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Musiewild's blog

Tag Archives: otter

West Highlands, 2022 – 3

25 Sunday Sep 2022

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Geology, Photography, Wildlife

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

Ben Nevis, Caledonian MacBrayne, Corran ferry, Devil's toenails, Gleann Gael, grey seal, gryphea, Isle of Mull, Kingairloch, Loch Aline, Loch Linnhe, Loch Uisge, Lochaline, Lochaline Mine, Morvern, otter, pine marten, red deer, red-breasted merganser, sika deer, Sound of Mull, stonechat, whinchat

Tuesday, 13th September. Today, having passed through Fort William, we went down the eastern side of Loch Linnhe (pronounced ‘Linnie’) to its narrows, where we crossed the loch by the Corran ferry, enjoying the view of the lighthouse on the other side.

After the narrows the sea loch is much wider. We followed it southwards.

Looking back
Looking forward
Red-breasted merganser
Common seal ‘banana-ing’
Distant red deer

At one stop along the loch I was pleased to have my 2007 Open University geology revised. I had never realised that Ben Nevis was an extinct volcano.

We left the Linnhe at one point to visit a small lochan (that’s tautologous) with a very long name in Gallic.

Whinchat and stonechat by the lochan

Back beside the Linnhe, I was delighted to see a seal come in to cavort in the rocks and weed. It was some way away, and rather difficult to photograph, but these are my two best pictures.

Our packed lunch was taken at Kingairloch,

from where we made our way inland on the Morvern peninsula to Lochaline, on the Sound of Mull. We had on the way passed Loch Whisky and Gleann Gael. [Linguistic note!: I wrote ‘Whisky’ in my notebook, because that’s what I thought I was being was told, being assured that it was its real name, and that ‘whisky’ means ‘water’ in Gallic. I was being teased to a certain extent. On the map I find it is spelt ‘Loch Uisge’. And ‘uisge’ does indeed mean water, ‘uisge beatha’, the water of life, being the Gallic for ‘whisky’.]

Distant sika deer, and sheep
Isle of Mull behind the ferry

We walked away from the Sound, and made our way a short distance along Loch Aline off it, past a fascinating sand mine and its works.

There was some waste sand lying around. On picking it up we could see and feel just how very white, fine and soft it was, quite unlike any I had encountered on a beach.

I would love to have had a visit round the works, not to mention the mine itself!

David and Jon (hidden behind his telescope), look at the storage
Conveyor belts
Sand just about to be dumped onto a conveyor belt

We walked on.

Tern of some sort being photobombed from the front by a young gull

I then got absorbed into the next activity and totally forgot to take any photos of it. There were literally hundreds of ‘devil’s toenails’ on the beach. David collected several. Devil’s toenails are fossils of bivalves, gryphea, about two inches, 5 centimetres, long. And here’s a (copyright-free) picture of one found on the internet..

Time to go home the way we came.

This evening a pine marten visited even before our meal, so it was possible to get some semi-daylight pictures through the glass.

Clearly not worried by us, as long as we stayed we we were. We could even move around.

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USA 2018 (7), Otters!

06 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Geology, Photography, Travel, Wildlife

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Flagg Ranch, Grand Teton National Park, Jackson Hole, JD Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, Lewis Falls, Natural Habitat, otter, River otter, Snake River, Yellowstone National Park

USA 2018 (7) Otters! If I had been disappointed at the lack of snow hitherto, I could have no complaint now. This was the view from my Lexington hotel bedroom at Jackson Hole on the Sunday morning.

P1290441001

It had snowed!

We set off northwards through Grand Teton National Park.  The views were beautiful, (though not as beautiful as the following day).

P1290446001

Like many of my photos, taken through the smoked glass of the vehicle window. And the mist.

Wanting the opportunity to take photos in the open, we stopped after a while by the Snake River/Jackson Lake, to be delighted to see through the mist and snow some little dots – which turned out to be river otters! Now otters, along with dolphins and felines, are my favourite animals – not very original, but there we are. P1290463001

P1290468001

Emerging from their holt

 

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There were swans as well – this is a very long way off…

Right on cue they came bounding in our direction, though they were not aware of us. (These photos were taken with my camera on maximum – x24 – zoom, and I have enlarged them a little since.)  Then two more otters revealed themselves, nearer to us, and the first group ran towards them. P1290481001P1290484001

P1290495001

I love how you can see their converging tracks.

All enjoyed a playful bundle for a couple of minutes.  Then, just like that, all seven decided to turn back. P1290498001P1290503001P1290506001I decided it was time to take a video,

and the otters disappeared back to where they had come from.P1290512001P1290514001

P1290517001

The swans were still there

What a magical experience!  Many agreed at the end of the trip that this had been a real highlight.

We continued, leaving the Grand Teton NP, and stopped at the Flagg Ranch Information Station in the JD Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, for hot chocolate and a change of vehicle. (For some reason they didn’t charge me for my hot chocolate as I had provided my own insulated drinking can, a gift, along with a metal water bottle, from Natural Habitat at the outset.)P1290529001P1290527001 We continued climbing, into Yellowstone National Park, the first (1872) NP ever declared in the world. The snow was getting thicker and falling faster.P1290538001 Snowcoaches it was now.

