Taexalia

wild.life

A Goal in Gairloch

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You may have noticed my Day Zero linky in the top bar - the page that lists my 101 in 1001. This is an experiment in goal setting, and also a bypass of New Year's Resolutions - instead giving myself 1001 days to complete the list and, quite probably, also embrace failure I found writing the list an interesting challenge - despite all the To Do lists floating around in my brain I had to really get creative to make it to 101.

On Sunday I was taken on a surprise trip to Poolewe and Gairloch. The original idea had been to revisit the Caledonian Pine Forest in Glen Affric, but when we stopped in Inverness for coffee we decided that it might be somewhat cold wandering around under the freezing fog that was blanketing everything. We decided that scenery from a warm vehicle was a better option, with the possibility of better weather further North and West. We were not disappointed.

Thankfully I will be spending a whole week in Poolewe in March so I was able to cope with the fleeting glimpse of the area in the short time we had, however the best surprise was the last minute otter sighting in the harbour at Gairloch.

I have only maybe spotted a wild otter once before during a walk along the Gannochy at Edzell. This was something like fifteen years ago but I still remember the shape that moved across a large slab of rock. It was dusk and we couldn't identify exactly what we were seeing, but we thought it must have been an otter. Since then I have never seemed to be in the right place at the right time - which is why I put an otter sighting on my 101 list. I really didn't think I'd be able to score it off so soon!

We were basically out of time and needing to turn back towards Aberdeen, but Male Parental Unit decided to give us a quick peek at the Gairloch Harbour a. As MPU drove along by the water I exclaimed "there's something in the water" and continued whining until car was u-turned and parked. I was informed that GemmaDog and I had "three minutes by the water" and I scrambled out of the car all afankle.

The something in the water was still bobbing and I realised it was not a seal and exclaimed "there's an otter in the water" as I saw the black creature playing and diving and unmistakably ottery.

My camera decided to play fuckwittage due to the rather low temperatures, and I was unable to get anything more than the following otter water art. But I will be back!

Otter water art