Farnboro John
Well-known member
Possibility of a new list here - corpse list!
Nice pic. Would make a good abstract repeating carpet pattern!
John
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John's Mammals 2009 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Farnboro John
- Start date
Possibility of a new list here - corpse list!
Nice pic. Would make a good abstract repeating carpet pattern!
John
Mike Richardson
Formerly known as Skink1978
I'm trying to think of a good UK mammal I've see dead, but not alive. All I can think of is Polecat and Sperm Whale.
Even on holiday I tend to catch up with roadkill eventually. Beech Marten and Red Kangaroo are probably the only other two mammals I've seen dead but not alive.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Its photography that trips me up, I've seen all the mammals in Britain alive that I've seen dead, but I only have corpse shots of Polecat and Lesser White-toothed Shrew (I have a bad one of Water Shrew alive).
In Florida I saw quite a few dead skunks sp plus River Otters on the roads, and on the Falklands I saw South American Fur Seal being picked over by Red-backed Buzzard but not alive. (I have a picture of the hawk on the fur seal - another corpse shot!)
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Nothing to report this weekend except three Red Foxes while I was en route to and from the pub on Saturday night. When is this rubbish weather going to improve?
John
John
Not much to add from this end, but had a Red Squirrel a mere 70 metres from my feeders yesterday, first record on my land. Otherwise, a few bits and bobs whilst in Georgia - very grey Red Foxes, Brown Hares, etc, but also one Golden Jackal.
Isurus
Well-known member
A tip for young players - don't run over skunk corpses on the roads if you can avoid it. We hit a long dead one on our last trip and the car reeked for the rest of the trip.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Now that's what I call a good tip, and not just for the young! Wouldn't have occurred to me either.....
John
Mike Richardson
Formerly known as Skink1978
I came within seconds of a squirting by a particularly bold Striped Skunk in Arizona a couple of months back. Don’t think my girlfriend would have been too happy if I returned to our cabin smelling of skunk!
She's bad enough when I've eaten garlic.
She's bad enough when I've eaten garlic.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Mike Richardson
Formerly known as Skink1978
She spends far too much time in front of the mirror.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
I got out along the canal yesterday evening after bats mostly, gave the sett a cursory glance but no joy.
Before I even got that far I found a Roe doe that must have been within a day or so of dropping, so heavily pregnant that her hide was bulging in all sorts of unusual directions. She was also against the setting sun, limned in gold and under the massive cantilever of a low oak bough in fresh spring green - I took a few pix, haven't edited yet, hopefully something rather more than a field guide shot and certainly a delight to watch.
Rabbits tore across the shorter turf in fields grazed by horses but were all miles away.
After I had given up on Badgers I had a mosey along the towpath for half a mile with no success, then wandered down to the pond to await the hordes of Noctules that have been feeding there. Just after crossing the canal on the weak bridge, I found a closer Rabbit sitting on the sand outside his hole, and took a couple of pix. No art at all in these, just a record of a Rabbit with its hole in an unsheltered open field. The moment I crossed the stile to start down the pond access track, he was underground.
I waited for the Noctule show to start. The sun had been down half an hour. I was still waiting twenty-five minutes later when finally the bat detector told me one bat had bothered to turn up. By then it was much too dark to photograph Noctule in the open sky, though while I waited I had snatched an interesting shot of two flying Greylags, using flash to pick them out against the darkening sky.
I returned to the canal and quickly detected both Soprano Pips and Daubenton's Bats. I got so engrossed in photographing the Daubs that it was half-past midnight when I quit. I have a feeling I didn't get much either, but by the time I arrived home I was too tired to do more than drop into bed. I'll edit them tonight.
On the way home I encountered a small fox cub that stared into my headlights from the verge then very sensibly dived away through the hedge. That kid has a future.
John
Before I even got that far I found a Roe doe that must have been within a day or so of dropping, so heavily pregnant that her hide was bulging in all sorts of unusual directions. She was also against the setting sun, limned in gold and under the massive cantilever of a low oak bough in fresh spring green - I took a few pix, haven't edited yet, hopefully something rather more than a field guide shot and certainly a delight to watch.
Rabbits tore across the shorter turf in fields grazed by horses but were all miles away.
