Rowans

I walked up this forest track yesterday in search of berries, in particular rowan berries as these are the favourites of the migrant birds from the north which arrive around this time - fieldfare and redwings in particular. It's early for them, but their arrival dates depend on how quickly they exhaust the berry crop in places like Scandinavia where they've spent the summer. Certainly, the crop here....

....is a good one, with many rowans sagging under the weight of their fruit.

Sadly, I didn't see anything feeding on the rowans so concentrated my enjoyment on the flowers growing in the recently-cut verges, one of which....

....is one of my favourites, the beautifully named devil's-bit scabious. Only a few of the summer's blooms are still there, fading as winter approaches, while, to my surprise, some plants....

....are just coming into flower - at this time of year! This is gorse, more and more of it bursting into its yellow blooms as winter approaches.

I walked up the track until I reached the gate in the fence which, at one time, was the boundary between the artificial forestry to the right and the wild, open moor to the left. No longer, as the open land I so loved was planted, mainly with conifer, a couple of years ago, the area fenced, and the red deer we used to watch expelled - or shot - from the new plantation.

I walked too far, but the sun was so warm, the sky blue, the wind light, and the unfolding track beckoned. Time was when I could have carried on up to the cleared clachan of Loch Lunndaidh, but not any more so, very reluctantly but sensibly, I turned back, arriving home exhausted after a two-and-a-half hour walk.