Hiking 17.5 KM With My Camera Gear…

Tim, Skylar and I are currently on our annual sailing trip around the west coast of Scotland. We get to see some absolutely STUNNING places, that you otherwise might to be able to see and I get to go out and attempt to photograph the wildlife and landscapes that surround us.

We recently found ourselves anchored in the Faery Isles, and finding out that nearby was the Argyll Beaver Centre, which also listed a whole host of wonderful animals I could potentially (very much an emphasis on that) see, I decided to get everyone up nice and early, so Tim could take me to shore and I could go off adventuring, and hopefully, capture some epic images.

Tim dropped me on shore a little after 6 am, it is getting light here in Scotland at 4am, but I thought that would be pushing it a bit, and also if my planned route was anything to go on, I needed as much energy as possible. My plan was to walk from our anchorage, though the forest paths and cycle ways from the Faery Isles, to the lochs where the beavers were, my calculations aka OS maps, said it was about a 5 ½ km walk to the hide I was hoping to spot beavers from, and should take just over an hour to get there.

As I got walking, it quickly became apparent that, I defiantly wouldn’t be there any time soon, and I quickly moved on from the idea that I would see beavers.

The morning that I went, there was a tiny frost on the ground, so my attention moved onto adders. I have not seen one before, and read that they were in the area and were often seen basking in the sun, and as today was going to be nice and bright, I was quite hopeful.

On my walk up, I spotted some Bullfinch and did my best to get some images of them, this proved to be quite difficult as they were quite flighty, and it being early morning in a forest, it was also quite dark. I have added a tiny bit of noise reduction to the images in lightroom (I set the slider to 15, to get rid of the worse of the noise, as I was at 10,000 iso).

The walk up was stunning, and I only ran into a pair of fishermen on there way out for the day. I continued on to the hide at the top of the second loch on my walk, and waited their for a bit. I knew I was way to late for any beaver action, but I was hopeful that as it was still relatively early (just before 9am) and no one was around, there may be some interesting things to see here. Alas, there was not, so I decided to head onto the Argyll Beaver Centre, in the hopes of spotting some of the adders there website suggested would likely be around.

This wasn’t much further on for me so I walked up, making sure I was checking sun spots along the sides of the trail as I went. I arrived at 9, a whole hour before the centre opened, but met a guy that was running a spoon carving course that day, who said it would be worth popping back at 10, when one of the guides would be in to help point me in the right direction for the wildlife.

I had a snack and then headed out on the view point trail in the hopes of catching an adder basking before other walkers and sight seers arrived. I was careful where I walked, as not to disturb potential adders, but unfortunately I saw nothing, that’s not to say that they weren’t there though, as I could have missed them.

The view point was stunning so I decided to take a panoramic photo, that I could stitch together in lightroom after. I brought my Sony A7iv with me for this with the 24-70 f2.8 GM ii lens attached. (I know I said previously I would trade it in, but it is much more useful to me as a second body, so I am keeping it). It wasn’t the best conditions for landscape photos, but I am quite happy with the result.

I then headed back to the centre and had a chat with the guide that was in. He was surprised that I didn’t see any adders on my walk out, as they usually sit right in the tracks, especially after cold nights. He gave me the low down on where the beavers were - even though I wouldn’t be able to see them on this trip, I may get some time at the other end of the trip.

I also asked after red squirrels - even though I had just seen them on Anglesey recently, I can’t resist a possible sighting. The centre actually has a small hide around the back that you can use, and have red squirrels coming in to visit, so I decided to spend an hour or so in there. The guide set out some nuts for me and I got situated. As it was now after 10 am, a Sunday, and a spoon carving course was on, it was now getting very busy and my first major visitor was a black Labrador who’s owners hadn’t put her on a lead! Not ideal in a wildlife hide, it does amaze me how blasé some dog owners are with their dogs in places like this.

Once the dog had been retrieved, I was able to sit and wait to see what would turn up. While I was hopeful for the squirrels, to start with it was a lot of small birds. I got a lovely image of a chaffinch on one of the rocks, but missed out on the male siskin that was tentatively coming in and out.

The main event for me, was with a Nuthatch (not 100% sure if it was the same one visiting often or multiple ones as they were always in on their own). I have had these visit my garden setup but so far have not been successful in getting a decent image of one. Well that changed today! The nuts had been set up on multiple rocks, so it was a case of waiting to see what one it would land on, and if I could get a clear shot. It was worth the wait as the images I got are lovely and I am really happy with them.

We also had some Great Spotted Woodpeckers come in, and again I am really pleased with the images I took of them. While I have photographed them in the garden a few times, it was nice to get some different compositions of them.

After an hour and a half in the hide, I paid a donation to the centre and once again walked out to the view point on the off chance of seeing an adder, surprisingly I did not see any, but had a lovely view while eating my lunch at the end of the trail.

It was then onto my return journey, I was planning on going down the other side of the lochs to what I came up on and do a bit of a circuit. Forest and Land Scotland, do generally have some good trail guides on their website, so I was following those and up at this top end of the loch, another trail was marked though the oakwood, which I decided to follow because the weather was nice and the bluebells here were in full bloom.It was a lovely addition to my walk, and while I didn’t see much wildlife, I tried my hand at some woodland landscape images.

On my way to my next marker, I had to do a bit of a walk on the road, where I ran into a subscriber! Hello Stuart! After that I continued on my way, I went past one of the beaver lodges which was amazing to see, but it was the wrong time to see them so continued on. The trail on this side of the loch was much narrower than the side I had walked up, and there were multiple beaver runs heading out of the large loch and into the woods.

Again, on this part of my walk, the wildlife that I could see was sparse, though I am sure it was there. I did spot a Dor Beetle, so decided to stop and use the wide angle lens to get an image before heading back to the boat.

I passed a tree that had been subject to some beaver harassment, and was amazing to see their work close up.

Tim and Skylar came to meet me at the end of my walk and take me back to the boat for a well earned dinner, thoughts of the spaghetti bolognaise Tim had made really helped to get me though the last few kilometres of that walk! I totted it up once back and in the end I had walked 17.5 km or 10.8 miles!

While I didn’t see too much in the way of wildlife, it was still a wonderful day and a great hike. I will defiantly be adding this place to my ‘to visit again’ list, but next time with a car.