My third weekend on Islay. Sunday dawned clear and still. Gone was the mix of rain and hail that, when driven by a blustery gale, really hurts a bald head. So I set out to walk from Bunnahabhain to the lighthouse at Rhuvaal on the north-east coast of the island. I parked near the distillery and went through the deer fence gate. Almost immediately, I came upon the Margadale River where it debouches into the sea. Where a river meets the sea is always the best place to find sign of otters and sure enough I quickly found lots of evidence: fresh spraint that had been perched on top of small mounds. The mounds are actually made of old spraint. If you dig into them it is a mass of old fish bones deposited for decades.
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| Looking north towards Rubha Bachlaig and up the Sound Of Islay. Jura is just visible on the right. |
Across the Sound, Jura's twin peaks, The Paps, had lost the snowy mantle that had shrouded them for most of the last two weeks. Little tufts of cloud adorned their summits as the air moved across them and its moisture condensed.
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| The Paps of Jura |
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| The Paps, with their distinctive cloud caps. |
As you might expect from one of the Estate's best stalking areas, there were plenty of deer around; even if the otters contrived to be elsewhere. Both red deer and roe deer were making the most of the morning sun. They had found banks and sunny hollows where they could sun bathe. With the sun at my back and the light breeze in my face off the sea, I was in a good position to stalk in close with the camera.
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| A roe buck let me get very close, about ten metres away, before he quit his sunny place and moved off. |
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| I spotted a stag lying fast asleep in the sun. He heard the first few shutter clicks (I had not silenced the shutter) and stood up to get a better look before ambling off. |
I took my time as I made my way up the coast, taking every opportunity to descend from the ATV track to the pebbly shoreline. Ringed Plover could be seen flittering across the pebbles in small flocks.
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| Ringed Plover. |
As I scanned the rocky foreshore for otters, a large bird came into view flying powerfully along the coast towards me. A juvenile white-tailed eagle flew past at head height as I stood on the small cliff over a beach.
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| White-tailed eagle |
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| White-tailed eagle |
A little late I saw it flying across the hill just inland of me. They are hugely curious birds so, the second it saw me, it veered towards me and came to soar above me. Then, having satisfied itself that I was not going to do anything that some other more interesting humans do such as throw fish from boats, shoot deer and find dead sheep, it grew bored and flew away over the hill.
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| Whit-tailed eagle |
Almost as soon as the eagle left me, two juvenile peregrine falcons appeared over the Sound, chasing each other across the line of snow-capped mountains in the distance.
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| Looking northwards to the snow caps of Mull. |
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| Colonsay rears up white and wintery to the north of Islay. |
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| Rhuvaal Lighthouse, from near Glen Dubh. |
I finished the day back home, standing beside the monument to John Francis Campbell, watching the sun go down over Loch Indaal and listening to thousands of barnacle geese gently honking as they settled to roost on the mud flats.