After I had given up on Badgers I had a mosey along the towpath for half a mile with no success, then wandered down to the pond to await the hordes of Noctules that have been feeding there. Just after crossing the canal on the weak bridge, I found a closer Rabbit sitting on the sand outside his hole, and took a couple of pix. No art at all in these, just a record of a Rabbit with its hole in an unsheltered open field. The moment I crossed the stile to start down the pond access track, he was underground.
I waited for the Noctule show to start. The sun had been down half an hour. I was still waiting twenty-five minutes later when finally the bat detector told me one bat had bothered to turn up. By then it was much too dark to photograph Noctule in the open sky, though while I waited I had snatched an interesting shot of two flying Greylags, using flash to pick them out against the darkening sky.
I returned to the canal and quickly detected both Soprano Pips and Daubenton's Bats. I got so engrossed in photographing the Daubs that it was half-past midnight when I quit. I have a feeling I didn't get much either, but by the time I arrived home I was too tired to do more than drop into bed. I'll edit them tonight.
On the way home I encountered a small fox cub that stared into my headlights from the verge then very sensibly dived away through the hedge. That kid has a future.
John
Last edited:
MarkHows
Mostly Mammals
John,
Had cracking water voles at Rainham over the weekend as well as Chinese water deer at Woodwalton fen last week.
Pics here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8209127@N04/3564089280/in/set-72157612165516122/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8209127@N04/3564089588/in/set-72157612165516122/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8209127@N04/3552040417/in/set-72157612165516122/
Off to Cornwall for a week, hopefully may find a few mammals down there.
Mark
Had cracking water voles at Rainham over the weekend as well as Chinese water deer at Woodwalton fen last week.
Pics here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8209127@N04/3564089280/in/set-72157612165516122/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8209127@N04/3564089588/in/set-72157612165516122/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8209127@N04/3552040417/in/set-72157612165516122/
Off to Cornwall for a week, hopefully may find a few mammals down there.
Mark
Periwinkle
Tame Valley Birder
Isurus
Well-known member
Those pictures are incredible!
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Looks like Bank Vole to me but I suppose you are in range for Grey-sided and that's a bit beyond my experience. You have to either look at the teeth or smell them I imagine.
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Right - first day back at work, they have first call on me so this will have to be brief. I can't believe its only a week.
Just a summary, then, details later:
Ardnamurchan: 3 days and nights.
Wildcat: 1 at fifty yards in headlights on road by Loch Mudle, just after the sharp corner coming from the Ockle road junction round to the stretch actually looking down on the loch.
Otter: 1 fishing for half an hour caught 10 fish at Port na Croisg (first bay West of the Wildlife Centre.
Common Dolphin: about thirty together from Ardnamurchan Point showing brilliantly.
Also photographed Chequered Skipper and Ruby Tiger at Ariundle NNR in the car park.
A phone call from Roy brought me skedaddling back down the motorway network on Wednesday.
Thursday I was at College Lake all day in Polecat heaven. I never dreamt of getting more than a grab shot of these and to have them down to two feet was totally, totally unbelievable and 200% brilliant.
Friday morning I spent in the hides at Weeting to finish off British Mustelids for this year. That was pretty amazing too, with a female Stoat feeding young out of the nest from the East hide and another bringing in five dead Rabbits in 75 minutes (1 adult and 4 kits of varying size) to a nest hole in the open turf, from the West Hide. I got a record shot of a Rabbit chasing a Stoat, so I have photos this year of all seven Mustelids (that's Weasel, Stoat, Mink, Polecat, Pine Marten, Otter, Badger).
At Lakenheath the Golden Orioles are showing really well at the edge of the plantation at the moment.
At Wicken Fen I had to wait an hour for the Squacco but then it showed really well, very nice.
I finished Friday at Fowlmere with cracking hunting Barn Owl from the tower hide, Roe, Fallow and Muntjac Deer, and a Water Shrew scorching about in reeds and completely unphotographable.
Saturday I took Maz zand Clare for the Polecats - not as good a performance as Thursday but I gather Friday had been a bit manic. They were happy with the views anyway.