P1290564001

I don’t know how our luggage made it from hotel to hotel every night, but it was following us on skis at this point!

Our next stop – and descent from the vehicles – was to see the Lewis Falls. These are at the southern rim of the Yellowstone supervolcano caldera. P1290555001P1290561001 Not that I was aware of it at the time.

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The NP is in the NE corner of Wyoming, slightly overlapping Montana and Idaho to the N and E respectively. The approximate line of the caldera is shown here in grey.

Our lunch stop was at West Thumb, in a ‘warming hut’.P1290580

 

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The warming hut – outside

P1290593001

The warming hut – inside. Two of the Nat Hab water bottles can be seen.

P1290586

The loos. Talk about amazing surroundings!

The hut was actually too warm for me, all wrapped up in the great boots and fantastic parka provided by Natural Habitat for the trip.  (The parka was 80% duck down and 20% feather.  I had packed silk sock liners and silk glove liners, which I wore under alpaca looped long socks and Hollofil mittens. I had very few problems with the cold, at which I was very surprised, given my usual hatred of anything below 21 deg C/70 deg F.  In addition, the leaders provided toe and hand warmers as topping up, of which I only availed myself on the last two days.)

We assembled to go for a walk in the snow.P1290597

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Greylake Nature Reserve

12 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Photography, Wildlife

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

coot, fieldfare, gadwall, greta white egret, Greylake, Ham Wall, hare, lapwing, mink, otter, redwing, RSPB, shoveler, snipe, Somerset Wildlife Trust, sparrowhawk, stonechat, swan, teal, wetlands, wigeon

Greylake Nature Reserve, owned by the RSPB.  I’d visited it just once before, and that only briefly. The prospect of a guided tour with birding experts, set up by the Somerset Wildlife Trust, and led by an RSPB volunteer, was too good to miss, so this was my third outdoor outing this week in near freezing temperatures.01-p1250803001The briefing told us that the land had been in cultivation until 2003, when it was bought by the RSPB and converted into wetland for wildlife.  We would make our way to the main hide, where we would spend about half our time, and then walk around those parts accessible to the public.  Most of the area was kept behind electric fencing for the tranquillity of the birds and animals.  It was good to come at all times of the year, but this season was the best time because of the thousands of different birds over-wintering there.

On the way to the hide, I managed to get an indifferent picture of a fieldfare.

02-p1250804001Once at the hide, we had this general view ahead of us.03-p1250869001Looking round, and closing in a little with binoculars and camera, here are other aspects.

04-p1250816001

Wigeon, shovelers and coot

05-p125081900106-p125084500107-p1250818001

08a-p1250838001

Wigeon, shoveler, coot and gadwall

08b-p1250834001Experienced birders were soon exclaiming at this clump, just 20 metres or so from us.09-p1250825001A pair of teal can be seen easily, especially the male.  But are there really snipe there? And four?10-p1250830001In due course I managed to find three, and indeed once you knew that they were there, it was even possible to pick the nearest one out with the naked eye, they were so close.  But what wonderful camouflage!  They didn’t move the whole of the time we were there.

 

It was not possible to get photos of all the species we saw, but here are some. (If birder readers wish to comment with further names, or corrections to any of these photos, above and below, please feel free!)

11-p1250853001

Shovelers, the male’s bill demonstrating just why they bear that name. The female has the same bill, but that is hidden here.

 

I just love lapwings, (also known as peewits) for their green iridescence, their cheeky crest, their wonderful courtship flight, their flappy way of flying (I call them flapwings).  This one all alone entertained us close to the hide for ages.12-p1250850001

13-p1250856001And as at Ham Wall, there was a Great white egret in the distance.14-p1250862001

 

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Three in fact. and here is one of the others flying around

 

Not long after leaving the hide, and keeping to the established path, we were shown by one of the RSPB volunteers, to the right of the path, some otter poo and some mink poo, the former more welcome than the latter.  The otter spraint was on a well-established otter path.16-p1250871001To the left, the other part of the otter path could be seen.17-p1250874001We were pleased then to see crowds and crowds of lapwing flying around, as if there had been a signal to the thousands in the area all to rise up at once. Here are just a few of them.18-p125087700119-p1250878001Swans have no need to fear humans, and they know it. This one made for an easy photo, just a very few metres away from where we were walking.21-p1250882001A distant view of another great white egret.20-p1250881001Evidence of a recent hare boxing match.22-p1250886001And of a sparrowhawk kill.23-p1250890001We hoped to see more small birds, and indeed we did see redwing, and stonechat, but I couldn’t get photos.  We went on to a viewpoint:24-p1250892001But few wetland birds were favouring this area of the reserve. 25-p1250894001Perhaps, along with the small birds, they were favouring the more sheltered areas on this chilly day.  But I, usually spending far too much of my life in front of a computer, had really enjoyed my three outdoors outings this week.  I must do it more often, and certainly return to Greylake at other seasons.

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