Friday 19th September

Weather: Moderate WNW breeze with showers in the morning and brightened up into a nice after:

A lot of Wildlife to see today out and about! Theo's tour started with an Otter wandering along the rocks, a flock of 8 Pink-footed Geese flew south overhead calling, 2 brief Golden Eagles and 4 WTE's over the ridge at Theo's first stop whilst Klay watched a family of White-tailed Eagles, the adult bringing in a fish and the juvenile stealing it, whilst an Otter fished offshore, further down he watched a pod of Common Dolphins leaping around.

We then had a fantastic Otter encounter, a female and her mature cub eventually woke up from slumber and headed out for a fish, after a while they swam past a sleeping dog Otter. He woke up and headed over towards them. The female Otter left her cub to chase him off as she didn't welcome his advances, they fought on a nearby island running around and scrapping in the water whilst the cub looked on almost confused! We could hear them squealing from a good distance. Eventually the male got the message and left them to it and they went their separate ways. A few Fallow deer were in the roadside woodland.

Over lunch we watched a pair of Adult WTE perched up in the spruce.

Onto the grassland moorland we saw a large hareem of Red Deer with a big stag in attendance, he did some brief bellowing and chasing the hinds, tasting the air for pheromones. Klay watched 2 Hen Harriers were hunting hills behind and Stonechats in the grass in front. Into the mountains for Theo and after a good wait, 2 Golden Eagles eventually appeared on the skyline tumbling around in the breeze and briefly displaying. 2 Hen Harriers also flew by, both birds unusually high up.

Other Species: Bullfinch, Harbour Seals, Curlew, Goosander, Greenshank, Wigeon, Teal, Gannet, Kittiwake.

Young Fallow Deer buck