Sunday with Clare but not Maz I did Wall and Green Lizards in Bournemouth, Cream spot Tigers and Glanville Fritillaries at Hurst Spit, Fallow Deer feeding at Bolderwood and Scarce Bluetails and Southern Damselflies at Furze Hill/Ogdens near North Gorley.
I'm knackered.
Details later.
Many thanks to Skink and Mark for PMs telling me to get to College Lake pronto.
John
Just a summary, then, details later:
Ardnamurchan: 3 days and nights.
Wildcat: 1 at fifty yards in headlights on road by Loch Mudle, just after the sharp corner coming from the Ockle road junction round to the stretch actually looking down on the loch.
Otter: 1 fishing for half an hour caught 10 fish at Port na Croisg (first bay West of the Wildlife Centre.
Common Dolphin: about thirty together from Ardnamurchan Point showing brilliantly.
Also photographed Chequered Skipper and Ruby Tiger at Ariundle NNR in the car park.
A phone call from Roy brought me skedaddling back down the motorway network on Wednesday.
Thursday I was at College Lake all day in Polecat heaven. I never dreamt of getting more than a grab shot of these and to have them down to two feet was totally, totally unbelievable and 200% brilliant.
Friday morning I spent in the hides at Weeting to finish off British Mustelids for this year. That was pretty amazing too, with a female Stoat feeding young out of the nest from the East hide and another bringing in five dead Rabbits in 75 minutes (1 adult and 4 kits of varying size) to a nest hole in the open turf, from the West Hide. I got a record shot of a Rabbit chasing a Stoat, so I have photos this year of all seven Mustelids (that's Weasel, Stoat, Mink, Polecat, Pine Marten, Otter, Badger).
At Lakenheath the Golden Orioles are showing really well at the edge of the plantation at the moment.
At Wicken Fen I had to wait an hour for the Squacco but then it showed really well, very nice.
I finished Friday at Fowlmere with cracking hunting Barn Owl from the tower hide, Roe, Fallow and Muntjac Deer, and a Water Shrew scorching about in reeds and completely unphotographable.
Saturday I took Maz zand Clare for the Polecats - not as good a performance as Thursday but I gather Friday had been a bit manic. They were happy with the views anyway.
Sunday with Clare but not Maz I did Wall and Green Lizards in Bournemouth, Cream spot Tigers and Glanville Fritillaries at Hurst Spit, Fallow Deer feeding at Bolderwood and Scarce Bluetails and Southern Damselflies at Furze Hill/Ogdens near North Gorley.
I'm knackered.
Details later.
Many thanks to Skink and Mark for PMs telling me to get to College Lake pronto.
John
Last edited:
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Quick update:
Shot round to Dungeness with Maz yesterday afternoon for the Oriental Pratincole. It was showing when we arrived, which made a nice change from chasing birds all over the landscape before seeing them!
There was fresh Stoat scat on the path between Christmas Dell and Denge Marsh but despite scanning round frequently I didn't spot one. I did see a single Rabbit hopping about unconcernedly.
We were lucky with traffic both ways, which also made a nice change.
John
Shot round to Dungeness with Maz yesterday afternoon for the Oriental Pratincole. It was showing when we arrived, which made a nice change from chasing birds all over the landscape before seeing them!
There was fresh Stoat scat on the path between Christmas Dell and Denge Marsh but despite scanning round frequently I didn't spot one. I did see a single Rabbit hopping about unconcernedly.
We were lucky with traffic both ways, which also made a nice change.
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
OK lets put some flesh on the bones of last week while I can still remember details.
I left work the Friday lunchtime hoping to get to Cumbria ahead of the Bank Holiday lemmings. I got halfway, with a bunch of Red Kites round Stokenchurch, then came to a grinding halt on the M6 and stop-started up to Lancaster before breaking free again.
23 May (Saturday) I spent at Leighton Moss hoping to find accommodating Water Shrews, but no dice. I found some interesting holes in the ditch/streamlet at the far end of the causeway, on the right hand side, that would probably repay an evening stakeout.
