A Close Encounter

Well here we are home again after a spectacular two weeks on Islay and with a heavy month of film shows ahead.

As I drove up the drive to the Golf Club on my first day back I noticed a Carrion Crow feeding in a field to my right, suddenly a Peregrine Falcon flew downwind in front of the car rapidly homing in on the Crow. At the last minute the Crow realised the danger and avoided the hundred miles per hour stoop of the Peregrine – it was like being back on Islay again!

I encountered my first local Fieldfares of the Winter this week – a flock of twenty. There are few Rowan berries this year but the Hawthorne crop is very heavy so it is now the search for the Waxwings as they move down from Scotland. We had none last Winter so lets hope for better luck this year.

An unusual sighting this week was a Roe Deer on the Golf Course at dusk. The first I have encountered overwinter.