Most of the north shore of Loch Fleet is bordered by woodland - Balblair Wood - but this area, which forms a small peninsula sticking out into the loch, is classic meadowland which, being nowhere near any worked farmland, is rich in wildlife.
Yesterday when we walked through it, masses of lethargic ringlets littered the path to the extent that one had to take care not to tread on them, but the temptation to take photograph after photograph - I ended the walk with 198 - has enabled me to learn to differentiate between the male, above, and....
Amongst the blues and the whites and the small heaths and the meadow browns and the other butterflies there were a few fritillaries. This, I think, is a dark green fritillary but....
....I'm flummoxed by this one, which looks like a high brown fritillary but apparently can't be as they have a limited range which ends far to the south of here. Compare my photo with....
....Wikipedia's.
Back in the relative dark of the woodland we noticed this pair of trees which, like lovers, seemed to be reaching out to hold hands. The roots had grown like this because they developed in an earth wall, long since stripped away here, but still very visible further along its length, testament to this land having once been cultivated and therefore in need of protection from any exceptional high tides in Loch Fleet.
We saw plenty of wildflowers, most in the meadow, but this woodland flower caught our eye. We've seen it before in isolated clusters in the croft land of Kilchoan. It's slender St John's wort, which has the unusual characteristic of....
....having occasional bright red leaves.
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