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

Sunday, August 27, 2006

View a movie

The mother and baby deer are regular visitors to the area. The baby is not so timid now and we managed to get some video of them eating together. Philip the pheasant usually appears for a meal sometime during the day and will run beside your legs to the bird table and wait for peanuts to be thrown down to him. You do have to be fairly quick as he has been known to give the odd peck to hurry things along. View movies of the wildlife on our new Video Gallery page.
Please let me know what you think of this feature and would welcome your comments.

posted by Lyn @ 2:12 PM 0 comments

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Fort George

The weather forecast was excellent yesterday so we took ourselves off to Chanonry Point on the Black Isle in the hope of seeing the dolphins which inhabit the Moray Firth. Set our chairs and cameras up and had a good view of Fort George on the opposite bank and also of the various aircraft using Inverness airport. Fort George is still a working army base although a lot of it is open to the public as it contains a Regimental Museum. Had a picnic in the sunshine whilst keeping an eye out to sea but unfortunately these amazing creatures did not show themselves. We overheard that they had come in on the early tide and also that a basking shark had been spotted which was very unusual. Enjoyed a stroll along the sands of the bay passing the imposing lighthouse. We did see the dolphins last year so we will just have to keep coming back until we see them again. Check them out on our website page http://www.lochnesscottage.com/wildlife/other.asp

posted by Lyn @ 2:27 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

The vole and the mole.

Maisie, one of our Loch Ness Monsters, very kindly brought me a gift and dropped it at my feet. Luckily I was sitting outside on the bench at the time. The vole was a bit stunned but perfectly alright and not a mark on it. Having proudly delivered the gift Maisie left us alone and the vole eventually ran off into the shrubs to live another day. When Maisie was quite young she came up the driveway one morning carrying a mole which was nearly as big as her. This must have been quite difficult to catch as they are normally underground and never seen. The thrill for the cats is always in the chase and, once caught and delivered, they show no interest whatsoever in the prey which is very lucky for the creature concerned. Life is hard!

posted by Lyn @ 8:34 PM 0 comments

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Beautiful sunset


Beautiful sunset yesterday evening....enough said.

posted by Lyn @ 6:09 PM 2 comments

Monday, August 07, 2006

River Ness

As it was a warm day with a pleasant breeze we drove into Inverness and went for a stroll along the banks of the River Ness. The river flows from Loch Ness, through the centre of the city of Inverness and into the Moray Firth which eventually opens out into the North Sea. Part of it is used by the Caledonian Canal to reach Loch Ness.The flower beds along the banks of the river are full of colour at this time of the year and they are always well tended and respected. Children from an early age are encouraged at home and at school to take pride in growing flowers and vegetables and the private gardens are always a pleasure to look at. The River Ness is quite shallow at the moment and often you will see fishermen in their waders standing in the water waiting for a bite on their line, hopefully a salmon. On the opposite bank are the hungry seagulls waiting for their lunch. Who will get the fish first?

posted by Lyn @ 11:43 AM 0 comments

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Birdlife and bath time.

A flutter of young bird life appears on the feeders under the bird platform here with varieties such as siskins, chaffinches,blue tits, great tits, coal tits, robins and blackbirds . I was amazed at the clever camouflage of this young elusive treecreeper on the tree trunk nearby. Note the curved needle like beak ideal for picking out tasty insects from the bark of the tree. The long stiff tail helps to anchor the bird as it tugs at some stubborn insect in the bark.
We put a new bird bath and more nut feeders and nut balls outside the lounge at Aspenwood attached to the fence, not only to attract the teeming bird life but also entice the red squirrels. We know they are about as guests have told us they have seen them run along the fencing and they have also been guilty of demolishing 2 lightweight nut feeders, now replaced with a more sturdy screw top variety. Hopefully I can capture them on film soon so watch this space.
One of our guests kindly emailed this photo of the male Great spotted woodpecker on the nuts at the bird table at Aspenwood. [Copyright Peter Townrow]

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posted by Lyn @ 12:30 PM 0 comments

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