First seal pups seen on Coruisk boat trip; 8 June 2011
The location work with James culminated with a trip into Coruisk and good explore of a new 2km section of the Cuillin for myself; probably the biggest new area to me in well over a decade. The direct start to the Druim nan Ramh raised the adrenalin for a couple of exciting moves and we found some great bouldering on the way down (crucial to James’ research obviously).
Direct start to Druim nan Ramh (the ridge of oars)
Lesser spotted cold-water swimmer
The trip was also quite a wildlife bonanza. The first common seal pup of the season had been born overnight and got Alex the Aqua-explore boat skipper quite excited.
Scavaig seals sunbathing.
The arctic terns were screeching as we arrived; they unusually nest on an island in the fresh-waters of Loch Coruisk and fly out to fish in the sea-water of Loch Scavaig. The large and beautiful golden plovers were equally vocal on the top of the ridge as they tried to attract us away from their nest or fledglings.
A poor zoomed shot of Golden Plover but the bold markings show well
And finally we found a tiny lizard soaking up the sun on some hot gabbro; not sure of the species so please e-mail me if you know.
