Wildlife

A golden sunrise this morning brought in another fine but cold day. The photo was taken just after seven, looking across Kilchoan Bay and Loch Sunart to the distant hills of Morvern, with MacLean's Nose and Ben Hiant, still capped with snow, to the left.

Walking down to the shop just before nine we found a pair of greylag geese in the field below Ardmore View, two fat birds which, despite their wariness, allowed us to approach to within twenty metres before flying off and landing in the sea.

Back home, this pied crow sat on a power line behind the house. They're noisy beasts at any time but he seemed unusually angry. Normally, they fly off as soon as a human approaches but he dropped in a shallow dive onto the source of his irritation....

.... Cherry, the fatter of our two cats, stalking mice amidst the brambles.

Nature seems to be stirring in response to this continuing beautiful weather, if not always in the way one would want. We had a pine marten on the wall immediately in front of the house at dusk yesterday, and a weasel has taken all but one of the week-old chicks from a croft down the road. He didn't eat them, simply killed them - and, when he was disturbed by the crofter, cheekily returned with the intention of finishing the job. The pathetic corpses were left on a rock for the buzzards to enjoy.