Good Shit Happens Sometimes

I've had a fun-filled couple of days at work, doing something I really enjoy doing. The hotel stands in the angle between two roads and has a small stream, or a burn as it's properly known up here, running just south of the buildings. Here's an aerial image from a few years back

Route of burn highlighted in orange dots

This section of the burn is situated inside the hotel grounds, yet is so overgrown that you can barely see it through overhanging branches and dense Fuchsia cover. Thanks to an exceedingly wet winter, it was transformed from a gentle trickle into a raging torrent. Now that it's subsided once more I figured I ought really get in there and check for, and clear, any obstructions. Bloody hell, were there ever! 

I didn't take any pics of the 'before', but here's a pic of the 'after' from the section upstream (east) of the buildings, which I cleared yesterday afternoon. 

I'm really thrilled at how open this is now - you can actually walk up it!

This is the 'before' shot looking at the downstream section from level with the hotel buildings

Overgrown jungle

Looking better already

Anyway, I set to with bowsaw and loppers and merrily worked my way slowly down the channel. And that's when I saw this...

Otter spraint!

And just a few inches away, perched on top of a mossy rock, was this...

Fishbones to the left and a sandhopper (!) to the right

If you scroll back up to the aerial pic at the top, you'll see a yellow dot along the route of the burn. That's where this Otter marked its territory. And just nearby, you'll notice a blue dot over part of the building. That's where I live. Fifty feet away. From an Otter. FFS!!!  

Continuing down the channel, sawing and hacking at everything in my way, I spied the point at which the burn goes under the road. I figured there would be a tunnel of sorts, but I didn't realise quite how large it would be

There could be almost anything living in there...

A while later and all was revealed

You can probably guess where I headed into next...

The tunnel was just about high enough that I could walk in without stooping and it went back maybe thirty feet before narrowing to a pipe approximately four feet wide. Peering through, I could see daylight at the other end. 

This must be where the Otter comes through - it leads right down to the sea through there! 

An otter's eye view as it comes padding through the tunnel

See those larger boulders on the left side of the tunnel, I'm going to put a trailcam in there. I don't have one yet but, after a quick bout of excited texting to The Princess, she suggested I get one and see what it picks up. Hell yeah, that's a great plan! I had been toying with the idea of a sound recorder and shotgun mic set-up for noc-migging, but I think I'd have far more fun with a trailcam. There's a chap in Portree, which is about 15 miles south of here, who has Pine Marten in his garden. He's never seen it for himself, but his trailcam proves it's there! 

I've previously seen Weasel in the grounds, there are Wood Mice and Field Voles, plus the occasional Rabbit or three. There are Hedgehogs, apparently Otter too. There used to be Brown Rats but I haven't seen any for over a year now, despite there being some suspicious looking rat-sized holes in the bank of the burn. One guy swears blind he saw a family of Mink in the nearby river so they could be using the burn too. And I've seen Stoat a few times, but not near the hotel itself. All in all, I'm quite excited by the prospect! 

I need to ask around first, see if anybody local happens to have an unwanted trailcam I could nab off them, and maybe do a bit of research regards requirements, battery life, night vision capabilities etc. 

Stay tuned for trailcam madness!

Rhagium bifasciatum - accidentally uncovered from inside a dead stump yesterday