Backies

We set off to walk up to the crofting community of Backies this morning in watery sunshine, following a route that took us along the deserted footpaths of Golspie Glen and then up into....

....the croft land itself, some of the fields now invaded by what looks like a small army of very active moles.

Although it's much milder today there was little else visible in the way of wildlife - the small birds being noticeably absent except near human habitation. The only avian excitement was hearing the call of a buzzard, a single, plaintive cry not repeated. Worryingly, we haven't seen a buzzard in weeks.

There were some fungi to be found, most hiding in the leaf litter - except, of course, witches' butter which likes a prominent position where it can be can be seen from yards away. It seems to grow exclusively on dead gorse wood, with some branches almost covered in it.

This is one of the other fungi we found, a rather fine birch polypore also growing on dead wood.

The purpose of our visit was to buy some croft eggs but we were, once again, disappointed. I can hardly blame the chickens - the recent weather hasn't been conducive to egg laying.

We found one sight to cheer us: an early sign of spring. Foxgloves are one of the first plants to start growing aiming, I suppose, to get a head start on everything else.