Speckled Wood

Speckled Wood is the name we've given to a section of our frequently used route down to the village shops. We like it because, although it is a plantation, it's entirely of several species of deciduous trees, and it therefore has its own special populations, one of which is....

....the butterfly after which we named the wood - the speckled wood.

It's far from a gaudy butterfly like the peacock and red admiral, but we think it's very pretty. It's also rather special because it seems to be thriving so, when we saw this season's first ones in flight on Thursday, it wasn't the paltry one or two we're seeing of all the other species, but an extravagant dozen or more, all already very actively competing for mates.

We also like Speckled Wood for the other wildlife it offers. For example, it used to be one of the best places to see roe deer. So it seemed quite natural this morning to find this structure by the side of the path. It's about a foot across, and in many ways looks like an open nest - except it has a deep hole at the back of it. There are more of these structures close by.

I have no idea what built it but, if I were pushed, I might suggest it's about the right size for a rat.

The Hut Circle

I set off for the Drummuie hut circle this morning in stunning weather, with hardly a breath of wind and the sun gloriously warm. 

The insects were out in force, with peacock, orange-tipped, white and tortoiseshell butterflies much in evidence and....

....more tiger beetles than I have ever seen. My experience has been that if you see one, you're lucky; today I must have seen fifty.

The birds were celebrating the warmth with their songs, the most common bird up on the moorland now being the willow warblers with their beautiful, cascading refrain.

More of the summer flowers are beginning to appear. This lousewort is the first of its species to flower.

This is the hut circle. I sat for some time on its wall, looking out at the view and savouring the weather. I didn't see a soul and, were it not for the distant murmur of the traffic down the A9, humans might have disappeared from this planet.

The circle of stones is very clearly visible at the moment but, sadly....

....the first of this year's bracken is beginning to sprout, so in a few weeks this ancient and remarkably well-preserved dwelling will be buried again, not to reappear until the bracken has died back early next year.

The builders of these huts, some over 2,000 years old, chose superb sites for their houses. The Drummuie hut circle is exceptional in having wonderful views in almost every direction.

So I sat on the stone foundations of their home and wondered what those ancient people would have made of the frenetic world in which we, their descendants, choose to live. 

Africa's Small 'Game'

On the four safaris we enjoyed in Namibia and then Tanzania between 2010 and 2013, the emphasis was always on seeing the big game. Most of the tourists we went out with in search of excitement wanted to be able to go home and describe their encounters with such animals as lion, buffalo, elephant and leopard, so that is what the tour company provided.

I spent a fair bit of time trying to get away from the presumption that 'big game' was the main interest. I loved the smaller 'game', like this blue-banded swallowtail sipping the flowers of a poinciana, and I have written before about....

....Tanzania's kingfishers: while I become very excited indeed if I see the one British species, Tanzania has no less than eleven to offer.

I wish now that I had been firmer about not going out for the scheduled morning and evening game drives, bouncing around in a big 4x4 for a couple of hours or so when just sitting by the lodge's waterhole and watching the small things that came to drink might have been far more interesting.

And while it is quite right to say that there are a few African countries, which include both Tanzania and Namibia, where it is possible to see animals such as elephant and buffalo in large numbers, there are many more which can boast large numbers of smaller things, such as this mixture of waders and other birds on a beach in Tanzania.

So, if I ever did go on another safari which, at my age, is highly unlikely, I would do some serious homework on these smaller creatures so that I could appreciate them fully while my fellow-travellers enjoyed sore bottoms from bouncing around for hours in their 4x4.

First Swallows

I was standing by the sink making our early morning cup-of-tea-in-bed when I glanced across the road and saw a roe deer not twenty metres away looking back at me. It was shortly joined by....

....another, at which point they seemed to panic as, somehow, they had managed to get themselves on the wrong side of the fence.

After breakfast we set off up the hill for a brisk walk but stopped to watch the 'white rabbit' which was evidently enjoying its breakfast at the top of the Rabbit Field, and it was as we were watching it and then admiring....

....a very smart male chaffinch that we spotted two swallows swooping across the field.

I can't believe that they will stay with us. We've seen these early swallows before and have wondered whether they're passing through, heading for remote northern places like the Orkney and Shetland Islands.

The number of willow warblers seems to increase every time we walk up the hill but they're also increasingly difficult to photograph as so many of the singing trees the males favour, such as birch, are coming into leaf, so shortly they'll 'disappear' completely.

