An Unexpected First

We set off this morning to walk to Loch Lunndaidh, which is about two miles from our house up a gravel track - which wouldn't be too bad except that the track is uphill almost all the way to the loch.

The purpose of the expedition - I always have to have some sort of objective - was to see if any dragon- or damsel- flies were on the wing yet, which they weren't, but we saw other firsts of considerable note, including....

....something lying in our path which turned out to be....

....the first adder since our days on Ardnamurchan, where they were not uncommon in the summer months, biting the occasional sheep or cow, and killing one or two dogs.

I have a lot of time for adders as they are both beautiful and sadly misunderstood, with many being killed quite unnecessarily. This one was an absolute beauty, a young one 18" long and very up for a fight, hissing at me until, photos taken, I backed off and let him slip away into the heather.

This was an unexpected first of the year, one of two heath spotted orchids. Usually, our first orchid is a northern marsh, and not seen until late May.

The wildflowers are particularly evident along one section of the track, where a ditch has a constant supply of water. There we found....

....common butterwort in large numbers and....

....what I think was heath milkwort, this growing in a steep bank which had dried to the consistency of concrete.

Happily, the return walk from the loch was much easier, being largely downhill and including some stops for a few more of the wildflowers now in bloom - including this cuckoo flower.