taken last weekend. Remember all those shots they show on the news of beaches so packed that every square inch of sand is covered with towels? This is what the most popular beach in the area looked like on the hottest Sunday afternoon of the year so far (about 25C):



We counted 18 families on its two-mile stretch :o)

Terned on

After spending the afternoon in Strathy Forest on a ranger walk (didn't have the camera, so of course we saw deer!), I got home just in time to jump out of the car, grab my camera bag and head down to the beach with Mick and Smokey. The otter, predictably, failed to put in an appearance, but I think this picture of two Arctic terns has to be on my shortlist for favourite shot of the year :o)



We watched them fishing for a while and although I didn't get any shots of the spectacular dive they do, I did get these:





Smokey was content to hunt down and kill those lethal tennis balls:



And finally some shots from Borgie Glen on Sunday. Not the best light, but definitely a place to go back to on a summer evening or in the snow:

It's all about luck

Because I'd done the last three dog walks by myself, I was all prepared to let Mick take Smokey out on his own this evening, especially since he was going back up on the hill. But then he stuck his head back through the kitchen door and said because the tide was out he was going to go down to the beach instead and I changed my mind and went with him.

We walked along at the water's edge and saw the sand appear to bubble as the waves washed over it. Lugworm holes, lots and lots of them. And that was when Mick saw the otter.

It took me a good five minutes to see it, I was looking too far out, but it stayed in view for easily half an hour, swimming between waves, diving through them with a flick of its tail.

Did I have my camera with me? Of course not :o) But I shall go down tomorrow at the same time and look again. Maybe I'll be lucky...

Note to self: seen approx 5.30pm, low tide approx 2.45pm.

Seawatching

The ranger had organised a seawatch off Strathy Point last night and we were in luck - two minke whales feeding, a pod of 15-30 common dolphins (too far away to count accurately) and a small pod of five or six Risso's dolphins which swam right up to the east side of the point where we were sitting:

A few more puffins

Took these last week and hadn't got round to putting them up. Very few birds out on the rock, only seven or eight in view at any one time. They're all incubating eggs at the bottom of the burrows at the moment and then in a week or two will be out madly fishing to feed the pufflings (isn't that just the best name ever for something that's basically a fluffy ball of grey feathers??).







We have starlings nesting in our letterbox. Mick's fixed a latch to the back of it so it can't blow open accidentally in the wind and when we put our ear to it yesterday we could hear cheeping noises, so they've hatched out. I also went on my first ranger walk of the year yesterday, up the Armadale burn. Came back with a Sika deer antler found by the ranger and a headful of new plant names, most of which I will probably fail to remember again. I didn't take the camera because the sky was flat - big mistake as if I'd had the macro lens with me I'd be able to show you pictures of tiger beetles, dor beetles, frogs and a baby toad which has to be one of the most adorable amphibians I've ever seen. I'll try and get back up there the next time I have a free afternoon in good light.

O'Neill Cold Water Classic at Brims Ness

Stopped off at the surfing competition for an hour to see if I could get the image stabiliser working when I'm panning moving objects - a 6 star surfing event makes for pretty good practice :o)

These guys are some of the world's top surfers and these shots are barely cropped at all, other than to straighten the horizons.









Walking back to the car, I saw a seal bobbing up and down in the shallows, no doubt wondering when he'll get his coast back!