Storm

Red sky at night is supposed to be a shepherd's delight but last evening's sky failed to warn that this morning's east-southeasterly would be gusting to gale force. This is the mouth of the Golspie Burn looking towards Dunrobin Castle while....

....parts of the town's 'promenade' - a kind way of describing it - were impassible from heavy spray.

I love standing as close as possible to such waves, short of getting soaked, and watching the breakers lift, lift, lift, and then curl over to break in a froth of foam. Doing it from shore is great but try it from the bow of a ship butting into a heavy sea.

We walked a mile or so along the coast but as soon as we turned inland the rain arrived.

Hallowe'en E'en

Sunset over the graveyard last night.

Tree Planting in Strath Lunndaidh

It's some months since we last walked the track which leads from the eastern end of the Beinn Bhraggie forestry towards the ruins of the clachan of Lunndaidh at the far end of Loch Lunndaidh (see earlier posts here) but we set off in bright sunshine this morning only to find the first evidence of the changes that have happened over the summer, in the form of a new deer fence and gate.

Just short of the upper gate, the point where the forestry gives way to open moorland, the point where, suddenly, the views open up and the air seems fresh and clean, we found that the new parking area was occupied by bags of fertiliser and....

....saplings, most but not all of them deciduous - rowan, oak, hazel - but once through the fence....

....it was obvious that most of the planting that has happened over the summer was of conifers, all in neat rows and consisting of Norway spruce and Scots pine.

We knew that the whole area from the existing forestry to the loch was going to be planted but this has happened quickly, and the total area now planted as far as the loch is, at an estimate, about a square kilometre but, as we discovered later, it will in future continue well beyond the loch.

The planting method is simple enough. A digger scoops a hole and then the sapling is planted on top of the excavated pile, the planting done....

....by five young men who, they said, would take about six weeks to do the area. I asked whether they were aware of the hut circle below the track and the farmstead on the hill above it and was told that no planting would happen on them - and we checked the hut circle and were relieved to find a good space around it along with an access path. They also told us that only 10% of the planting would be mixed pine and deciduous trees, the minimum required.

As we reached Loch Lunndaidh it began to rain, a suitable comment on this development. The wide views from the track to the south, to Loch Fleet and beyond, and those uphill to the ridge that runs east from Beinn Bhraggie, will be lost as the conifers grow, as will all the open moorland at this end of Strath Lunndaidh. 

Fungal Frustrations

The local fungi are driving me to distraction. New ones keep appearing, in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, groupings and colours, and in all sorts of places - just about everywhere except on the open beach. The trouble is that I can't stop myself taking their pictures, after which I feel I must make some attempt to find out what they are.

This one was in a ditch in Beinn Bhraggie woods and was such a spectacular colour that Mrs MW climbed down in the ditch to take a closer look. To give a sense of scale, the log is about 6" in diameter. What I love about this fungus is that it seems to mimic a flame, burning upwards from the bottom of the tree and working its way up the cracks in the bark. I think I know what it is, maybe: yellow brain, Tremella mesenterica - and, yes, yellow brain fungus can be orange.

I have no idea what this one is but I love the way it has burst out of just one place on this fallen pine with all its caps squeezing out of the one spot. This was in the plantation on the shores of Loch Fleet at Littleferry, as was....

....this one, which I like for the way it has found a comfy cushion of moss out of which to grow. Again, despite a search I still don't know its name - it would be so much easier if it had been a bright colour rather than a common brown.

This was also in Littleferry woods and, even though it is a slightly more unusual colour, I still can't identify it. It looked remarkably slimy and resembled someone's naked rear end.

Failure, failure - so these are a bright colour but I still couldn't identify them for certain. They may be golden waxcap, Hygrocybe chlorophana, but golden waxcap doesn't seem to have the pale fringes round the edge of the cap. They were out on the links at Littleferry, as was....

....this little colony. It was one of half a dozen, all close together in just the one place. Each was about 3" across and was firm but slimy, and, yes, I may have managed to identify it: it's golden spindles, Clavulinopsis fusiformis.

The East Bank of Loch Fleet

Usually when we drive to Littleferry we park at the *, walk to the mouth of Loch Fleet and then along the beach northwards but today we started by crossing the road and heading in the opposite direction, due west through a....

....pine plantation until we could look out upon the whole of the enclosed area of the loch. On the satellite image 'The Mound' (top left), which carries the present A9, is the causeway built in the early 19th century which effectively dams the River Fleet so the loch is only tidal now to that point.

This was this morning's view from the east shore of Loch Fleet looking southwest towards Skelbo (see satellite image) while....

....this looks west towards the hill that is called The Mound - the A9 causeway is just out of sight to the left.

The view to the right is of the northern part of the loch which, at low tide, is extensive mud flats and home for large numbers of winter migrants, including the greylags that fly north and south over us each day. The hill is Beinn Bhraggie with the Duke of Sutherland's monument standing on top.

