Ootmahoosewindae
Some people travel the world to photograph wildlife. Scot Robert Cruickshanks just points his camera..
ANIMAL-LOVERS from near and far are queuing up for the chance to visit a magical Scots garden which is home to all creatures great and small.
Retired businessman Robert Cruickshanks has only to step outside his back door, near Oban, to see a family of eight mink – one of the UK’s rarest wildlife sights. Other regular visitors to the woodland garden include red squirrels, hedgehogs, roe deer, lizards and bank voles.
Now, in a charity venture called Ootmahoosewindae, Robert is inviting others to share this wildlife experience, in return for a donation to the Macmillan Day Care Centre in Oban.
And pictures of his garden wildlife are to feature in a calendar which will go on sale next month to raise more cash for the charity.
The calendar, which has the backing of top wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan, was the idea of a friend, who had suffered from cancer and been helped by staff at the centre.
Robert said: “We would like to raise in excess of £5000 for this worthy and incredibly hardworking cause.”
He also aims to encourage people to open their eyes and look at the natural world around them.
He said: “Ootmahoosewindae is about trying to get people to look out of their house window. Put the food out and the birds and wildlife will come. “
He added: “I think the pine martens have always been here, they come in for the cherry trees and I have always spotted their scat but then last year I put out a trail cam and some food and three came in that night – two kits and a mum.
“I have never missed a night putting food out since and we get roughly 10 visits a night. They can hang about for a minute or stay for 40 minutes, they do not run to a timetable unfortunately.”
He added: “They are not tame but they have a trust in me and I am passing that trust on to other people.”
One of the most poignant experiences he caught on camera was an exhausted mother bank vole carrying her young after their birth.
Visitors from as far away as London have paid a visit for the pine martens.
Murph Meyer, wrote on Facebook: “What an amazing evening, three single martens in three visits in an hour-and-a-half.”
To buy a calendar, or arrange a visit, go on to Ootmahoosewindae on Facebook, or visit the www.ootmahoose windae.weebly.com.