Mother Nature – By Land, Sea and Air

Red Deer – Amongst the Bluebells and Ferns on Sleat

The fledglings mentioned in the last blog have flown and the whole Sleat Peninsular is alive with bird song and the vibrancy of new life.  Bluebells cover vast swathes of the Sleat hillsides and in the Sound I have enjoyed watching both a Minke Whale and two different pods of dolphins.

Common Dolphin

The largest pod was over 40 strong and spent a good couple of hours just off the Aird headland fishing and playing.  A little too far out for the camera but hopefully you can see enough to appreciate the wonderful sight it was.

Common Dolphin – Sleat

The photographs were taken from the house so hopefully in the near future I will be able to nip down to the shore line and get much closer.

I have also been distracted by the swallows in the garden including the youngsters that aren’t quite as agile as their parents.  I have tried to practice my camera work by taking shots of them in flight and it is not just the young birds that are less than agile!

Swallow Photography the easy way

 

Swallow in Flight – many more images are on the cutting room floor!

Fairy Pools – Glen Brittle

Sgurr An Fheadain

The distinct peak of Sgurr An Fheadain provides a fantastic backdrop to the famous Fairy Pools.  They are the scar through the centre of the image above.  I decided to head over to Glen Brittle to scout the location.  With low cloud the backdrop was unfortunately truncated and certainly not as viewed in March (see above).  Also the lack of rain through April and May has left all the burns very low.

Fairy Pools, Isle of Skye

Even so the crystal clear water and contrasting rock colours produced some excellent images.  In fact the low water allowed a different perspective of the rock formations, normally below the water line, to be closely observed.

Whilst we were walking in, a Golden Eagle soared majestically in Coir a Mhadaidh, too far away for a photo, but even so a beautiful creature just to observe.  However far closer to us was a solitary frog that I disturbed as I crossed the burn much to my wife’s delight (an avid frog fan).  A quick swim in the burn, a pause on a rock and then back to the edge of the burn showed the grace these amphibians have in the water and also their camouflage.  This frog is a total contrast to the exotic ones reared by Clayton Patilla and available to view here.

Frog on a rock – mid burn
Swimming to the bank
Tucked away until danger passes

Even though there was very little water flowing there was still enough water to hopefully do justice to another example of Skye’s wonderful landscape.

Waterfall Glen Brittle

Congratulations

Congratulations must go to three of the hotels on Sleat that won at the recent Scottish Hotel Awards.  For those seeking a perfect weeding location then it is clear that the Duisdale House Hotel is the one for you.  Its sister hotel, the Toravaig won a gold medal for hospitality whilst just down the road Lady Claire Macdonald’s hotel, Kinloch Lodge, won no less than four awards.  Its list of awards included best breakfast for a small hotel so I will have to see if they do breakfast for non residents as I have found a lovely spot just behind the hotel to view winter sunrise over Loch Houn.  It sounds like the perfect start to the day, sunrise over Knoydart followed by some of Marcello Tully’s michelin starred cuisine for breakfast.

Sleat may be small but it has certainly got all the attractions.

Sunrise over Knoydart

 

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