The gorse is now in exuberant flower. I don't think I have ever seen such a mass of flowers and I really do wonder what its purpose is, for there seem to be very few insects attracted to it - in fact, the only butterflies we saw, which I think were....

....green-veined whites, were concentrating on the dandelions.

As we were on our way home we registered another first for the year, a common lizard. That it was out and about suggests that the adders may also be making an appearance. I would like to see some adders this year.

An Award-Winning Beach

At low tide, one can walk Golspie's South Beach from Golspie itself all the way to Littleferry, miles and miles of wonderful clean sand ideal for children to play on, but it now suffers from a serious handicap: the waves over the winter have destroyed the flood defences making it impossible to get down from the car parks to the beach. This damage extends all the way along as far as the kart track.

Unaware of this slight problem, we were looking for a good walk this morning but only managed to get down from the path that skirts the golf course by climbing across some of the boulders placed to slow the rate of erosion.

Once on it, we could stretch our legs along the sands. In the hour or so that we walked we met only one man and his dog. Sadly, though, the beach was also deserted of wildlife, for we only saw....

....a pair of ringed plovers, some crows and gulls....

....half-a-dozen oystercatchers...

....and what might have been four very distant mergansers.

On the A9 traffic signs at either end of the village, this beach - very deservedly - is described as "award winning" but it desperately needs money spending on the sea defences. At this rate, in a year's time the waves will have smashed through what's left of the existing ones.

Cuckoo, Primroses & Tadpoles

Yesterday's weather was bright and warm enough for a second butterfly species to be on the wing, this small white sitting contentedly soaking up the sun on raspberry leaves, joining the two peacocks which were also in the garden, but working the aubretia flowers.

Today started well, with the sight from the kitchen sink of a red squirrel trying - and failing - to prise some peanuts out of the birds' feeders.

Sadly, this morning's weather had deteriorated since yesterday, with a cold easterly blowing, the temperature not rising above 9C, and....

....all the sheep in the adjoining farmer's fields very firmly sitting down - a sign that they did not think things would improve.

So I wrapped myself up in almost winter gear and set off on what has, in the past, always been a very frustrating walk. This gate is usually locked, preventing walkers from enjoying a circular route of about an hour - but today I found it unlocked. Better still, just in front of the gate were....

....about twenty primrose plants. Nowhere else on any of our walks round here have we seen any primroses in flower this spring, so there must be something very special about this spot.

Then, to join the many birds singing, and despite the temperature, a cuckoo called, and continued to call along the Bheinn Bhraggie ridge for half an hour. It may well be that the timing is right for the cuckoos to exploit the willow warblers, which have been arriving in increasing numbers.

To my considerable surprise, as their eggs have, for some weeks, been covered in slimy brown silt, a whole mass of tadpoles have appeared in the small seep that runs out of the quarry above our house where, in previous years, we've also seen palmate newts.

To complete a very enjoyable walk I found two rabbits in the Rabbit Field from which, over the winter, they had completely disappeared. The rabbits were some distance apart but I'm hoping that they'll manage to meet and re-fill the field with their families.

The Roe Corner Roe Deer

On our way down to the village, as we approach Roe Corner, the plantation of Scots pines is cut by an area of land cleared by the electricity board to prevent trees falling on their power line. This area is now dominated by dead bracken fronds, and it is amongst these that we are seeing the three Roe Corner roe deer mentioned in recent posts.

One of them is a buck. He seems to be the more nervous of the three as, when we walk past the clearing, he breaks cover first, and heads up the hill away from us, followed shortly after by....

....the two does, one slightly larger than the other.

We're seeing the trio fairly frequently now, frequently enough to conclude that we're meeting them on their way from early morning grazing in a field the other side of Roe Corner to the thicker and less human-visited forestry higher on the slopes of Bheinn Bhraggie, where they spend most of their daylight hours. This seems a logical organisation of their day as the path through Roe Corner becomes increasingly busy with humans and their - often out-of-control - dogs.

We saw the deer again this morning. Since we're actively looking for them we now approach Roe Corner very quietly, with the result that the two does were quite close to us when they finally ran up the hill after the buck. With a bit of luck they'll become more and more accustomed to us, and will perhaps allow us to approach increasingly close.