Red Breasted Merganser and Black Throated Diver

Amongst the sea birds we spied along the coast of Applecross were several pairs of red breasted mergansers and more excitingly a black-throated diver which was doing his thing right outside the cottage.

Back from the land of the otter

Yes we're back! All too quickly from beautiful Applecross- after months of waiting, wishing the time away and finally getting away, being there and being home again. No more the early morning urge..... to get up and look for otters!! No more the morning coffee overlooking the ever changing light on the sea and the outline of Raasay and Skye. No more, no more... but HELL! not nevermore (April 2012 already beckons)
Meantime we're back to the pictures of all the wildlife we captured.. on film you understand.
Well what did we see?
Oh you know.. mammals, sea birds etc.. Oh what you want to know is whether we saw an otter? ..................................................................................................................................................................

Ha hahahaha.. Dr Evil laughter as we tease you along though a couple of posts in breathless anticipation...........

Enjoy here some staples


PS: ALL PHOTOS ARE CLICKABLE ON FOR ENLARGING. (PPS: Our photographs are copyright "..withpants" so please don't nick our hard earned images without permission we like to know where our pictures are going- cheers :-)

"Hey, where did you go?"

Wild With Pants is currently off to Wester Ross, Scotland in search of otters. We'll be back in a couple of weeks. (Hopefully with an otter photo or two)

There Hare, Here Deer

This is a continuation of the previous post

As I was standing taking photos of the hares, stood stock still, I noticed some figures in the nearby woods - roe deer! After some milling around in the woods, I was amazed to see them jump a fence and come towards me! The female finally twigged that I was there (as you can see from the first photo), and then ran across the field with the male in leisurely pursuit. (I don't think he'd seen me, so was less of a mood to race).

"Well, it's March - what do you expect from us?"

I took a walk up onto Longridge Fell, and hares were everywhere - running around and enjoying the sun. At first, I thought they were just doing their usual trick of legging it out of sight at the first sense of human, but these kept running back to where they started. It was obviously that they were just enjoying the March sun.

I ended up filling a memory card with photos. These are of one mad minute where three hares raced around and then took a break.

Waiting for a kingfisher made me batty

Where do we get these ridiculous titles... well let me explain.

Today I needed some Nature Therapy to cure me of some, what is beginning to feel like, terminal stress. I headed off to the river, part of the Kingfisher walk we did last Autumn and plonked myself down on the river bank in the glorious sunshine and made ready to wait for a kingfisher. I saw some lovely grey wagtails, black headed guls, oyster catchers, dippers, pied wagtails, huge leaping salmon, goosanders, mallards- not a kingy in sight or sound.

Then I noticed something flying strangely near the woods and over the river. It was quite a way away so I couldn't id it through lens even - though quickly suspected something batty by the movement and the occasional quick twists and turns.

Lo and behold it was a large bat flying on its own around the woodland edge and over the river and back. Occasionally it flew low as though checking me out as I sat trying to photograph it. It was very clearly a reddish goldie brown in the sunshine and much bigger than the little pipis we get flying out of our roof at dusk in summer.

Anyway I sort of fell in love with it.. got some nice shots but missed a cracker where it swooped down to drink some water. :-(

Anyway my guess is a Noctule (one of the larger UK bats, known to be out earlier in the evening than other species, though this was about 1.30pm today - an in March so clearly out of hibernation and enjoying some warm sunshine!)

Okay now I'm setting myself up for a slap by our(so far) one and only commenter... my Sis Jess who is working on her PhD in Aberdeen (Yoh Bobs!)and is a bit of a clever dick (know-it-all!!!) What say you lady? Noctule? Female? Aged 14 months? In 2nd trimester of her first litter? Seriously -please comment anyone and let us know your differences of opinion on the species.