Three Habitats

This morning's was one of our favourite walks, from the Littleferry road through the conifer plantation to Loch Unes where....

....the bogbean is in full flower. Along the sides of the track though the woods the first....

....damselflies were taking advantage of sunny spots on the gorse flowers, all large reds.

From the woodland we came out onto the links where two species of violet are in their prime....

....the unhappily named dog violet and....

....the pretty Viola tricolor or heartsease.

From the links we emerged onto the shore, the tide low exposing a beach....

....much changed by the winter's storms, shingle being dominant along extensive sections while long sandbanks extended offshore parallel to the beach.

We saw hardly anything along the beach in the way of wildlife: a ringed plover worrying about its nest at the back of the beach, a couple of oystercatchers, three eider, two seals, some gulls and several crows. Most of the birds, one assumes, are off nesting but I can't recall walking this beach as empty as it was today.