Well, it actually rained today! Snow still thick in the garden in places but not quite as cold as of late! My back door area is like an aviary, full of birds, the yellow canary-like siskins, the blue of the tit family and the black-browns of the blackbirds and of course the aggressive little robins, flashing their red breasts and fluttering in anger if another bird comes near.
They all have different characters. The coal tits, for example, are much brighter than the blue tits, a lot quicker on the uptake, taking food while the blue tits just look at it. The small dunnocks take no notice of the robins' intimidation, in fact only another robin will fly off. Most of the birds will tolerate one another. The blackbirds are the next most aggressive with one another, I find, even with enough food out for a dozen or more, one blackbird will always chase off its same species and try to hug all the food.
A weasel scoots around and is ignored by the woodpecker on the nut container and all the smaller birds who wait for the bits of nuts that are distributed by the much bigger bird. The weasel in turn ignores the birds and is content to put his nose into the plastic container holding pigs' blood and liver scraps I put out for it; also, a tin of sardines is half carried, half dragged under the bushes; it went off with a whole mackerel on one occasion which was quite comical as at times it looked as though the mackerel was carrying the weasel!
I haven't seen the stoat recently but it's not far away as, like the pine marten, it loves the fat balls I put out and I find the green net they come in in a pile under the bushes.
The small deer herd has abandoned the front garden under the large ivy-covered birch tree but a few imprints show that at least one small deer has come into the back garden when I left the gate open and enjoyed a few leaves off a rosebush. The bush plus a climber were on the ground anyway, the latter pulled off its trellis by the weight of snow. If it's edible, I don't mind whatever gets eaten by the wild life if it keeps them alive, it all seems to grow again anyway.
I've only been out on three occasions since before Christmas to try fishing but with the lochs frozen over, one inch of ice on the shallower lochs and two inches on Chuillin, it's been a waste of time. I did find some otter scat which was encouraging but not a sign of any type of fish.
This, I must confess, is the longest period in the past ten years I've gone without catching a fish of some sort. The last fish of any note came way back in July when a 21lb pike was caught and returned. The hill lochs will be slow to warm up this year once the ice has melted, so fly fishing will be out for a while once the season starts this month. It's been an unusually cold winter for all concerned and whether it will benefit the fish through not being fished over the cold period remains to be seen.
It's been the coldest spell I've ever felt in my life, owing to no heat in the house nor any hot or cold water but I've survived, with some help from my friends and I've no doubt the fish, who are more adapted to the cold than us humans, will be on the feed again as the water warms and I'll be there at the 'Lochside' when they do.
So, roll on, summer.
David Willis
Ed’s note: the above from David missed the last issue. We haven’t heard from David this time around, we can only assume that he’s too busy ‘Lochside’ making up for lost time and enjoying the warmer weather. Hopefully, we’ll hear from David when he gets a minute or two - after all, this is the Highlands and it’s bound to be too wet to fish at some point!
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