We're seeing a dipper almost every time we cross the footbridge over the Golspie Burn. We assume it's the same one each time though we know that, through the summer, a pair nested about a mile upstream. While it's wary of us, if we approach cautiously it will continue to go about its business, as it did....
....on Saturday morning when it appeared to be having a fight with an earthworm. A close look at the pictures proved that the long, wriggling beast it was beating against the rock was more likely to have been an elver.
Buzzards are becoming increasingly scarce in the skies above Golspie so it was with some joy that we watched three wheeling and calling above us as we walked north beyond Dunrobin Castle this morning.
The weather is a bit mixed at the moment but in its sunnier spells the red admirals are out and about. They're the only butterflies we're now seeing, and they're making do with some fairly slim pickings.
One of the few flowers that are still out is the bluebell - Scottish variety. They seem to like the calcerous soils of the links but many are small, as if, to cope with the lack of nutrients, they're a dwarf variety.
As autumn proceeds so more fungi appear, though it doesn't promise to be as good a season as last. We found this fly agaric in the grass just by the primary school gates, along with four others. Elsewhere in the local woods, the fly agaric season seems to be already over.
Compare to last year, the blackening waxcap is having a good season. They start as a vivid yellow, fade through orange into increasing dark shades of brown, and finish up....
....a rather sad and chewed-up black.
No comments:
Post a Comment