Even tour organisers go on holiday! When I announced to my best-beloved that I was off to see raptors in the Highlands, she wished me well and said she had other things to be doing. A group of 14 of us spent half the week in Speyside up and down the Findhorn valley (best sighting: a juvenile peregrine falcon), and in the Abernethy Forest (yes! a capercaillie). We then crossed over the Kessock Bridge, and strayed down underneath it in the hope of spotting dolphins or an otter. It wasn't long before we were rewarded with an otter draped over a rock looking very like the seaweed he was lying on. The second half of the week was on Skye which is full of eagles (White-tailed and Golden). But the title of this news-flash comes from the sighting of a red squirrel swimming. Apparently it is quite rare but not unknown. The photograph here shows the poor thing drying out!