Orchids

This morning we walked the steep uphill of the track that runs from Drummuie towards Loch Lunndaidh in muggy weather and under a sky which well illustrated the forecast for later today. The lower section which passes through mixed woodland, was....

....full of birdsong, and we stopped for a few minutes to watch the antics of this warbler family, possibly willow warblers.

We've found orchids along this track in previous years but this year is special. There were masses of very pale heath spotted orchids and perhaps even more....

....of what I think are marsh fragrants which Mrs MW, who has a better nose than I, declared to be wonderfully scented.

Time was when we would have cheerfully continued on to the loch itself but these days we have to be more careful, stopping at the point where the track emerges onto open moorland to sit on a convenient rock and look out at a view that stretched across Loch Fleet towards the distant Ross-shire hills.