Winter Walking

We set out yesterday morning for a walk in the area between Loch Mudle and Ben Hiant.  The day had started frosty, but a warm sun soon burned that away.  As we drove through the village we stopped to watch a large group of Greylag Geese grazing the field below Church Cottage.

This Fallow Deer hind and her fawn were feeding beside the road beyond the two big sheds at Caim.  This is the first time we've seen Fallow Deer out in the open - previously they've been in the forestry around Beinn nan Losgann.  These Fallow Deer are very tame - this picture was taken on foot from a distance of twenty metres.

As we drove along the road above Loch Mudle, a thin veil of mist hung above the trees, while in the distance the first shower of the day had formed a rainbow.

We left the car near the southern end of the loch and walked south to the corner of the forestry where there's a stalkers' hide.  With the weather so uncertain, we didn't want to climb the higher hills, but spent our time moving from knoll to knoll so the views kept changing.

Although the area looks very bare, it's dissected by small burns running off the heights of Ben Hiant and Beinn na h-Urchrach.  They're hidden in beautiful little valleys, often with waterfalls and rapids.

Everywhere we went we were watched by Red Deer.  We saw relatively few stags - the rut is over and they've probably gone off to recover - but plenty of hinds in groups running from half-a dozen to twenty or more.  Some, like these ones, were wary, but others continued to graze while keeping half an eye on us.

As the morning wore on the weather became more changeable, with showers rolling in from the northwest.  While these fell as rain at our level, all the mountains around us, from those on Skye and Rum to Ben Resipole and the other the mainland mountains to the east of us, had caps of snow.