A male Marsh Harrier was working a circuit that intersected the causeway and I spent much of the day trying to intercept him. Late afternoon there were so many people on the causeway that he just had to pick one to fly over instead of seeking a gap, and I got a couple of decent flight shots. Waiting to ambush him had already got me close pix of juvenile Bearded Tits, my first digital pix of that species, so all in all I was happy with the day. Only mammals were the dreaded grey tree-rats and a bunch of Rabbits.
The most significant sighting of the day was I suppose the two Pink-footed Geese that flew up from the main lake when some local Greylags went over, circled once with the latter then departed North.
24 May. I drove on northwards with the weather steadily deteriorating. From sunshine in Cumbria it had changed by Callander to showers and I went through Glencoe without seeing the mountains at all: the cloud was at road level and the rain lashing. Wildcat Plan B was abandoned and I reverted without much hope to Plan A: over the Corran Ferry (saw a Black Guillemot through the rain spattered windscreen while queuing) and through Glen Tarbert to find to my utter amazement that Ardnamurchan was bathed in sunshine with just fluffy high clouds scudding through.
I had the luxury of putting the tent up dry while Hooded Crows squabbled over scraps on the beach and a Cuckoo called from up the hill behind the camp site.
A search for the local Otter was curtailed by a shower and increasing midges as the wind dropped towards dusk. I had foolishly assumed the breeze would keep them off and was caught out without my Avon dry oil when it died away at sunset.
With a feeling of more showers in the air I decided to spotlight the inner peninsula and Glen Tarbert rather than drive out to the Basin, but after an hour or so the sky cleared and having not found anything I pointed the car's nose West and set out for Wildcat Central.
It didn't do me any good on this night - well not quite true, there were Grasshopper Warblers reeling all over the place for a year tick. I also saw about fifty Red Deer hinds and yearlings along the Ockle road, 10+ Common Pips and 3+ Natterer's Bats feeding mostly under trees (the slope up to Ardslignish is a good spot) - the new bat detector makes the business a lot easier!
It was getting light, the thin bright line of the simmer dim having shifted round the Northern horizon through the night, when I decided some sleep was essential and returned to Resipole at 0430.
When I woke at about 0945 it had reverted to wet but the forecast was for it to clear by lunchtime, so I drove out to the Glenmore Wildlife Centre for a late breakfast. Having enjoyed that and chatted with Ritchie I decided to have a look for Otters in the nearby bays - it was still raining but I can do that from the car - and found one straight away fishing in Port na Croisg only a couple of hundred yards from the Centre.
I watched it for about half an hour, during which time it caught about ten fish. Three of them were big enough for it to bring ashore to eat: the others were crunched in the jaws a bit then swallowed whole while swimming. It was an ebullient animal, coming up from fishing dives with powerful strokes that launched it halfway out of the water, to subside with a splash before settling to consume its prey.
Fish taken ashore were not consumed in entirety and an adult Herring Gull and two Hoodies enjoyed the remains.
Eventually the Otter's patrol took it out of sight around a rocky point and I moved on. The Cala Darach bay held a full summer-plumaged adult Great Northern Diver and I watched that until it, too slid away out of sight. I have seen a lot of GND but very few looking as grand as that one.
By now the weather was looking up a bit so I drove out to the Point of Ardnamurchan for a seawatch. It hadn't cleared as early as predicted because there wasn't much wind to move it on, so the sea was in a good state for looking for cetaceans. For once there were actually some other birders there as well, and I enjoyed the company.
I soon found about thirty Common Dolphins corralling a shoal of fish out towards the south end of Rhum. They were on view for over half an hour, moving much closer to the Point and giving us really great scope views of them travelling fast (a few full breaches and side-slaps) and circling to feed on shoals of fish.
There were great rafts of Manx Shearwaters working across the area, flying upwind and settling to feed while drifting back downwind before repeating the process, and a few birds moving. I picked up Great and Arctic Skuas for the year but before I had arrived a group of four Poms had gone through.
Leaving there late afternoon I added a Whinchat on telephone wires and later a Spotted Flycatcher in a shrubbery near the Sonachan Hotel. The Sonachan provided another bonus in the shape of a couple of Twite on the roadside and making use of the garden feeders.
