Today there was another very pleasant early morning otter walk, but sadly there were none on show in the early morning. Then on the way up to breakfast, two otters were seen in the water, although I only saw one. After the excitement of seeing otters, I enjoyed a “full Scottish breakfast”, which was essentially a modified English breakfast.
During most of the morning we were in a boat in Loch Sunart searching for birds and otters. After a short while a White-tailed Eagle was spotted about half a kilometre away. We proceeded to head towards it until we got great views and some nice photographs. It was really a special moment when in lifted its mighty wings a flew away along a mountain ridge.
A few minutes after seeing the majestic eagle, our tour group headed towards a little rocky island where shags, harbour seals and even a large grey seal, were resting on the rocks. Just as we left the little island a few immature Red sandpipers flew away across the loch.
After the boat trip there was a short break in the lodge and then straight after that a short drinks stop. Then we drove from the cafe to a much smaller loch, which to our delight had a Whooper swan floating in it. Whooper swan’s usually leave after winter to breed, however every year one or two in the whole country remain, which makes a Whooper swan in August extremely rare.
After seeing the swan and other birds, we returned to Loch Sunart just to search for more otters. However along the way we stopped at the bottom of an RSPB nature reserve and saw some very large cat prints, which are unusual considering owning cats is unpopular in Ardnamurchan. I discussed this with the tour leader, who has seen Wildcats in person, and he thought there was a fifty-fifty chance of it being a large feral cat or the critically endangered Scottish Wildcat.
britishnature.blog 
The eagle is a very impressive size. I wonder if the whooper swans which seem to get left behind will breed here?
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