River Walks...........Day 6

 We awoke ready for a leisurely day. I pulled the curtain back a little(a great advantage being able to do this without having to get out of the bed 😉) and peered outside. I could already tell their was a chill in the air and the sparkling ground outside confirmed it. Majella turned over and hogged the duvet once more, so I decided to leave her in peace and get dressed and go out for a walk along the River Spean which winds it's way through the farmland.

 The river was lower than I expected but more exposed rocks meant for great vantage points for foraging Dippers. I had just started walking East along the river when the flash of white and brown flew in the opposite direction.I followed the flight to it's landing point and then crept closer keeping behind boulders and vegetation as to not disturb the Dipper.

 I got as close as I dare and stayed partially hidden by a large boulder watching the Dipper. It was quickly joined by a Grey Wagtail too(on the left of the 1st photo). Staying motionless I watched gleefully for around 10 minutes. Just me, the river and the birds.

 

 Both moved further downstream out of sight and my attention was turned to the loud trilling verses of a Wren. It was rapidly followed by the the song of a Robin. The Wren sang louder, appearing to try and outdo the Robin, the Robin not to be outdone once again belted out it's flutey melody.It was like listening to the battle round on The Voice, pure Heaven(not The Voice, the birds😁).

 I continued my walk up river examining the lichen and frost covered ferns. Beauty is to be found everywhere in the Natural World if you look close enough.

 Eventually starting to feel the cold I headed back to the cabin for a coffee. Majella was up as I'd unwittingly been on my walk for 2 hours. Now that she was ready to brave the cold we went for a short drive into Fort William and to Glen Nevis.

                         

 We parked up at the glen Nevis visitor centre and crossed the bridge to walk along the River Nevis. I liked how the light changed as the clear cold water ran over the pebbles in the shallows.

 The River Nevis has been a good place to spot more Dippers and Grey Wagtails in the past but not this time, we were however amazed at how many Song Thrushes were around as we rarely see them where we live. Majella's keen eye also spotted a distant Greenfinch on the river bank.

 These sheep had obviously heard the quote 'The grass is always greener on the other side' as they led a charge up and over this stone wall to get to the adjacent field.

 We arrived back at the car and decided to continue further up the Glen to the Lower Falls.

  

 Slow-mo video clip of Lower Falls, Glen Nevis.

 Leaving the Glen we parked at Morrisons in Fort William and walked across the road to the shore of Loch Linnhe. It was low tide so one of the best times to see Otters. Despite spending some good time here scanning the Loch and islands, no Otters were spotted. There were plenty of birds though with Goldeneye, Goosanders, Grey Herons, Hooded Crows, Herring, Black-headed and Great Black-backed Gulls all in attendance.

 Majella enjoying the view across Loch Linnhe while searching for Otters.

 Our plan for the next day meant a long day so we went back to the cabin early and spent the late afternoon watching the garden birds.Chaffinches, Coal Tits,Great Tits, Blue Tits, Dunnocks, Robins, Blackbirds all pushing for superiority of the bird table.

Photographs by Stuart Pike & Majella Fox

Tomorrow we head for the Isle of Mull, a 2 hour drive and 2 ferries to get there.

Many thanks once again for your continued support of my blog. It's great that I am getting quite a view views each day 😊 It makes it worthwhile sharing our trip and hopefully gives someone ideas of where to visit if they travel to this glorious part of the UK.

More tomorrow from Mull.

 

 

 

30 Days Wild - Days 14-16

  Well doing the right blog on the right day didn't last long lol so back to a triple header to once again catch up.

Day 14     Off Their Trolleys

  Apologies to begin with but this isn't a scenic blogpost for Day 14 but a pretty awful sight caused by Humans with no respect for the planet we live on.
  At high tide in Newry the River is full and looks like any other , but at low tide when the mud banks are exposed the river shows itself to be a scrap mans dream(if he could get to them).

  In this one 100m section of the River Newry running along Kilmorey Street I counted 52 trolleys, with more parts barely showing out of the mud :( Not surprisingly there is no trolley park there are more(probably because they ran out of trolleys) but the effects are still there affecting the river and its wildlife.
  I have contacted Newry and Mourne Council both by email and Twitter but have had no response so I guess the trolleys are there to stay.They would probably say it's too expensive to remove them.

  Maybe we should have to pay £5 for the use of a shopping trolley to make sure it is returned to the store and not have it dumped in a river by a moron.

  Please look after our environment, our future generations need it to survive.


Day 15     Birding in Westeros ;)

  If the title of this section confuses you then I guess you do not watch HBO's most popular ever TV series "Game Of Thrones" :) We actually spent the day in County Down, Northern Ireland along Strangford Lough starting with a morning visit to WWT Castle Espie.

  Like most of the Wetland Trust reserves there are 2 parts to it, the Nature reserve with hides for "wild" birding and the captive waterfowl area where you can get close up to Ducks and Geese from around the world.
  Feeding the hordes.
  Red Breasted Goose.

  African Combed Duck, Ross's Goose, Pochards & Mallards.

  My fiance Majella feeding a Baikal Teal.

  Some of the other waterfowl at WWT Castle Espie.
  Wood Duck

  Eider

  Baikal Teal

  Lots of wild Mallards

  Red Breasted Goose

  Barrows Goldeneye

  After the feeding frenzy we headed to the hide overlooking Strangford Lough.

  The tide was out so not much about besides the Black-headed Gulls, Oystercatchers and a couple of Black-tailed Godwits.

  I then noticed this nest on the hide.

  It's occupants were a Wren family, with the parents catching insects and returning to feed the brood.

  Ox-eye Daisies

  A newly emerged Ladybird on a fence post.

  A return to the visitor centre/cafe to feed ourselves and then it was time to head South along the Strangford Lough shoreline to "Westeros"

  Westeros, the main land mass in Game Of Thrones, to us was actually Castle Ward.Heading to the farmyard aka Winterfell.

  Winterfell

  A few extra bits were added for the filming.

                                   

  Around the Castle Ward grounds there were more locations used in the series.

  Three women were hung from this tree by men in the tv show.

  There were plenty of Bullfinches in the grounds and this Grey Heron flew overhead, trying its best to look like one of the Dragons from Game Of Thrones;)

  If you are a fan of the show or just want a nice day out at a country park and castle then Castle Ward is a massive place to explore.

Day 16     Birds In An Irish Urban Garden

  Due to all the walking the previous day my left knee had now flared up from my Arthritis and looks to be once again filling with fluid that will need draining in the not too distant future.So it was a day of rest.

  I got out my Nature dot-to-dot book and found a puzzle to do.It was a Fox with 1104 dots to join up.It took a while and made my eyes hurt lol

                                    

  The other thing I got to do was put out some meal worms and see what birds would come down into the mum-in-laws garden while I hung around with my camera.It's a small urban garden in a city and mainly paved.

  Male Blackbird on a mission to get the mealworms first.

  Jackdaw balancing act.

  A Magpie quickly joined the Jackdaws.

  The Rooks were a bit more cautious of my presence so stayed further away.

  Male House Sparrow couldn't have cared less about my presence and came on the closest fence and bounced around my feet.

  The irridescent colours of the Starlings lit up in the afternoon Sun.

  Even though I was prevented from getting outdoors again, I could still interact with Nature from house door :)

  If you think you don't have any time for Nature during the day just try and spend 10 minutes in your garden instead of watching TV.Put some bird food out and even in a small concrete urban garden the birds will come :)

  Thanks for reading the blogs again and keeping up to date with my #30DaysWild challenge.