Friday 22 April 2011

Last day at the cottage...

Today Cain spent a few hours in the hide filming the tide submerge the salt-marsh, unfortunately it was a small tide today so it wasn't ideal. Mid-morning saw him back out, this time filming the Heronry just down the road, and the daily activities of the Herons, moving from nest to feeding grounds. Other birds caught his attention such as the Common Buzzard, Hooded Crow and Raven, all in the vicinity of the cottage. By mid afternoon he had ventured further, onto Eilean Mor the peninsula directly in front of the cottage, here he saw Rock Pipit, White and Pied Wagtail, Herring Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Hooded Crow, Raven, and also added a Black Guillemot to the list. As a Shag past close by the need to change lenses became apparent, just as he took his first step with the 100-400mm lens he spotted a Otter, feeding not too far ahead in a small bay, the Otter was aware of his presence but undeterred and continued fishing for another 20 minutes.


On his return to the cottage Cain notified Ciara, Rachael and Steve about his otter sighting. Filled with excitement they all returned to the spot where it had been fishing. We discovered many signs that indicated otters were frequent in the area, such as spraints, crab remains and runs. We sat for a while on the rocks, hoping for a glimpse but another mammal literally popped up and surprised us. A common seal. Curiously staring at us, it would dive underwater and then reappear somewhere else. We ran along the rocks trying to stay within sight of it. Cain got some footage of its head bobbing about in the waves and we also got some pictures.


We paid a last visit to the Natural History Centre in the morning to check on the pine marten live den footage and heronry live camera.
 The highland cows had retired to their island for the entire day today content their mischievous deeds against Cain's hide could wait for another day.

No comments:

Post a Comment