Close encounters of the Beaver kind
I had a wee tour with a couple from Devon, Michelle and Kevin on the 28th. Firstly we went to Bamff estate where we had a wander around and looked at some of the recent beaver workings, stupidly I didn't take any photo's as there was a fundamental change since my last visit. Various wildlife were spotted, buzzards, wrens, grey wagtail and a wee red squirrel. We also met Paul, Louise and Sophie Ramsay admiring their wonderful new beaver hide. We had a brief blether with them before leaving and headed to the river.
It was a pretty cool night with a really chilly north wind blowing into our faces. On arriving we were treated to a kingfisher pinging up the river, yaay, they're back after a terrible breeding season last year. At 1917 we spotted our first beaver, but the light was really bad and I also had camera settings all wrong. The female (I think) was just laying low in the water outside the maternal lodge. Not moving an inch but obviously taking in the various scents, thankfully ours weren't part of it due to the wind direction, she just lay there like a log for a good 5 minutes before disappearing. I decided to have a look further down the river for any other animals and sure enough an adult was up on the bank briefly before popping back into the water. I gathered my guests and went down to where I'd seen it. We got a few brief sightings of the beaver plus another kingfisher sighting before we saw further beaver movements at where we had been. We moved back up and were treated to an adult appearing right in front of us. This was 1937, and I'm gutted I didn't get decent pics. However, we all got sightings so we all went home happy.
This evening (29th March) was a totally different scenario. Relatively mild, the river had dropped a foot and there was little wind and no waves on the river. As I arrived there was pretty much nothing doing so I moved down a bit to dad's lodgings. I got myself comfy and had a wee look about. There were ripples, big one's at that, coming from the opposite bank. I looked, looked and better looked trying to find the epicentre and at last I spotted the sneaky wee devil in behind a tree munching away quite happily on the bark.
This was 1910 and I sat and watched "him" for a good 10 minutes not getting a clearer picture than this. The animal turned round and dived, looking as if it was heading upstream but before I knew it he was surfacing 2ft from me taking me totally by surprise. I waited for a wee bit before deciding to walk to another spot that I had an inkling that I might see something. I seriously never expected what came next.
As I approached my new spot, I was actually hoping to see an otter but came across one of last years kits. It was happily browsing on a wee twig before spotting me. I obviously startled it as it jumped into the river but didn't submerge. Instead it took a wee swim up the river before circling back and checked me out big time. Now, the pics aren't great due to the close proximity, and my dodgy photographic skills but here is the first one
It kept circling me, going up and down the river scenting the air and I must admit he must have been smelling me but he didn't seemed bothered.
I'm saying he, it could well have been of the fairer sex but I'll never know for certain. Anyway, it kept circling my spot so close that at one point I couldn't get a picture it was that close. Please note, none of these pictures are cropped. In fact, the animal got so close at some points that I couldn't take a picture.
It returned to feeding below a branch just feet from me and sat there for ages totally non-plussed at my presence. I know from experience that younger beavers are pretty tolerant but this was ridiculous. It eventually decided to move on to pastures new and I got these parting shots
I also had a kingfisher, dipper and heron sighting plus the resident wren and the thrawn pheasant and blackbird. Great night in all honesty, loved it.
