Otterly Exciting......Day 4

 To satisfy Majella for the day we just spent the morning in Elgin browsing the shops and getting lunch before heading to Aberlour so we could walk to the Linn Falls.

It was only a half hour drive and it was apparently a gentle walk along the river to the Falls.Parking on the high street we soon found the 'path to the falls' sign. We were only 5 minutes up the trail when the unmistakable white bobbing bib caught my eye. One of my favourite birds, a Dipper sat bobbing and preening on a rock in the river.

 

 What a great start to the walk. It continued to get even better when we unknowingly spooked a Buzzard from it's perch and it flew off between the trees. A little further and we came across this weir.

 Less than 15 minutes later and we were stood at Linn Falls, nothing to be heard except for the sound of the rushing water.

 We just stood in silence, watching the cascading water and searching for Grey Wagtails.

 The slopes around the river were covered with Common Butterbur plants.

 We stayed for a while until another person arrived and decided to leave them to appreciate the peacefulness of this place undisturbed. Soon we were nearing the end of the trail and the path on to the high street, when suddenly I noticed movement under the opposite bank. At first I thought it could be a mink but it reappeared and we were presented with a glorious view of an Otter. She slinked out from under the bank, scent marked a large rock and then made her way downstream. We followed closely behind as she had not taken any notice of us as she slipped in and out of the water.

 We followed, enthralled by her presence for a few minutes until she dived into a deeper section of the river and vanished from sight.

 Majella and I turned to face each other, both gobsmacked and grinning like Cheshire cats.A totally unexpected and mesmerising wildlife encounter.

 We left Aberlour and headed back North towards Elgin.Instead of calling it a day we continued on up to the coast again, this time to a place we'd never been before, Lossiemouth.I had only ever seen it in photos with it's bridge crossing the river to access the dunes and beach. Unfortunately the bridge was now unstable and closed to the public while a new bridge was being built.Unable to cross to the sands we stood and marveled at the amount of bird life along the coastal river. 

 Hundreds of Gulls were joined by Oystercatchers, Wigeon, Grey Herons, Curlew and Goosanders. 

 Ps If any Gull experts want to zoom in on the photos and see if there are any rarities among them all, please do 😉

                         

 Video clip by Majella showing the gathering of birds along the water.

 Photographs of Lossiemouth.

 Finally giving in to our hunger we ended our walk and drove back to our hotel in Elgin for a meal and to reminisce about the earlier breath-taking mammal encounter.

Thanks to all who have taking the time to read through my blog and browse at the many photographs.

Tomorrow we head South to different accommodation on a farm in Glen Spean.

Photos by Stuart Pike & Majella Fox

 

 

 

Tales From The Highlands

Day 9 - Another Holiday Breakdown

  No, this time it wasn't myself or Majella, it was our car but I will get to that later.I got up at 6.15am as I could see the sun through the blinds.It was quite a nice sunrise over the Moray Firth.

  As I was up early we decided to head to Inverness carboot at the football ground.It was pretty busy but we managed to pick up a few bargains.Two African hand crafted masks, a Panda money box and a Rhino puppet lol

  After the carboot we drove back across Kessock Bridge and parked underneath it on the North side.There were plenty of Cormorants and Grey Herons but nothing else so we went back across the bridge to get shopping.
  We had lunch and then took the short drive up to Udale Bay.It was a couple of hours after high tide and the bay was teeming with birds.Hundreds of Pink-footed Geese squabbled among themselves with some taking flight and landing in the field behind us.
  Pink-feet everywhere.

  There were also over 100 Curlew which is more than I've ever seen in one place at the same time.

  The other numerous birds were the Redshanks and Wigeon.
  Redshanks

  Wigeon flying into Udale Bay.

  The two star species though had to be the Male Scaup, one that I don't get to see very often.
  Scaup sat watching the Pink-footed Geese move into the water.

  The other bird was a stunning Male American Wigeon.Looking through the sightings book we found that he has been here over 2 months.

  There were also Knots, Starlings, Crows and a couple of Skylarks in the field behind.We left the hide and as we headed back the car started shuddering so we headed to Munlochy garage where the guy was not very useful and just told us we needed it looking at lol Our only option was to call the AA, explain we were on holiday and see if they would come out.They did send someone but after an hour of revving the car, moving connections and spark plugs he couldn't work out the problem.We found that there was a garage in Fortrose so the car can hopefully be looked at and repaired there, otherwise it will be a long walk back to Lincolnshire lol

Thanks for reading :) Hopefully we will still get out tomorrow as a friend is taking us out while the car is sorted out.