Wildlife seen in Farigaig and the surrounding area.

You may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse the elusive Pine Marten which is about the size of a cat and a member of the weasel family. They have been seen emerging from the woodland around the cottage mostly at dusk or nightfall. Guests have also seen them on the nut feeders along the fence. They are easily identifiable by the general dark brown of its fur that contrasts with the creamy throat patch. They enjoy eating blaeberries, small mammals and insects.  They are also very agile climbers and one of the only predators that can chase and catch red squirrels.

 Numerous red squirrels are present in the woodland of Farigaig Forest surrounding the cottage and can often be seen running along the fence to the hanging nut feeders and jumping effortlessly from tree to tree. Red squirrels can be seen all year round as they do not hibernate in Winter  unlike the grey squirrel which luckily does not inhabit the Highlands of Scotland. The reds do become less active in Winter and have been seen burying nuts in the grass for their winter store. There are plenty of nut-bearing hazel trees in the vicinity. They also feed on pine cones and the local forest is abundant with coniferous trees. We have seen a squirrel carrying its young in its mouth several times at Aspenwood in the Spring/Summer. We have a bird bath and more nut feeders and suet balls outside the lounge attached to the fence, not only to attract the teeming bird life but also attract the hungry red squirrels.  

Badgers are in the area. There is a large sett - a system of underground burrows - next to the cottage in Farigaig Forest and badgers have been seen and heard rushing through the undergrowth at nightfall. A fully grown badger is about 1 metre long with long, course, greyish hair on the back and a white face with a broad black stripe along each side. They have crushing molar teeth adapted to a partly vegetable diet and short strong legs with long sharp claws suitable for digging up their favourite food – earthworms - strange choice for such a large animal. They also dig for roots, mice, insects and a variety of fruit and nuts.

Brown Hare are sometimes seen running along the forest track near the cottage.
The weasel is Scotland’s smallest carnivore – the male being slightly larger with a head + body length of 8 inches long and the smaller female being 6 inches in length. Their small size is well compensated by their fierceness in hunting. They are often seen rapidly crossing roads or sitting upright to gain a better field of vision for their favourite food of mice and voles. They have a brown coat and tail with whitish underparts.Stoats are slightly bigger than weasels and have a distinctive black tip to their tail. Most of the stoats in Scotland turn a creamy-white colour in winter but always retain their black tail tip. Dense cover is essential to these two carnivores as they are a favourite meal to birds of prey or larger mammals.
There are plenty of wood mice and field voles inhabiting the forest and fields nearby although they might not actually make an appearance. Despite their very small size they are an important link in the food chain for a wide variety of animals and birds including fox, stoat, badger, pine marten and various species of owls and birds of prey. Although foxes are mainly nocturnal, they might be seen at dusk during the mating season from early January to mid February. It is not unusual to hear the triple bark of the dog fox followed by the answering scream of the vixen. They nest in holes in the ground and in dense thickets. At night foxes forage over a wide area often becoming quite bold in winter time in their search for food.

Deer

There are a wide variety of deer often seen wandering around the grounds of Aspenwood looking for tasty morsels to eat - usually our plants. Sika, fallow or roe deer will be seen regularly. They will trigger off the outside security lights for a while as they wander round. They are as curious about you as you will be about them so they are not easily alarmed. Please respect the fact that you are in ‘their’ garden. Sika deer are easily recognized by the white heart shaped patch on their rump. When alarmed this white area can double in size.  It is really a magical moment to see a young deer with mum or a young stag with velvet antlers emerging out of the bracken.

There are numerous herds of rather scruffy wild deer roaming about in the less well known and accessible parts of the Highlands – you just have to get out in the car and explore. We have explored the west coast and some of the inland and sea lochs. The views were amazing and the wildlife aplenty and all on your doorstep. Red deer often referred to as the Monarch of the Glen live in the moorland by the River Findhorn on the Coignafearn estate, about 30 miles away driving over mountainous terrain to Garbole, where stags and their hinds can be seen.

On the back road to Daviot in the hamlet of Aberarder you will pass Woodside Cottage and if you look into the enclosed garden area you should see a lovely doe. We often wondered how the deer came to be here and wrote to the owners. They replied with her story.

The story of Bonnie the deer

A tiny 2 day old deer was found beside her dead mother on the hillside in the forest nearby and the keeper took her home. She was fed with lambs milk in a baby's bottle and was very nervous. The owners devoted a lot of time and TLC to her. When she was weaned she was put out with the other wild deer calves hoping that she would be accepted and mothered by another adult deer back ‘in the wild’. Three times she returned to the house where she has now lived for the past 8 years in her special 'home' in their large garden. She is now very tame and bossy at times to their dogs. She loves shortbread and crisps and is thoroughly spoilt. Look out for her in the garden of Woodside Cottage on your way to Inverarnie or Daviot.  She will come running over when called by her name.

Aquatic Life

The Moray Firth on the east coast is one of only three areas in UK waters that support a resident population of about 130 bottle-nosed dolphins. The best place to observe these is at Chanonry Point on the Black Isle. Travel out of Inverness north over the Kessock Bridge and turn right at the first roundabout marked to Fortrose and Rosemarkie. Go through the village of Avoch and turn right at the signpost to Chanonry Point. Drive down a single track road through a golf course to the car park with picnic benches at the end. The dolphins tend to come in one hour before high tide waiting for the shoals of fish to arrive so do check on the internet for tide times. Also look out for basking sharks and porpoises.

Common and grey seals can often be spotted along both east & west coast locations. The roads running alongside firths and estuaries up the north east coast are often good vantage points to see common seals basking on the rocks. The common seal has a short muzzle with a rounded head and a uniform spotted coat that is paler underneath. They haul themselves out of the water and lay on the sand or mud banks in full view. Common seal pups come into the world wearing its first adult coat and are therefore not as vulnerable as the grey seal pups that are born with a conspicuous white coat and therefore tend to congregate on the remote rocky west coast and islands. Boat trips off the west coast are often organized to see both types of seal. The largest breeding rookery of grey seals is on the Monach Isles, west of Benbecula. The thousands of grey seals that gather there every October make it the largest grey seal rookery in the world.

Although otters are more abundant in the north-west sheltered coves and coasts of Scotland they will often leave the safety their habitat to forage inland for food, running up the narrow burns and swimming in lochs before moving back to their ‘holts’ on the west coast. They are quite large creatures, about one metre in length, a third of which is the strong thick tail. They are equally at home on land or in water and find their food from a range of habitats. Their diet consists mainly of fish and eels but they will take a variety of other foods – birds eggs, frogs, birds and small mammals, waterside birds and divers. Otter tracks [5 webbed toes with a central groove in the ground where it is dragging its heavy tail] can sometimes be seen on a sandy bank of a river near a loch.  Mud flats around the local coast teem with waders and various seabirds.