Scottish Wildcat

I think it's safe to say that, even if I did spot a Scottish Wildcat in its natural habitat, I would not know if I was actually seeing a wildcat or a domestic.

Here is a photo of a Scottish Wildcat, taken at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie.  It had a little kitten but it was hiding inside a wee den so I couldn't get a shot of it.

It is estimated that there are only 400 wildcats left in their natural environment in Scotland.

Red Squirrel

Although this squirrel photo was taken at Highland Wildlife Park, Kingussie, it was not in captivity.  There was a section set up with feeders and ropes but it was completely open.  The squirrels are obviously onto a good thing.

Common Darter and Hawkhead Dragonflies

On a short walk through the Little Boghead Nature Reserve there were quite a few dragonflies hovering about.

According to the British Dragonfly Society there are 3 dragonfly species that live only in Scotland: the Northern Damselfly (which looks like the one I identified as the common blue in my last post so I will have to investigate further), the Azure Hawker and the Northern Emerald.

I only had my phone camera to hand so my photos are not great.  I don't think either of these creatures are indigenous to Scotland but they were lovely to see.

From my photographs I think I have seen the Common Darter and the Common Hawker but this will need to be confirmed.

Insects and Invertibrates

Some photos of insects that I have seen locally.  I will need to research their origin to check if they are Scottish, though.  This may be difficult to find out.

Common Blue Damselfly (British?)

Snail

Garden Spider

Spider

Spider building a web

Spider eating

Not sure what sort of fly this is.  I thought it was a wasp but I think it is the fly that looks like a wasp (hover fly? - still to be checked)

A frog that found it's way into tub in our garden

Red Fox, Red Deer and Salmon

I have found the photos for the Red Fox, Red Deer and Salmon.

I didn't realise it was a fox at first. I was photographing something else and when I looked up it was sitting there watching me.  I thought it was a black dog so I waited for the owner to appear.  It didn't so I decided to walk towards it.  At the same time the dog started running towards me and I then realised it was a fox.  I was a bit scared because I didn't know if it was planning to attack me but it veered off into the bushes.  They are pretty common, and very brazen, in the urban areas of Scotland.

We were indoors looking out of a window but the deer was aware of us and was not happy that we were so close.  I thought it was going to charge at one point.

This salmon was quite difficult to catch.  They are quite fast and you don't know where they will jump out so you have to just set up the camera and hope that one will jump out and you are ready to press the shutter on time.

The Tough Challenge

In 2011 I set myself a hard (impossible?) challenge that I never did complete - A tough Challenge!

I have fallen away from photography quite a bit since then but I want to get back into it. As I love nature I thought I could focus on this challenge again but this time broaden my horizon to all of Scottish Wildlife. I will not set a deadline on this but I will dedicate this blog to log my progress and hopefully give you an insight to Scotland at the same time.

I tried to obtain photos of many of the species on the list from the original challenge but I only managed to take photographs of the following:

~ Orkney Vole - at least I think it is a vole and not a rat
~ Puffin
~ Guillemot
~ Harbour {Common} Seal
~ Grey Seal
~ Porpoise
~ Razorbill
~ Gannet
~ Great Skua
~ Arctic Skua - though looking at some references I'm currently confused if it's an Arctic or Great
~ Lapwing
~ Eider Duck - Either the bottom photo is the Eider Ducks or the blog entry has disappeared
~ Red Deer - the blog entry for this seems to have disappeared!
~ Salmon - the blog entry for this seems to have disappeared!
~ Red Fox - the blog entry for this seems to have disappeared!

Missed opportunities:
~ Orca Whale (They were visible twice from the mainland on Orkney when I was unable to get to them and when I had went back to Scottish Mainland an Orca got stuck in Kirkwall Harbour)
~ Short Eared Owl (one actually flew alongside my for ages one evening but I never seen one whenever I went out to find them)
~ Mountain Hare (they were too far away for me to get them noticeably within the frame)
~ Red Squirrel (one ran across the road while I was a passenger in a car)
~ Golden Eagle (we couldn't find the route to their usual nesting spot on Arran but it was too rainy to take photos anyway)
~ Otter (there were always otters crossing the road and hanging around the harbour but I never got a photo of any)

I do have a photograph of the Primula Scotica that I took while I was staying in Orkney and of the Yew Tree in Fortingall even though they weren't part of my challenge at that time.   What luck!

Now, I shall pick up where I left off.....