The Loch Lunndaidh Track

I walked today up the forestry track which, if you have the energy I no longer possess, leads to Loch Lunndaidh and its abandoned clachan. The track is badly eroded by the heavy rains of a fortnight ago but, in amongst the wreckage of gorse stems, there are a few....

....fungi, something we've not seen in a long time.

I often complain of the dark silence and restricted views of these conifer plantations but today they were filled with bird activity....

....mainly blue tits and great tits, along with one very welcome sighting of a small flock of long-tailed tits. This excitement is probably brought on by recent temperatures - it was 13C two days ago - which encourage the birds to think that spring is here and it's time to start establishing territories and finding a mate.

Just before the point where the track levels off there's a gate. Beyond used to be open moorland where we had a good chance of seeing red deer, but it is now fenced and the deer gone. That section of the track still has some appeal, with....

.....its views to the south across Loch Fleet, Embo and the Dornoch Firth to the distant Cairngorms but....

....the land the track passes through has been planted with conifer trees so those views will soon be lost.