Balblair Woodland Walk

We woke this morning to snow on the hilltops and a keen westerly wind bringing in some sharp sleet showers so, expecting a day of more showers and perhaps a few sunny intervals we headed for the protection of....

....Balblair Woods for our daily exercise, following the track which skirts the side of Loch Fleet.

We stopped for a few minutes at the RSPB hide but the number and variety of shore birds was, as we had anticipated, rather disappointing. On this mudbank are oystercatchers, shelduck and redshanks and, at the other end of it out of the picture, a few waders which might have been bar-tailed godwits.

It's difficult to get to excited about the only fungus we found, particularly as I have still failed to identify it beyond it possibly being pinewood gingertail.

So we walked and enjoyed almost unbroken sunshine, keeping an eye open for the ospreys which are due back here in late March or early April.

We were out for over three hours and met several dog walkers and one dog-less couple, he an 83-year old ex-teacher who felt guilty that he had only taught for thirty years before suffering a heart attack and had, therefore, spent more time retired than at the chalk-face. Knowing that many male ex-teachers don't last five years after retirement, I feel I would rather he had their pension pots than that the government pocketed it.