A Cabin in the Woods

When our stint at the hotel came to an end, we moved for three weeks to Lochanhully Woodland Resort in Carrbridge. It was about thirty minutes south of Inverness. We rented one of their woodland lodges, which offered a comfortable place to call home. We picked Lochanhully for three main reasons: It had availability, the price was decent, and it allowed pets. The cats had been staying in a cattery for a month and I wanted them with us. The cattery was fantastic and I highly recommend it (Highland Cats Country Retreat at Sornum House, http://highlandcats.co.uk), but I was adamant that they not spend more than a month away from us. Plus, being honest, I missed them.

Lochanhully is a lovely resort in the woods. The only downside is that internet was pretty much non-existent. My bathing suit was packed away, so I couldn't take advantage of the nice, indoor pool. So I spent a lot of time out on the conservatory (what folks in the States would call a sunroom) watching the birds. And taking photos of the birds. Lots of bird photos. And now, I'm sharing a small portion of those photos with you.

Our cabin (It was technically a lodge, but it looked like a cabin to me) backed onto some trees and a walking path that followed the perimeter of an adjacent farm. Someone, probably a prior guest, had strung a line between two of the trees and hung a seed feeder, a suet cage, and a couple of coconut shell bowls on it. We filled the seed feeder and used one of the coconut shells to hold peanut halves. It took a few days for the word to get out that food was to be had at our place. But once it did, I felt like I was living in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. We would get hit with waves of dozens of birds at different points throughout the day. The peanuts were a huge hit, as evidenced by the two coal tits vying for space on the coconut. The coal tits became regulars at our place.

I had my camera on rapid-fire, so I would take a series of photos in one quick burst. I found it helped me capture in-motion images like this. That's another coal tit.

Another coal tit enjoying the seeds.

I think this is a female chaffinch.

This is a male chaffinch. He has such pretty colors.

She was enjoying one of the seeds she had pulled from the feeder.

The male chaffinch had his turn at the peanuts.

It was a bit brisk one morning, so the bird was all puffed up.

This rather fat wood pigeon staked our area as his domain. He would allow a female pigeon to visit, but there was another smaller (and thinner) male pigeon that this fellow bullied no end. He would go to rather extreme lengths to torment the other bird. It was kind of funny.

You can't see the faces of any of these birds, but I liked how I caught the one mid-flight.

Greedy little coal tit with a whole peanut! After reading that peanuts can be a choking hazard, I went out and bought a proper feeder for them. I think I spoiled their fun when I did that.

The male and, I presume, female chaffinch.

The pigeon spent all of his time finding all the seed and peanuts that the other, smaller birds dropped from the feeders. I also would toss bread out there and he'd hoover it in a heartbeat.

You are probably all familiar with the iconic mushroom with the red cap and white spots. I certainly was, but I had never actually seen one until our stint at Lochanhully. This is that iconic mushroom, the Amanita muscaria or fly agaric. It is a toxic and highly hallucinogenic mushroom. Fortunately, it rarely causes human death. But I understand it will give you one helluva ride.

These things were growing all around the cabin.

I took a stroll around the resort one day. I saw this branch overladen with tiny pine cones.

This sign greatly amused this Florida girl.

This is the small loch on the resort grounds. It makes for a pleasant walk.

Here's a pic of one of the fly agaric mushrooms taken several days later. They grew to be quite large.

I didn't see just birds at Lochanhully. We had a few furred visitors, as well. My favorite was this beautiful red squirrel who unsuccessfully tried to get to the bird feeders. I was a bit confused by his lack of ear tufts. Every red squirrel I've ever seen had tufts. Was this some kind of bizarre grey squirrel? After all, the grey squirrels in Houston had a reddish tinge to them. I did some research and learned that red squirrels lose their ear tufts in late summer. They begin growing back in the autumn and by winter, they have full tufts again. I also learned that grey squirrels can vary in color and can be a bit red. The way to definitely tell the two types apart is the tail. You can see that this red squirrel's tail is all one color. A grey squirrel's tail is several different colors. So this cute guy is definitely a red.

Here's one member of the bunny family that occasionally visited.

We added suet balls to the mix.

The chaffinch checks out the new peanut feeder.

I was very happy when this fellow joined the regulars. This is a great tit. His colors are very similar to the coal tit, but they're a bit brighter. The great tit is also a larger bird, hence his name. We also had a robin that visited from time to time, but I never managed to get his photo. Which is a shame, because the robin over here is markedly different than the one in the States.

This isn't a good photograph, but it's the only one I have of the baby bunny and his mummy. Awww.

Clearly, Nimue is not a wild animal. But I love this photo of her in the conservatory.