Third Bird Photography: Loch Spelve

Showing posts with label Loch Spelve. Show all posts

Friday, 3 May 2013

Loch Spelve

After a rainy Thursday indoors our final day proved to be even wetter. Relentless, pouring rain all day. Rather than mope about the house we decided to pootle around Loch Spelve to see if we could find any more otters. In the process we got the car soaking wet and thoroughly misted up; the windows are so designed that even opening them a crack lets rain in.

We did see an otter though, a big male bringing in a large crab to munch on by the old pier at Croggan. Naturally, it hid behind a big rock and then our slowly reversing the car to try and get a better angle altered him to our presence and he snuck away, never to be seen again.

A big flock of dozens of Eider were moving around the Loch, coming ashore for a while for a bathing session. Some Common Gulls were riding out the rain on some rocks.
Of course, by sundown the rain had poured itself out and it dried up. Typical! At least we got a lovely view of the castle in the still evening air to drink in while packing.

This Peacock was even more fed up with the rain than we were

Otter

Eiders

Common Gull

Great Northern Diver

Duart Castle in the evening (look, no rain!)

Saturday, 27 April 2013

Loch Buie & Loch Spelve

Making use of our extra day (staying in the same cottage for two weeks we get a bonus Saturday in between) we headed over to Loch Buie, taking in Loch Spelve on the way there and back. Curlew and Common Sandpiper were in the scrub overlooking Spelve. At Loch Buie there is a flock of very tame Chaffinch, perching on car mirrors and windows waiting to be fed, even straight from the hand. Very little else around, plus very bright sun in the middle of the day.

Chaffinch on Gill's hand

Spot the Curlew Competition

Common Sandpiper

Male Pheasant

Lamb

Heading back we took the turning to Croggan, which was fortuitous as we spotted a family of Otters playing and eating fish at the edge of the Loch (looks like mother and two offspring). Annoyingly they were mostly hidden behind a fringe of tall, red grasses at the edge, hence very poor photos. Trying to slide down to get closer was also difficult as the ground was waterlogged after heavy rain and with a stream running through the middle. Eventually the otters finished their meal and swam slowly up the loch to disappear forever around a bend, leaving us with a mixture of excitement and frustration.

Otters eating fish

Otters

Juvenile Gull (with a faulty neck)

Red Deer

A house on the way to Croggan keeps, amongst many things, ducks and chickens, many of which make use of the natural bounty of the Loch, dabbling and scratching around in the seaweed.

Sea-Chicken

Curlew

Curlew exiting stage-right

Willow Warbler

Herring Gull with the angriest eye we've ever seen

Back on the north side of Spelve we saw two Greylag Geese, hissing and posturing at some sheep. They seemed to take exception to them being there, eventually attacking a mother and lamb (the actual attack hidden behind a rock, naturally), driving them off. A lone sheep remained, settled down to chew cud, and no amount of hissing or aggression was going to shift it.