Highland Insider

We have a visitor. The first I knew of it was yesterday morning when Lee dived out of the French windows, grabbing his binoculars on the way, and stood out in the rain, scanning the sky. His binoculars are an old Russian Navy pair that he picked up in a junk shop in Whitby, and they don’t miss much. After a few seconds he was jigging up and down, and not just because he had no shoes on. Circling overhead was an osprey.

 We’ve never seen one up here before, although they are regularly sighted a few miles away at Findhorn. Its crossbow-shaped white wings were hard to spot against the pale grey sky, especially as it was soaring high, much higher than the resident buzzards usually go. We saw it again in the afternoon when we walked up to the loch at the top of the hill behind our house. It was just taking off from a tree and circled around a few times before disappearing over the hills. Lee went up again late in the evening and it was back, fishing for its supper in the loch.

Is it just passing through, or could we have a resident osprey settling here? It appears to be a young bird, so it’s possible it is looking for its own territory. If so I hope it decides to stay. It’s beautiful to watch and makes our patch of countryside feel that wee bit wilder.

Outside my bedroom window is a little mud nest stuffed full of baby swallows. It’s tucked under the corrugated roof that forms a covered walkway between the cottage and the outbuildings, and it’s just low enough to be able to see five fluffy punk heads poking out of the rim. The white lipstick markings round their gaping mouths show up easily against the dark background of the nest when they’re awake and looking for a snack.

They seem to associate any nearby movement with the parents returning with food, as whenever we go out of the front door they start up a noise like a chorus of squeaky toys, loud enough to wake the dead. Well, at least loud enough to wake the sleeping; I’m now roused around four o’clock every morning when their breakfast arrives. It’s such an endearing racket though, I just smile and go back to sleep. I’ll probably miss it when they fledge.