Adventures on Skye:Part three

The day after the close encounters with the Otters, we took a ferry over to the islands of Lewis and Harris and spent all day there. The weather was fantastic and on the way back to Skye it was almost to hot to sit out on the deck of the ferry!

The following day we all went for a walk up in the hills, and had the pleasure of watching a Golden Eagle gliding up on the thermals on the other side of the glen to where we were. It eventually went so high, it just disappeared into the clouds!

On our way back to the cottage that evening, we stopped off again in the bay where we had seen the Otters. We saw no Otters this time but what we did see, was not one, but three Basking Sharks in the bay! We must have watched them for a good hour or more and at one point one of them came to within ten metres of the shore! Such an amazing natural spectacle for all of us to see.

Just before we got back to the cottage, I decided to have a quick drive down to the bay in front of the cottage to see if there was anything of interest there. The first thing I noticed was a Herring Gull down on the shoreline which looked like it was feeding on a dead fish. I went down to investigate and sure enough it had been feeding on a dead Eel. But the Eel looked as though it had been freshly killed as its head was missing and it had what looked like claw marks on it. It looked like the work of an Otter to me. So I quickly took my wife and son back to the cottage and got back down there.

For an hour or so nothing much really happened except the appearance of a Grey Seal. I looked at my watch and as it was nearly ten and the light was now not really on my side, I decided to give it five more minutes and then call it a day. Then my hunch proved right as an Otter appeared as if from nowhere to the left of me and immediately started to hunt. It looked like a good sized dog Otter, but also struck me as being a fairly young animal. At one point it came to within about twenty metres of me but as I have already said the light was now against me and it was moving about far to quickly for a good photograph. It stayed around for about fifteen minutes or so and then simply vanished as quick as it had appeared.

I was out again at first light the following morning in search of Otters but I already knew that I was not going to get that elusive picture I wanted. The remaining time on the island was spent mostly sight seeing and visiting different places, but we did again see a White-Tailed Sea Eagle and on our last proper day watched a pair of Golden Eagles soaring and chasing each other along a ridge line.

And so the holiday drew to an end. Was I disappointed at not getting my Otter picture? Not really. It would have been nice, yes, but at the end of the day we had had some memorable experiences and seen so much, plus I had the bonus of the White-Tailed Sea Eagle picture that I would never have dreamt of. If you have never visited Scotland but have always said that it sounds nice and you would like to, just do it, go. I dont think you would be disappointed. I know we wasn't, and I know I never have been.