Wildlife
Nature often comes up with the unexpected, though sightings can never be predicted or relied upon.
Nevertheless I think you will not go home disappointed.
Our first list of wildlife is what we hope you MAY see if you are lucky during your stay at Mil Bothy:
Otters, Common & Grey seal, Sea- or White-Tailed Eagle, Golden Eagle, Peregrine, Sparrowhawk, Great Skua, Whooper Swans (Autumn and Winter), Woodcock and Grouse.
In August a few years back we had a Basking Shark in the bay for nearly 4 hours. In Spring with binoculars, you may see huge rafts of Manx Shearwater and Puffin in the mouth of Loch Finsbay gathered prior to breeding. You have the possibility of seeing Porpoise, Bottlenose and Risso's Dolphin from the window.
Our second list is what we think you SHOULD see:
Blackbird, Buzzard, Common Sandpiper, Cormorant, Cuckoo, Curlew, Dunnock, Gannets (diving), Grey Heron, Greylag Geese, Goldcrest, Goldfinch, Great Northern Divers, (Great Blackback, Lesser Blackback, Herring & Common Gulls) Hooded Crow, Lapwing, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Oyster Catcher, Pied Wagtail, Ravens, Red Breasted Merganser, Robin, Rock Pipit, Red Throated Diver, Redwing, Song Thrush, Shag, Skylark, Snipe, Stock Dove, Stonechat, Starling, Terns (Arctic & Common) Twite, Wheatear and Wrens.
Just 200-300 yards east of the cottage still on our croft, there is a beautiful large rockpool with urchins, sea anemone, shrimps and small fish.You can dream for hours there! In June and July the crofts (100 acres) are covered in wild orchids and other unusual flora. There is a bookcase full of reference books on the above and a huge variety of books of general interest. Some have French texts.
Mil Bothy is an excellent base if you are planning a trip to St.Kilda or The Shiants, both life-changing experiences.
All the above is why we came to live here over 20 years ago, and had a holiday cottage on Harris since 1976.