On the way back to Resipole I stopped in the Glenborrodale RSPB car park to scan Loch Sunart for porpoises, without success. What I did see right at the far side of the sea loch, was a Red Deer swimming across a deep inlet. The side it was swimming to was very rocky and it made several attempts to climb out before finding a spot where it could do so.
I dined at the Salen Hotel, but by then I was in some doubt as to how to proceed with the week as Roy had rung me to let me know about a family of Polecats showing during the day, every day, at College Lake. In terms of photography, Polecat is as difficult as Wildcat, so although I was up here to try to get cat pix, perhaps I should bin it and head South for the dead cert.
Before I needed to decide I had another night drive to do (Roy had promised to get me some reassurance that the Polecats were pure before I set off back) so I enjoyed my massive, ultra-fresh seared scallops and headed once again out along the coast road.
I had a mid evening look at the forest edges around Loch Mudle and although I didn't see a cat, I did find a Roe doe licking a brand-new spotty fawn exactly where Marion and I had seen a buck and doe at the end of March.
I then drove the Ockle road and counted 20 hinds and yearlings before moving over towards Kilchoan where the bachelors congregate and counting 26 of them. The major stags had mostly cast their antlers but a few two-and three-year olds still had them, with a couple of heads on a severe list with one gone and one still attached.
Finally at 2315 it was about dark enough to start spotlighting and I headed back towards Loch Mudle. I followed the road around the wide shallow gully from the Ockle junction along the bottom edge of the conifer plantation, to where it takes a sharp right-hander to bring you onto the stretch that overlooks Loch Mudle several hundred feet below. I took a deep breath and swung the car through the corner, eyes following the swathe of the headlights across the moor and scrub birch till it refound the road beyond the bend - and there was a Wildcat in the middle of the road about fifty yards up!
It hated me - the ears twisted flat and it gave me a savage glare for a second or two, then slid away left into bracken. I saw two or three flashes from the eyes as it moved away before I launched the car forward to where it had left the road and leapt out with the spotlight.
A few yards from the road the land drops away ten feet in a sort of lip before a much gentler slope largely covered with scrubby birches and willows. There is a twenty yard gap between the lip and the scrub, and I swung the light quickly around the area - no dice. The cat had had at least ten seconds to get clear, far too long for me to recover contact. It had been a great view though, fully in the open and in full beam headlights: no complaints. Stripes, tail rings, size, build - you can get a lot in a couple of seconds.
But not a photograph. I had a little revelation then, a Road to Damascus moment in which I understood that while I can drive Ardnamurchan with a fair chance of connecting with a Wildcat, it isn't the way to get a picture unless I get stupidly lucky like whoever got one two weeks earlier, in much the same spot in broad daylight. Same cat, probably. I decided there and then that if the news on the Polecats was positive, I would get back for them. I would need a night's sleep so it would have to be Wednesday for travelling: but subject to Roy's call I would make Tuesday my last day and this my last night drive.
Back in the car I moved onward towards the Basin and immediately flushed a Woodcock from the side of the road. It flew away into the night but only about four hundred yards later I found another standing in the middle of the road. I managed to coast the car close enough to get a photo despite having put my 28-200mm lens on instead of the 170-500mm, in the hope that the easier deployment would give me a better chance of some sort of cat picture. Good value!
Spotlighting the Basin for an hour didn't produce anything further. Driving back to Resipole got me more Common Pips and Natterer's, but the other real joy of the night was a Red Fox cub, still thin-tailed, out exploring the road and paying no attention either to me or to his mother's insistent and probably increasingly desperate "wrow-wrow-wrow" calls telling him to get the hell away from that car! I got a couple of record shots of him sniffing his way along the road before he made off left into a gateway (away from his mum who was somewhere in the bushes on the right) and I could slip past without risking squashing him.
Back at Resipole a pair of Tawny Owls were calling to each other and they were the last things I heard before falling asleep.
John
I left work the Friday lunchtime hoping to get to Cumbria ahead of the Bank Holiday lemmings. I got halfway, with a bunch of Red Kites round Stokenchurch, then came to a grinding halt on the M6 and stop-started up to Lancaster before breaking free again.
23 May (Saturday) I spent at Leighton Moss hoping to find accommodating Water Shrews, but no dice. I found some interesting holes in the ditch/streamlet at the far end of the causeway, on the right hand side, that would probably repay an evening stakeout.
