Cottage Diary - Aspenwood self catering luxury Holiday Cottage overlooking Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland.

The area around Aspenwood has been teeming with wildlife lately. A rich variety of birds visit the bird table and enjoy eating the different foods on the menu. The greater spotted woodpecker has been on the nut feeder. However they all scatter rapidly when the predatory sparrowhawk suddenly appears from nowhere hoping for a catch. The osprey has been spotted flying high over Loch Ness and has been returning here every year for as long as we have lived here. The male arrives first from Africa in late April and gets the same nest ready for the female to lay the eggs in when she arrives later. When the young are strong enough they all fly back to Africa in August. On the ground we have partridges and red-legged partridges doing the rounds.
Philip the pheasant seems to have lost his lady love as well as one of his tail feathers and has become quite tame and friendly. Most of the neighbours feed him so he will follow you around waiting for food and he even had the cheek to enter a neighbours kitchen through the patio doors as his breakfast was late arriving! Went to Aspenwood to prune the honeysuckle and disturbed a big brown hare very near the cottage which quickly lopped up the bank and off into Farigaig Forest. On the way into Inverness Ray saw a red squirrel run across the road down to the loch for a drink with a baby squirrel in its mouth. The 2 resident deer wander around the property and helpfully mow the grass.
Went to a friends house and saw a pine marten outside in the garden. We have been lucky enough to see these close up at a neighbours house and we threw them scraps of meat. As they were tucking eagerly into their food along came the black and white badger for his evening meal of peanuts. As we have no fences around the cottage all the wildlife can come and go as they please - who needs to watch a wildlife programme on the TV with all this going on.
Visit the Wildlife pages for more details and photos.