Values

"Just" a buzzard; we have reached the point of laughing at ourselves for saying it. Depending whether your quest is for size, rarity, aerial versatility or visual impact, the 4th, 5th, or lower, raptor on the island. Their UK population is increasing - is that because they are happy to take carrion from increasingly busy roads, I wonder. We enjoy them at home, but I have never encountered one that, like this, would sit 30 metres away, at eye level, and devour their kill at leisure, casting us a defiant glance between mouthfulls

We have been reading about temperate rainforests, a rare and threatened, species-rich environment, of which Mull has a disproportionately high quantity and quality. Their long term viability in all but the most inaccessible valleys and cliffs is threatened by deer and sheep grazing off the young shoots that replace old trees. The sheep population can be manipulated by agricultural policy. Deer are predated by eagles, but not enough to keep their population down. The economics do not favour deer shooting here we are told.

Among the rarest of the temperate rainforest environments are oak-based woodland, but they do exist here. We saw some today, along with a couple of jays - lovers of acorns. Jays, I suspect, are much rarer here than buzzards

Life is complicated; everything is connected