Today's Wildlife Encounter

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Originally Posted by neilly

Our cuckoo arrived on 23rd April and has been driving me demented with its incessant cuckooing. I love it. I live on the bank of a sea loch in North Skye. The Arctic Terns arrived last week along with a bunch of swifts. Absolutely love this time of year. There's a seal colony 200m from us. When we moved here in 2006 there were 6 resident seals. This year I've counted 70! Not sure why they've increased so steadily. There will be more next month when they have their pups. Great fun to watch and really nosey. Was watching about 10 of them swimming down the loch leaping like dolphins.

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Neilly have you ever seen anything large in the sea at Skye? i.e Killer Whale etc?

Reason i ask is my uncle lived on Skye and worked on a fishing boat. I don't entirely know where but i'm sure he lived variously at Uig and Glenbrittle.

He absolutely swears that on one offshore fishing trip they found a Great White Shark in their nets. I can't remember any more details than that, i.e dead or alive, whether it was a confirmed identification or whether it may have been a Porbeagle or something...

Just had to google Porbeagle as I had never heard of it. Thanks Travs, every day a school day!

Hi Travs, I've seen basking shsrks in Uig a couple of times and plenty of dolphins and porpoises inPortree harbour. My kids have seen Orcas off Neist Point. Apparently there are occasional humpback whales but I've never seen them. We found a dead baby Orca a few years ago on the beach at Braes and reported it to the Scottish Marine Mammal people. Its amazing that there's so much kut there. I think there's a Gavin Maxwell book about shark hunting when he lived in the Outer Isles. Haven't read it tbough.

We were up that way a few years ago when there was a sperm whale cruising round Oban harbour. Very unusual apparently: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...-west-22076178

Baby Lapwing everywhere! Well, we saw at least 4 different family groups in the fields around us at the weekend. Tiny balls of fluff with long legs!

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Originally Posted by GeoffB

Baby Lapwing everywhere! Well, we saw at least 4 different family groups in the fields around us at the weekend. Tiny balls of fluff with long legs!

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Lovely

Oh, sat at my desk, working from home, and I've just seen my first couple of Swifts through the window.

Shropshire Hills... saw a peacock, which i assume isn't native to the area. Heard a cuckoo but couldn't see it.

I was also informed by someone on the top that a large number of Red Kites were in view just below us... unfortunately i'd just ran most of the climb so couldn't actually see them through the sweat in my eyes.

Kingfisher, Pied wagtail, Dipper, Swallows and Swifts

Watched a lamb being born on cliffs outside Portree and saw s White Tailed Sea Eagle.