Wolf-watching or Bertie-spotting?

Something different for this week's Nature Friday post. 

Did you know that wolves are extinct in Scotland? The precise date is disputed, but the last wolf sighting was probably in the 18th Century. 

Gail tells me she has long yearned to see a wolf in the wild, and has even considered paying to go abroad on a 'wolf-watching' vacation (although I would doubt she actually has the patience to stand around for days on end with a bunch of wolf obsessives all competing over their high tech spotting scopes...)

Well, as we all know, overseas trips are off the table just at now.  But what could be a better substitute for wolf-watching than an afternoon of Bertie-spotting on the Hill of Fare*? Excellent practice for Gail, and after all who doesn't see me and say to themselves "ah yes, if I didn't know that wolves no longer inhabit Scotland, I might think I'd just encountered one...."

Perhaps you would like to join in and test your observational skills with some virtual Bertie-spotting.

We'll start with an easy one.

And frankly, if you can't see me in the photo above, you'd better get your eyes tested (and have someone else drive you to the opticians...)

Let's make it a wee bit harder.

Still too easy? Try this...

And then this...

Finally, a really challenging sequence. (You are allowed to biggify the images.)

How did you get on? Can you see my tail in that last photo? Or maybe not?

*Regular readers will recall that, by deploying Gail's 'elastic ruler' (the one that stretches five miles to seven) we can reach the Hill of Fare within Scotland's current Covid guidelines.

Finally, thank you once again to our lovely friends Jakey, Arty, Rosy and Sunny for hosting the Nature Friday blog hop. Do hop on and visit the other blogs linked below: 

The elastic ruler...

Happy Nature Friday friends! 

It was a lovely sunny day earlier this week when Gail took me for a walk up the Hill of Fare. 

As you know, here in Scotland just now our walks must begin and end not more than five miles beyond the city boundary. And I think we should leave it as a matter of conjecture as to whether, on this particular occasion, the ruler Gail used to measure the five miles on her map was an ever so slightly elastic one...

We start off with me posing nicely in the farmland near where the car was parked.

We then ascend a track through a mix of broadleaf and conifer plantations, our ears ringing with the merry sound of birds anticipating spring.

Before long, we find a small patch of snow.

And as we climb higher, leaving most of the trees behind, the snow patches across the track get bigger and deeper.

The Hill of Fare is a broad and gently undulating plateau of heather moorland, and at the summit we enjoy stupendous views all across Aberdeenshire, from the snow capped Cairngorm mountains to the North Sea.

Or at least Gail enjoys the view, while I focus my attention on scavenging for any picnic leftovers which previous hikers might have dropped in the vicinity of the little summit cairn...

It is thin pickings I'm afraid, picnics being one more of life's pleasures not allowed in Scotland right now...

Thank you once again to our friends the LLB Gang for hosting the Nature Friday blog hop.

The whippets wimp out...

Every cloud has a silver lining, it seems. 

I was sorry, really I was, to learn a couple of weeks ago that Muriel, one of Gail's cycling pals, had cracked several ribs after taking a nasty tumble on a corner at the base of a steep descent, and would be off her bicycle for a while.

But I was not at all sorry when I was invited a few days ago to join the cyclists for a supposedly gentle hill walk, the group having for once forsaken their two wheeled transport and opted for an activity in which the injured Muriel could participate.

I'll confess, however, to being a tad put out when Gail told me that two young whippets would also form part of the hiking group, and said that she hoped I would be able to keep up!!

It reminded me of how much Human Grandad always hated the idea of anyone thinking of him as "decrepit". Us senior males have our pride you know.

So, please observe, here I am, leading the charge up the Hill of Fare. Close behind me is Muriel, and you can't even see those whippets, they are so far back.

Oh, at last, here are said whippets, looking thoroughly miserable and out of their element and each having a good old grumble. "Oooh, I don't like to get any of that horrid wet mud on my pretty little paws.... Oooh I hope the heather won't scratch my delicate skin...."

I think we can guess who summited the hill first...

 

.... and which of the pups opted to go straight back down the easiest way possible, and which one stayed the course and completed the much longer circuit (about eight miles) with absolutely no difficulty what so ever. 

Happy Nature Friday friends. If you want to go out and enjoy nature, I think it's clear that your best companion is a terrier. Or of course a Lhasa Apso or a Shih Tzu...

PS from Gail: since Bertie's bladder cancer diagnosis at the end of last month, I treasure every day I spend with him when he is so happy and full of life.