Down to the wire

We started the day back at beaver loch. It was windy and fairly wet with waves. Needless to say, despite careful watching, we saw nothing. It wasn’t disappointing so much as confirmation of how lucky we were the other mornings. We came home and Rich later headed to the beaver visitor centre which opens on a Wednesday. The guy there was surprised we’d seen one at this time of year (although they don’t hibernate, we read they’re less active) but Rich managed to convince him with our pre-dawn start and the promise of rubbish photos (which he’s keen to see, even if I’m not keen to show off!)) that we really might have done!

Rich came back with news of other beavers in the area and that otters are spotted along our coastline even if we haven’t yet seen any. We do like a winter otter spot when we’re in Scotland but thought this may be one where we swap otter for beaver.

The weather forecast here is even worse than Yorkshire. The satellite pictures showed rain coming in and clearing about 3pm. While Rich was out, the sun shone through a moody sky on a flat calm sea for much of the time. Half an hour before we’d agreed to have an outing and a beach walk, the rain started!

Never mind, off we went. Drive first - along the coastline on the other side of the peninsula. There wasn’t a huge amount going on until we rounded a corner to a beautiful buzzard in a tree in front of our noses. You just never know!..

We swapped drivers shortly after and retraced our steps, pausing for a wet highland cow to blip - now relegated.

As we drove back along the coast a potential otter caught my eye. Potential because it looked big! It was big! It was an otter - swimming strongly in the opposite direction to us along the shoreline. We were out of the car by this stage and fairly hidden behind bushes. 

And then it turned for the shore! I actually stepped back to the other side of the road as it clambered over boulders in our direction. Once on the road, it continued away from us with a single pause as it sensed someone watching it - or perhaps heard a few camera clicks - and was on its way, across the road and presumably to its holt.

Well, we’re totally made up! The last hour of our last outing! 

It was still raining but, continuing on to the beach we stopped at the other day, the sky cleared and we all enjoyed a fabulous dry walk along the beach as the light faded.