Friday 20th June - House of Slytherin

Ben and Ewan co-hosted today, and the weather was just unbelievable—24 degrees at one point, a scorcher of a day. Ben was so excited as he was doing a tour with Ewan in the north, and Ewan's nickname is the "King of the North" after all.

With bright blue skies, the tour started off brilliantly. At the first stop, there was a lovely male whinchat singing and perched on top of bracken. Then we went to check some metal sheets, and before we got to them, a guest spotted a huge white-tailed eagle flying low overhead. It was an incredible and unexpected sighting of this regal female white-tailed eagle. To our delight, when we got to the sheets there was also a female adder, which for many of the guests this was their first adder, so just a brilliant start. It was wonderful to see this misunderstood reptile.

We then went to the coast for a nice walk to a quiet, tropical beach with turquoise water. Brilliant seals were sunbathing on the rocks, and there were lots of lapwings and oystercatchers to see. A pair of shelducks was also spotted. At the beach there was also 2 twos types of carnivorous plants, butterwort and round leaved sundew. The butterwort was everywhere, which was great to see so many “starfishes”.

Butterwort

As we moved into the afternoon, the weather really warmed up, and it seemed to correlate with wildlife becoming harder to spot. Stopping at scenic spots, we managed to see a hooded crow panting heavily after a short flight, which made us all realize how hard it must be to fly and have feathers in this weather. Ewan was kindly given a hat by one of the guests and can I just I think he pulled it off!

After waiting patiently for a while, a white-tailed eagle called from the trees just behind us and landed in the middle of a pine tree. All the guests managed to see this majestic white-tailed eagle, which was a perfect way to wrap up a very warm day.

Thank you to the guests for today. Their patience was excellent, and we were rewarded with some wonderful sightings despite the tricky conditions. At some points in the afternoon, there seemed to be nothing in flight.