Leveret

An easy choice of shot...

The good weather from the start of Skye followed us to Aviemore, with their best weather in weeks apparently. We were up fairly early to go walking up Meall A' Bhuachaille (a Corbett, around 90 metres short of being a Munro). It was a great walk, with a really interesting path, and coming down from the summit we almost literally stumbled across this leveret. The poor thing didn't seem to know where to go (before finally scrambling away from us) so naturally we started to worry about him being picked off by a bird of prey, but there was nothing we could do really... This shot is at the 200mm end of my lens, but is untouched (for once) with no cropping, nothing done to the colour, etc etc etc

In the late afternoon we headed to the Highland Wildlife Park, but the whole place just made me feel uneasy about things. I've had this doubt about zoos for some time now, and this just confirmed those doubts. A few of the animals seemed stressed (the pine martens in particular) and with kids running up to the enclosures, banging on the mesh, and shouting at the animals, while their parents looked on impassively, it all got me quite annoyed. Perhaps it was something to do with having come from the peace of Skye, but here the people were bugging me, and the animals seemed lined up purely for our 'entertainment'. Most of the animals aren't endangered, so there is no 'saving them for future generations' argument to be had (a sometime weak argument anyway since most zoo animals could never be released into the wild...)

A sense of peace was restored with a little visit to the RSPB Osprey centre at Loch Garten (where I paid to get in, having left my RSPB card a home...) which was very low-key, nicely laid out, and we got good views of the female osprey (through a scope) guarding the nest.

And then back to the hotel for a final meal before having to head home in the morning.

Damn. Why do holidays never last as long as you want them to?

Today's abridged wildlife:

Buzzards (wild)
Bug (wild)
Leveret (wild)
Leech (wild)
Horses (park)
Lapwing (wild)
Capercaillie (park)
Red Squirrel (wild)
Wildcat (park)
Osprey (wild)
Great Spotted Woodpecker (wild)
Common Sandpiper (wild)