Raptors at Lochlunndaidh

We walked the track from Drummuie towards Lochlunndaidh yesterday with its views southwards towards Loch Fleet in fine but wintery weather, the main excitement on the walk being....

....two raptors wheeling above the loch, one....

....certainly a red kite, a species we've seen here only once before, the other....

....very probably an osprey.

Sadly, the osprey didn't wait around, though it made a very brief reappearance just as we were leaving, but its presence confirmed what we had always expected, that this loch, so close to their nests around Loch Fleet, was bound to be one of the ospreys' fishing territories, even though it might upset the local kites.

Meanwhile, 'thank you' to those who wrote in to identify this structure as a bat nest, and to Mark who sent us a design for building one - link here.