Buzzards

We drove out into the hills of Sutherland today with what I like to have with me at the start of such expeditions - a mental list of things I'd like to see and photograph. Today, one item was fungi - it is their season - but a buzzard topped the list because we haven't seen one in ages, possibly as much as a month, and they should be as common as they were on Ardnamurchan and in the air above Suffolk.

However, as so frequently happens, we were most excited about something which wasn't on the list, for when we stopped the car to take this photo of an autumnal Sutherland scene we heard....

....the roar of a red deer stag in rut, something we haven't heard since we left Kilchoan.

We didn't see the stag or his harem, but when later we left the car for our walk we came across plenty of evidence of red deer.

The fungi didn't disappoint, with moments when, standing and looking around, we could count upward of five species within a few metres, many of them spectacularly beautiful.

The weather deteriorated as our walk ended and, having searched an increasingly bleak landscape, we still hadn't seen any buzzards. However, as we drove home we glimpsed a large raptor which might have been one, or might even have been something bigger, perhaps an eagle, but it was one of those frustrating, fleeting sightings in which identification was impossible and was certainly far too sudden and brief for a photograph.

So I have something to continue to worry about: where are Sutherland's buzzards?