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

Most of the juvenile robins are in different stages of developing their famous red breast. Although it can appear rather scruffy looking at first it should be in its full red glory by late summer. They can make quite a noise in the morning if I am late puting out their breakfast as if to remind me to hurry up. This cheeky young one watched from a nearby branch as I crumbled up the bread and it flew onto the table while I was still there. It is almost fully coated but still displays fluffy downy white feathers below the red. On the way to Inverarnie Stores yesterday to pick up the newspapers we saw the unmistakable big wings of the osprey above us heading out to Loch Ruthven on a fishing trip. The sun picked out its white speckled underparts but it was just too far away for a photo. Might visit Loch Ruthven this week - famous for the Slavonian Grebes that breed there every year. Noticed colonies of house martins flying low and skimming over the surface of Loch Ness catching and eating insects on the wing. A good number of chaffinches, great tits, blue tits, robins and siskins visit the bird feeders every day. The sparrowhawk has been zooming about and, needless to say, every bird suddenly disappears from sight not wishing to end up as a light lunch for the hawk.