A male Marsh Harrier was working a circuit that intersected the causeway and I spent much of the day trying to intercept him. Late afternoon there were so many people on the causeway that he just had to pick one to fly over instead of seeking a gap, and I got a couple of decent flight shots. Waiting to ambush him had already got me close pix of juvenile Bearded Tits, my first digital pix of that species, so all in all I was happy with the day. Only mammals were the dreaded grey tree-rats and a bunch of Rabbits.
The most significant sighting of the day was I suppose the two Pink-footed Geese that flew up from the main lake when some local Greylags went over, circled once with the latter then departed North.
24 May. I drove on northwards with the weather steadily deteriorating. From sunshine in Cumbria it had changed by Callander to showers and I went through Glencoe without seeing the mountains at all: the cloud was at road level and the rain lashing. Wildcat Plan B was abandoned and I reverted without much hope to Plan A: over the Corran Ferry (saw a Black Guillemot through the rain spattered windscreen while queuing) and through Glen Tarbert to find to my utter amazement that Ardnamurchan was bathed in sunshine with just fluffy high clouds scudding through.
I had the luxury of putting the tent up dry while Hooded Crows squabbled over scraps on the beach and a Cuckoo called from up the hill behind the camp site.
A search for the local Otter was curtailed by a shower and increasing midges as the wind dropped towards dusk. I had foolishly assumed the breeze would keep them off and was caught out without my Avon dry oil when it died away at sunset.
With a feeling of more showers in the air I decided to spotlight the inner peninsula and Glen Tarbert rather than drive out to the Basin, but after an hour or so the sky cleared and having not found anything I pointed the car's nose West and set out for Wildcat Central.
It didn't do me any good on this night - well not quite true, there were Grasshopper Warblers reeling all over the place for a year tick. I also saw about fifty Red Deer hinds and yearlings along the Ockle road, 10+ Common Pips and 3+ Natterer's Bats feeding mostly under trees (the slope up to Ardslignish is a good spot) - the new bat detector makes the business a lot easier!
It was getting light, the thin bright line of the simmer dim having shifted round the Northern horizon through the night, when I decided some sleep was essential and returned to Resipole at 0430.
When I woke at about 0945 it had reverted to wet but the forecast was for it to clear by lunchtime, so I drove out to the Glenmore Wildlife Centre for a late breakfast. Having enjoyed that and chatted with Ritchie I decided to have a look for Otters in the nearby bays - it was still raining but I can do that from the car - and found one straight away fishing in Port na Croisg only a couple of hundred yards from the Centre.
I watched it for about half an hour, during which time it caught about ten fish. Three of them were big enough for it to bring ashore to eat: the others were crunched in the jaws a bit then swallowed whole while swimming. It was an ebullient animal, coming up from fishing dives with powerful strokes that launched it halfway out of the water, to subside with a splash before settling to consume its prey.
Fish taken ashore were not consumed in entirety and an adult Herring Gull and two Hoodies enjoyed the remains.
Eventually the Otter's patrol took it out of sight around a rocky point and I moved on. The Cala Darach bay held a full summer-plumaged adult Great Northern Diver and I watched that until it, too slid away out of sight. I have seen a lot of GND but very few looking as grand as that one.
By now the weather was looking up a bit so I drove out to the Point of Ardnamurchan for a seawatch. It hadn't cleared as early as predicted because there wasn't much wind to move it on, so the sea was in a good state for looking for cetaceans. For once there were actually some other birders there as well, and I enjoyed the company.
I soon found about thirty Common Dolphins corralling a shoal of fish out towards the south end of Rhum. They were on view for over half an hour, moving much closer to the Point and giving us really great scope views of them travelling fast (a few full breaches and side-slaps) and circling to feed on shoals of fish.
There were great rafts of Manx Shearwaters working across the area, flying upwind and settling to feed while drifting back downwind before repeating the process, and a few birds moving. I picked up Great and Arctic Skuas for the year but before I had arrived a group of four Poms had gone through.
