Dolphins and other visitors

We were sitting on the sofa the other day sharing a coffee and chewing the fat on house build challenges with a friend. He was distractedly gazing at the view through our big French windows when suddenly he spotted something unusual in the Sound.

He’s clearly got better eyesight than both of us, as it took us several seconds to see what he had noticed. But then there it was. Fins in the water.

A large pod of dolphins in the Sound, maybe even two. We excitedly trained binoculars onto them to better follow their movements.

They were jumping and cavorting, probably following a shoal of fish. We counted at least two dozen of them. There’s something so joyous and uninhibited about a pod of dolphins, and I still pinch myself in disbelief at our luck when I see something like this right from the house.

Pods of dolphins are a common sight around the island in the summer months.

Our friend also told us a story of an overnight visitor last week which I must share with you, as it was so special.

He and his partner live in a caravan on their croft a few miles away whilst they are building their house. Much as we did.

One night last week he was roused from sleep in the small hours of the morning by the sound of the cat flap pushing open. Realising that their cat was on the bed next to him, he got up to investigate.

Walking around the caravan in the pre-dawn light he couldn’t see anything untoward. But then he heard the cat flap go again, and moving towards the door he caught the visitor on the way out. It was a young otter!

Once it realised that it had been detected it shot away quickly. But what a special encounter. And absolutely not what you’d expect to find roaming around in your caravan at night.

Young otters are known to be very inquisitive creatures, and a number of them regularly cross their croft via the burn that runs down into the sea about half a mile away.

We apparently have an otter on our croft too, although I haven’t seen it yet. It was spotted late one evening by the same friend crossing our access track on the way to our burn.

How amazing is it that we share our lives, however unwittingly, with such wildlife. It makes us even more determined to protect that privilege and maintain a habitat for them here where they can thrive.