Pine Marten comes for lunch.

Talking about amazing wildlife ....We were very surprised during Sunday lunch to hear a disturbance in the trees near the house and to suddenly see a young Pine Marten dash out of the shrubbery and launch himself onto the bird bath for a good drink. He then managed to work out how to climb down the carefully placed branch - put there to help young squirrels - and on to the bird table. We have not seen one during the daylight as they are normally nocturnal creatures although they are known to be active during the day in the summer months.The weather has been fair and bright this week so obviously this youngster was making hay while the sun shone. During his visit there were 3 pheasants in the garden and a red squirrel on a nearby tree who were not too fazed by this new visitor. Pine martens have been known to chase squirrels if they are very hungry although their diet is very varied....as we witnessed. It was just amazing to watch from the window.
Our guests at Aspenwood Cottage last week did put out alot of suet balls in the wire feeder which were all 'stolen' over night so we think this is the thief.
Check out more Pine Marten info.

 

 

Watch the Pine Marten on video.



Day out at Glen Affric.

Sunday dawned with a beautiful crisp clear blue sky as forecast so we packed a picnic and drove to Glen Affric via Inverness, alongside the Beauly Firth and turned off down Strathglass to the village of Cannich. From here we followed a single track road passing through amazing scenery and looking down on deep river gorges for about 8 miles to the car park at the end of Glen Affric. Had a lovely relaxing walk by the river and into one of the oldest Caledonian Forests in Scotland where we were very fortunate to see a male and female Scottish Crossbill, the only truly native species of the UK and a bird confined only to the Highlands of Scotland....our first exciting sighting of this quite elusive bird. 

The scenery all around us was just stunning with snow on the mountain tops and the River Affric was gushing along after all the recent rain. After our walk we drove back along the road for a few miles to a new picnic site we had spotted earlier and enjoyed our lunch beside a very peaceful loch. This day trip is about 55 miles from Aspenwood Cottage on Loch Ness and took us about one and a half hours to get to Glen Affric on a very pleasant run. So sit back and enjoy some of the scenes we saw.....

Some more residents of Edinburgh Zoo

A very good visit to Edinburgh Zoo during our break in the city. After seeing the famous pandas we strolled round and saw as many of the wild animals as we could...amazing. There were lots of new young additions and maybe some  still a twinkle in the eye.

 

Watch the PANDA movie.

Trip to Edinburgh

 

Just returned from a few days break in Edinburgh.Visited the castle on a beautiful sunny day and enjoyed many pleasant relaxing strolls round the city with some lovely meals out in the evenings.

 

We had previously booked online to see the new arrivals at Edinburgh Zoo...the two pandas from China. It was amazing to watch them close up as they methodically munched their way through their bamboo breakfast.There is a panda movie soon so watch this space.

 

Walking in Torr Woods at Dores.

Another beautiful autumn day dawned so after completing some work in Inverness we drove back and parked at Dores beach which was almost full up with people enjoying a lunchtime meal in The Dores Inn. We thoroughly enjoyed walking along Dores beach on the pebbles and then turned right in to Torr Woods. We noticed alot of the overhanging branches and prickly bushes had been cut back and there is now a new secure gate leading in to the woods with a passing gate. Met one or two people with their very energetic dogs carrying branches of various sizes and passed the time of day but mostly we were on our own in very peaceful and colourful surroundings.
There are a few small secluded beaches on this walk which lead down to the shoreline of Loch Ness so we stood and relaxed for a while admiring the wonderful panoramic views.

On the return journey we had previously noticed a newly made forest track leading down towards Loch Ness so we explored this further and sure enough it opened up onto a very rocky but picturesque shoreline. It is not possible to walk along the shoreline unless you want to get very wet so we followed a man and his dogs along a new lower forest footpath and came out at the end of the crescent shaped Dores beach.  The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed an excellent walk in the November sunshine.





Roe deer

 The mother roe deer and her fawn are frequent visitors to the grassy bank leading down to Loch Ness. After the rain of late the vegetation must be very succulent, certainly the youngster seems to be enjoying its taste of wet grass.

Roe deer visitors

This week we have had a family of roe deer come to visit, a male with antlers and a female with their fawn which must have been between two to three months old.The roe deer are one of Britain's native species and are most widespread especially in Scotland.The family have been happily munching on the grass on the front bank and I did manage to take some photos earlier in the week. Yesterday evening they were further along the bank opposite the front door which I carefully opened camera at the ready. We've recently had a new glass panelled front door put in which is very quiet to open - no more squeaky hinges. Just as the mother was licking her fawn and the camera was poised for a cracking shot the phone rang and they all sped off freaked out by the noise....and it wasn't even an important call after all.