Tiger Country

The sun has been out again today, making it quite warm enough on my walk this morning to sit for some time on a rock by the side of a path and think about important things - like, how successful the local gorse has been in recolonising the area of coniferous plantation that was burnt out by a fire in 2018, and....

....how, at first sight, it seems to form as much of a monoculture as a field of farmer's wheat, when a sudden movement caught my eye.

We don't see many tiger beetles but when one does turn up I'm reminded of the first time I saw one, on a similar rough track that runs along the coastline of Ardnamurchan to the east of Ockle. I remember it because of the startling metallic beauty of the insect, and because I recall looking it up on the internet and learning that it is a remarkable hunter, exceptionally fast on its long legs and ruthless in its ability to catch its prey - spiders, caterpillars and ants.

I often bemoan the increasing scarcity of our larger wildlife, such as deer, foxes, pine martens, badgers and, now, rabbits, so this beetle was a timely reminded that there's plenty of excitement still to be found amongst the multitude of much smaller species which inhabit even gorse heathland - like this beautiful insect.

An Adventure

Ever since we've lived at this end of Golspie we've wanted to join up the further ends of two tracks which rise into the hills at the back our house. We haven't managed to do it as the OS maps of this area are pretty useless, and the ground we would have to cover is perhaps a bit rough for people of our tender age....

....particularly as, in several places, any hint of the ancient path we were supposed to be following has long disappeared.

However, having turned back on several previous occasions, we persisted today because there were landmarks around us which reduced the chances of getting totally lost, the weather was perfect, and the view....

....helped both to distract and to locate us.

After some fairly tough walking we finally saw the feature we were looking for....

....the signpost on the Golspie-Loch Lunndaidh track which we have passed many times before, leaving us with....

....a gentle downhill walk home.

It's some time since we last set off into the hills with a sense of adventure, knowing that what we were doing did have some risks but that, if we managed them and were careful, we could do it.

We walked two-and-a-half miles this morning, a fraction of the distances we used to walk on a typical Sunday on Ardnamurchan, but some of it was fairly taxing, and we felt, at a personal level, we had achieved something.

The Dark Woods

I don't like walking in the woods, particularly coniferous plantations. They're dark, dank, oppressive places where, at this time of year, the ground-level plants are still in winter mode, there being precious little in the way of spring flowers to see, the exception being....

....along the edges of the forestry where some of the gorse is in flower, as it has been for much of the winter. In the woods themselves I spotted just one dandelion in bloom. One.

That said, the forestry was, despite a bitingly cold wind, full of the songs of small birds but....

....seeing them, let alone taking a picture of them, was difficult: in this photo there is a very excited male goldcrest but please don't ask me exactly where.

So there had to be something important to draw us in to the unwelcoming environment of these woods and that was, of course....

....the annual return of the ospreys, there being four nests around the shores of Loch Fleet.

From meeting acquaintances on recent walks who have seen them we know that some are back from western Africa. The occupants of this nest, the one that's most accessible to us, have been seen but they weren't at home today, though we thought we heard them calling.

So we'll have to return to the dark woods....

The Boiled Frog

When change happens very slowly one sometimes doesn't notice it. This is true of the frog which, if dropped into boiling water, will hop straight out again but which, if put into cooler water which is heated up very slowly, will stay in the water until it boils to death. Well.... Maybe!

It's certainly true of the local starlings. They used to move around in large, chattering flocks making their presence felt by their greed and very poor table manners at the bird feeders.

Yesterday I realise I hadn't seen one in ages; perhaps not even this winter. What makes things worse is that the numbers in the UK are supposed to increase in the winter due to immigration of birds from northern Europe.

You'd have thought I would have noticed their decline from the way they haven't been wrecking the bird feeders: I didn't.

According to the BTO, British starlings declined in numbers by 57% in the years between 1995 and 2023, such a drop that the species is now on the UK red list as a bird of 'conservation concern'. However, as far as continental Europe is concerned, they are not threatened - in fact they are classified as amongst the birds of 'least concern'.

I don't want starlings to disappear completely but I do hope that those that survive will bring up their children with good table manners.

Roe Encounter

Roe Corner is the point where the path we usually follow down to the village leaves the Scots pine plantation and passes between an area of more recently planted deciduous trees and a large, open field. From their hoof prints left in the path's mud we've known all winter that deer have been using the gap in the wall to get from the field into the woodland probably in the early morning, when they've finished grazing and wish to return to the cover of the woodland for the day.

A couple of weeks back we saw three roe deer moving up through the bracken under the trees but they were in too much of a hurry for a photograph but I was thrilled today when....

....this roe deer seemed in no hurry to hide, giving me plenty of opportunity to capture the first pictures of one of these delicate animals since August last year.

When we first came to Golspie we used to see red deer on the moorland above the forestry but they were culled when the estate fenced the area and planted trees, so the roe deer are now the largest mammal in these woodlands and a symbol of Scotland's shrinking wilderness.

Birds on a Sunny Morning

We woke to another glorious morning with the promise of sunshine, warmer temperatures and light winds, a day which the small birds....

....would be determined to exploit. Setting off from the house I saw all the usual birds drawn in by the promise of a free breakfast - siskin, goldfinch, chaffinch, dunnock, blackbird and robin, blue, coal, great and, to my joy....

....the first long-tailed tits in ages. Sadly I only saw three when I would have hoped to see them going round in the usual flocks of eight or so.

I followed one of my favourite walks through an area of pine plantation burned by the fire of ten years ago where wrens, song thrushes and chiff-chaffs were singing, along with this small bird which I have difficulty in identifying.

The track I followed was the forestry version of a cul-de-sac, but it ends with this view across Loch Fleet towards the highlands beyond Bonar Bridge, still blanketed with snow.

To make my day, on the way back the verges had warmed enough to draw out....

....two peacock butterflies, the first butterflies we've seen since March 20th.

Littleferry - Again!

Given the chance, and some fine weather, we'll drive the ten minutes to Littleferry to walk along its beach, particularly when, on a day like today, there's a spring tide with the sea low and miles and miles of sandy beach exposed - and absolutely no-one to share it with except for....

....a couple of oystercatchers.

We do appreciate our good fortune. I can't believe that there are many other beaches in Britain of the size of the one at Littleferry which are as deserted on a fine Monday Bank Holiday.

Another reason for going to Littleferry is that we are hearing that the first ospreys are back from their winter quarters in western Africa. There are supposed to be no less than four active nests around Loch Fleet - and we will, in the next few days, return to Littleferry to check the one which we watch each year - but there was no sign of any ospreys yet.

Instead, we spent a few minutes watching the pink-footed geese which seemed to be in a state of considerable confusion as to which way they were supposed to be flying. At the time this picture was taken they were heading very determinedly south.