From our viewpoint we turned left and walked a few hundred yards, a walk suggested by acquaintances we bumped into by the loch side who advised us to keep an eye open for something unusual. See him?

Here he is from the other side, very cleverly made of....

...chicken wire stuffed with pine cones and moss, perhaps the local version of a Banksy.

Early Wildfowl Arrivals at Tain Scalps

These wildfowl feeding off Tain yesterday were early arrivals of the many which are - hopefully - going to overwinter in the area but the two most numerous duck species we saw last winter are already represented.

Most of the ducks were widgeon, the males with their conker-coloured heads and buff-yellow crests, the females with brown heads, and the slightly scruffy ones being individuals in their 'eclipse' plumage - moulting. They were feeding by....

....'dabbling', that is, upending themselves to reach the muddy bottom, or foraging along the shoreline, though...

....they tended to take off at my approach, showing off the bright white patterns on their wings.

A number of teal were also there, holding themselves slightly aloof from the widgeon, along with....

...the occasional mallard.

The only waders visible were three redshanks, one of which is seen here with two teal.

Having the pleasure of these birds to watch certainly makes the approximately 6-weekly visit to Tain well worthwhile.

The Dornoch Firth

It's classic Highland October weather today, bright intervals with light winds bringing sudden heavy showers and, most importantly, rainbows. This one straddled the Dornoch Firth, looking west from the bridge on the A9 on our way to Tain, Mrs MW to do battle with Lidl while I....

....enjoyed a walk along the south bank of the firth looking, in this picture, almost due north, back towards the hills behind Golspie.

Tain has a pleasant recreational area, with a wildlife pond, play area for the children, and football pitch, running along the south shore of the firth, which is where I spend my time as....

....this is where the wildfowl can be seen. Today the tide had recently turned and, while there were relatively few birds swimming around, there were a number of species whose numbers will grow as winter comes on.

Fences

It's over a mile's steady uphill walking through the forestry to reach the nearest open moorland where, as we pass through the forestry gate and begin to follow the rough track beyond, we have that same feeling of uplift, of, somehow, freedom, as we have as we walk out onto a wide, clean, beach.

We followed the track today to its end where, as I've mentioned before, there is this silly notice which announces what is, by our standards, a relatively average view, now spoiled by a new section of deer fencing through which, we noticed, there is no gate to allow passage for those who might want to follow the vestiges of a path that continues across the moor and up through the small glen in the middle distance.

We suppose that the purpose of the new fence is to enclose an area for further planting, the fence being necessary because red deer roam this land. The soil profiles exposed along the track average about a foot thick and will be a pretty miserable base for anything except conifers.

It's a sad prospect but many seem fixated on solving the climate crisis by planting trees irrespective of whether they will thrive in a location - there is no sign in the peat of any roots from previous forests.

Not that the division of this land is anything new. It's criss-crossed by ancient walls, some of them massive undertakings, whose original purpose is long forgotten.

Falling Tide

It's perfect timing if we arrive at Golspie's south beach just as the falling tide clears the bottom of the access ramp because we then have its....

....pristine sands all to ourselves. We managed it this morning, walking out onto the beach just after ten with low tide due at 12.31 but, once again, we were shocked....

....at how much sand has been removed since we were last here, probably during Thursday's north wind. The erosion has now reached the low dunes at the back of the beach, exposing the roots of the marram grass that holds them. Along this section there is no sea wall and the caravan site is just behind.

For some time we had the whole beach to ourselves, miles of it - always special - until we met a dog walker coming in the opposite direction, a lady we have met and chatted with before.

Mrs MW was just commenting on how the beach was beginning to feel like a winter beach, the sort of beach we walked when we first came to live in Golspie almost a year ago, when we remember usually finding something of interest on each outing.... when we came across this cuckoo ray, the first we've seen in months, washed up and eviscerated by the gulls.

On our return to the ramp at the end of our walk we came across this very friendly wheatear. These smart-looking birds don't winter here and should be well on their way to their Central African wintering grounds so we assume and hope that this individual was a late starter on its passage south.

Lining Up at Littleferry

The fungi at Littleferry are far more organised than the random scatterings we found in Balblair Woods yesterday. This fungus line weaved its way for over ten metres along the top of an ancient pebble storm beach while....

....this species preferred a shorter but more compact arrangement. They look much the same but the upper one has white flesh and gills while....

....the underside of the lower comes in a very pretty lilac shade.

This fungus 'colony' was growing in a neat circle while....

....this one had a more advanced 'figure of eight' arrangement.

The low tide sandbanks were also in neat alignments, each with its species of bird - here an exclusive cormorant group, while on the other side of Loch Fleet's entrance....

....eiders roosted on the further bank and knots in a crowd on the nearer.

I continue to identify them as knots but I'm really knot sure. I watched a BTO video which set out to describe the simple differences between knots and dunlins but I came away from it more confused than ever. The easiest way of telling them apart seems to be that knots have brownish-green legs while dunlin have black, but I'm not sure I can distinguish the colour on my distant photographs.