ARDTORNISH GARDENS

Some other animals to be seen

in the vicinity of the garden

There are foxes and badgers here but you are unlikely to see them and the badgers are very localised. Mice and shrews are also hard to spot though if you sit still, you may see voles and wood mice which are both very common. Weasels are present but they are much less common than in the south and east. Rabbits, once common, are now only occasionally seen. Mink are also seldom seen and could do to be never seen. Wild cats are still present but their purity is being diluted by feral ones and it is many years since I last saw one.

Newts, frogs and toads love our moist climate - walk the path to Tearnait on a summer evening and you will come across hundreds of toads. Common and palmate newts are abundant by loch, pond and puddle. Lizards are common in drier places as are slow-worms. As far as I know, there are no adders here though they are common in parts of Mull and I saw several one sunny September day when I was fishing the Mishnish lochs (they were coiled on banks warming up). There are apparently 4 species of bats but though they have no problems recognising one another, they all look the same to me.

Grey and common seals, dolphins and porpoises can all be seen if you walk down the loch to the Sound of Mull.

HedgehogYoung newtSlow wormGrey sealfrogsHighland cow

Photos from left to right, top to bottom:-

  1. Hedgehogs are fairly common in the garden though I suspect they eat more frogs and beetles than slugs. One year we grew strawberries in a polytunnel and hedgehogs ate large numbers of adult vine-weevils.
  2. Young common newt. Even when there was no suitable breeding site in the Kitchen Garden, newts and frogs were still quite common.
  3. This slow worm took up residence by the Kitchen Garden gate for a couple of weeks. It would sun itself in good weather.
  4. There are lots of seals in Loch Aline and the Sound of Mull though I have to confess I took this photo on the Culbin Sands in N-E Scotland.
  5. Frogs in the old bath that is used as a small pond in the Kitchen Garden. There are now so many frogs that I need to increase the breeding space. The bath is behind a polytunnel and I can pot plants to a frog’s chorus particularly if the weather is sunny and mild.
  6. Highland cow. I know it’s not a wild animal but try pulling its tail! Also, I was short of animal pics.

See also

Photos and text by Ian Lamb.