Christine's walking & birds blog

A raptor that was just a dot over Isle Martin came gradually closer as I sat on the beach at Ardmair and eventually showed itself to be an osprey. It circled over the camp-site and then moved away to the north.

Below, on the spit, a ringed plover's alarm call alerted me to the presence of a chick. It's great that they've managed to breed successfully, what with all the paddle-boarding, dog-walking, and cairn-building going on.

Other recent sightings in other places: I was scanning a distant crag where walkers don't usually venture, when I spotted what I took to be a man gaining the crest and possibly a woman still toiling upwards. Suddenly, the man opened his arms wide and flapped them - and lo! the man was a golden eagle, and his arms were wings! Must get my eyes tested.

In a boggy forest clearing I surprised a sika deer.

The picture I took as it headed for the cover of the trees is shaky because, as it turned, it uttered a piercing shriek - and I nearly dropped the camera.

The thing about the sikas is that they are often hidden in the forest, and you don't know they're nearby until their sudden ear-splitting whistles cut through the air - but even when I could see one and was prepared, the call made me nearly jump out of my shoes!