Otter Spotting

We were out for a stroll up the coast last weekend when we saw an otter just in front of us. I was a bit too slow with the camera but just about managed to get a view of it as it headed off towards the rocky shoreline. That’s Ardwall Island in the background.

An otter disappears into the distance!

An otter disappears into the distance!


We walked on around to Knockbrex Bay and a few minutes later saw another otter (or maybe the same one if it had been travelling very quickly). It was working its way through fairly long grass and vegetation so we failed again to get a clear picture of it.

Brrrrrr!

Even the balmy shores of the Borgue peninsula were not spared from the recent bout of wintry weather in the U.K. We have had a thin cover of snow down to sea level for a couple of days this week.
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The first shipment of bird food has arrived and now we’re putting out regular feed for the local birds. We have a flock of about twenty chaffinches that hoover up a large proportion of the food on the ground in competition with five blackbirds. The blue tits and coal tits are the main customers at the nut feeders and we have had a visit from a great spotted woodpecker. We put out a new Nyjer seed feeder and it has so far attracted three goldfinches as well as some of the chaffinches. Other than that we have seen green finches, sparrows, dunnocks and robins regularly feeding around the bird tables. I’ll add some pictures of the birds if the weather gets light enough to get some decent photographs.
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We have taken most of the packing boxes out to the Castle Douglas recycling center now and there’s room to get Rosey the mini into the garage. Much better that having to scrape the ice from the windows.
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Happy New Year

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Hogmanay was celebrated with friends Jane, Steve, Karen and Mike along with plenty of tasty food and beverages. Gabrielle made some traditional Lancashire meat and potato pies and a huge pan of mushy peas.
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Jane and Steve were the first to sample the new guest accommodation. On New Year’s Day we worked off the excesses of the previous evening with a walk around the local area along the coast from Kirkandrews. We were treated to an impressive sunset as the sun struggled through the afternoon clouds.
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