Local wildlife - the flora and fauna
Fauna
There is so much to see in the way of wildlife & marine life that its impossible to list everything. Anyway ... paddling round the area you are likely to see many of the following:
BIRDS
Swallows, Eagle (sea and golden), puffin, Great Northern Diver, Greylag Geese, Brent Geese, Gannet, Shearwaters, Kittiwake, Common Terns, Curlews, Black Guillamots, Guillamots, Razor Bills, Shags, Cormorants, Oystercatchers, Eider Ducks, Mergansers, Mallards, Herons, Turnstones, Peregrine Falcon, Golden Eagle, Buzzard, Fulmar, Common Gull, Black Backed Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Black Headed Gull,Herring Gull, Curlew, Redshanks, Arctic Skua, Ravens, Cuckoo ... in all around 224 different species.
Below are two Greylag Geese taking off
TERRESTRIAL
Pine marten, weasle, Highland cows, Voles, otters, roe deer, red deer, mink,
badger, at least three kinds of dragonfly, lizard, toads, wild goats, wildcat
(rare), fox, shrews, mole and many more... Pictured below is an otter (fairly
common).
MARINE
Seals (common and grey), Otters, Porpoises, Dolphin (common and bottle nosed), basking shark, Minke Whales. Below are the local gang of seals doing some serious sunbathing.
Some of the smaller islands have never been grazed or are rarely visited by people and as such offer an unique insight into what unspoilt Scotland looked like. Birds readily take up residence in large numbers in habitats such as these.
Flora : There might be around 750 different plant species in Skye and Lochalsh - doubtless you would encounter most of the shore species and lochside varieties.
Above is a Burnet Moth in a shore-side meadow adjacent to the Skye Bridge...