Where there’s a will . . .
Observing a short-eared owl beating over the marshes like a huge, predatory moth, an osprey finishing off the fish meal he had snatched a few minutes before from Loch Don, an otter carrying home his supper across a rippling inlet were highlights of a few days on the Isle of Mull this week. But the most illuminating moment was watching a kestrel twisting and diving in aerial combat with a buzzard.
The buzzard was three times his size but it was the smaller raptor who performed the aerobatic equivalent of kicking sand in the big fella’s face. Finally the buzzard flapped off with weary wingbeats as if to say, ‘OK, OK, if this patch matters that much to you…’
In taking on the big boys confidence is crucial, and on a visit to Gerard Butler’s new racing base a few days before I had seen the same jaw-jutting determination as that kestrel displayed.
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