Leaving there late afternoon I added a Whinchat on telephone wires and later a Spotted Flycatcher in a shrubbery near the Sonachan Hotel. The Sonachan provided another bonus in the shape of a couple of Twite on the roadside and making use of the garden feeders.
On the way back to Resipole I stopped in the Glenborrodale RSPB car park to scan Loch Sunart for porpoises, without success. What I did see right at the far side of the sea loch, was a Red Deer swimming across a deep inlet. The side it was swimming to was very rocky and it made several attempts to climb out before finding a spot where it could do so.
I dined at the Salen Hotel, but by then I was in some doubt as to how to proceed with the week as Roy had rung me to let me know about a family of Polecats showing during the day, every day, at College Lake. In terms of photography, Polecat is as difficult as Wildcat, so although I was up here to try to get cat pix, perhaps I should bin it and head South for the dead cert.
Before I needed to decide I had another night drive to do (Roy had promised to get me some reassurance that the Polecats were pure before I set off back) so I enjoyed my massive, ultra-fresh seared scallops and headed once again out along the coast road.
I had a mid evening look at the forest edges around Loch Mudle and although I didn't see a cat, I did find a Roe doe licking a brand-new spotty fawn exactly where Marion and I had seen a buck and doe at the end of March.
I then drove the Ockle road and counted 20 hinds and yearlings before moving over towards Kilchoan where the bachelors congregate and counting 26 of them. The major stags had mostly cast their antlers but a few two-and three-year olds still had them, with a couple of heads on a severe list with one gone and one still attached.
Finally at 2315 it was about dark enough to start spotlighting and I headed back towards Loch Mudle. I followed the road around the wide shallow gully from the Ockle junction along the bottom edge of the conifer plantation, to where it takes a sharp right-hander to bring you onto the stretch that overlooks Loch Mudle several hundred feet below. I took a deep breath and swung the car through the corner, eyes following the swathe of the headlights across the moor and scrub birch till it refound the road beyond the bend - and there was a Wildcat in the middle of the road about fifty yards up!
It hated me - the ears twisted flat and it gave me a savage glare for a second or two, then slid away left into bracken. I saw two or three flashes from the eyes as it moved away before I launched the car forward to where it had left the road and leapt out with the spotlight.
A few yards from the road the land drops away ten feet in a sort of lip before a much gentler slope largely covered with scrubby birches and willows. There is a twenty yard gap between the lip and the scrub, and I swung the light quickly around the area - no dice. The cat had had at least ten seconds to get clear, far too long for me to recover contact. It had been a great view though, fully in the open and in full beam headlights: no complaints. Stripes, tail rings, size, build - you can get a lot in a couple of seconds.
But not a photograph. I had a little revelation then, a Road to Damascus moment in which I understood that while I can drive Ardnamurchan with a fair chance of connecting with a Wildcat, it isn't the way to get a picture unless I get stupidly lucky like whoever got one two weeks earlier, in much the same spot in broad daylight. Same cat, probably. I decided there and then that if the news on the Polecats was positive, I would get back for them. I would need a night's sleep so it would have to be Wednesday for travelling: but subject to Roy's call I would make Tuesday my last day and this my last night drive.
Back in the car I moved onward towards the Basin and immediately flushed a Woodcock from the side of the road. It flew away into the night but only about four hundred yards later I found another standing in the middle of the road. I managed to coast the car close enough to get a photo despite having put my 28-200mm lens on instead of the 170-500mm, in the hope that the easier deployment would give me a better chance of some sort of cat picture. Good value!
Spotlighting the Basin for an hour didn't produce anything further. Driving back to Resipole got me more Common Pips and Natterer's, but the other real joy of the night was a Red Fox cub, still thin-tailed, out exploring the road and paying no attention either to me or to his mother's insistent and probably increasingly desperate "wrow-wrow-wrow" calls telling him to get the hell away from that car! I got a couple of record shots of him sniffing his way along the road before he made off left into a gateway (away from his mum who was somewhere in the bushes on the right) and I could slip past without risking squashing him.
Back at Resipole a pair of Tawny Owls were calling to each other and they were the last things I heard before falling asleep.
John
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Tree Sparrow
Well-known member
Brilliant! So glad you got to see the wildcat. Amazing what you can see in just a few days.
TS
TS
