Yesterday afternoon I turned off my laptop after a couple of hours of report writing, and went outside to stretch my legs and see how the world was getting on. My sudden appearance outside the warden’s hut caused a great commotion in the grasses and then a shocked silence. Stock-still, intently focussed on this unexpected intruder, was a doe and fawn, both thin, pale, long eared, big-eyed. After a few moments of paralysed staring, the fawn decided I wasn’t much of a threat, and went back to its main business of butting and suckling at its mother. The doe - still not quite at ease with my attention - side-stepped the nuzzling and led the fawn down the bank and into the safety of the undergrowth. What a sight. All season I’ve waited to see our new fawn, but its stayed hidden away in the bracken on the eastern banks of the Mull. Perhaps the deer are starting to reclaim their territory now that our summer visitors have gone.
In other news, in and around the reserve this past couple of weeks we have seen:
Many bedraggled hairy caterpillars, croaking crows, the lighthouse beacon flashing through fog, porpoises, whooper swans on the wing, a solitary whimbrel hanging out on the helipad, chittering goldfinch flocks and a short-eared owl.