Loch Unes

On yesterday's walk we were greeted at the pull-in where we park the car to visit Loch Unes by an osprey wheeling and calling high above us against a grey sky but....

....when we reached the loch, which is in Ferry Wood about half way between the road and the beach, we were surprised and pleased to find that, despite the cool day and occasional drizzle, there were....

....damsel and dragon flies to be found. This is an emerald male damselfly and....

....these two emeralds were doing what it takes to ensure a next generation. The female here isn't the normal female colour.

The other species on the wing included the blue-tailed damselfly and this one, a female back darter dragonfly which was obviously feeling the cold as it had just fallen off its perch into the water but had managed to recover.

Just by the loch we found what we thought was a pink fungus but it isn't. Although it doesn't look like it, this is a slime mould, the wolf's milk slime mould,  Lycogala epidendrum.

We walked on through the wood to the beach, which was as deserted as always even though we are in the middle of the summer holidays, but saw little in the way of wildlife, and returned to the car through the wood where, close to the Loch, we spotted....

....this roe deer with her now very grown up young which we think is the same pair we saw here a few weeks ago.