Wildlife Along the Shore

The shores of the North Sea may be unseasonably bleak but at least the temperatures are better today, with 18C showing as we set off this morning to walk along the coast in search of old acquaintances. We found some shore birds, including cormorants, herons, eider and terns along with....

....several noisy oystercatchers - this one so unconcerned by our approach that it remained standing on one leg.

It was good also to see this ringed plover, a species which has been in short supply, particularly when we spotted the reason for its unwillingness to fly away........

....a single youngster making little effort to conceal itself amongst the rocks. 

We're taking part in the Big Butterfly Count and didn't expect to find any on the wing that early in the morning and in quite a stiff breeze but were pleasantly surprised to spot four common blues along the path at the back the beach.

Hot & Cold

The ports we visited during our holiday in the western Mediterranean had lunchtime temperatures in the very acceptable mid to upper twenties. We now have to adapt to life on....

....the bleak coastline of eastern Sutherland where we're thrilled if the mercury hauls itself above 16C, but at least this area seems to have escaped....

....the avian carnage along the beaches of Aberdeenshire to the south of us, where over a thousand dead seabirds have been collected for disposal in the last few days. On our local beach we found just one, this sad gull. On the positive side too we're not facing the prospect of runaway temperatures of the sort being experienced at the moment in places we visited in Spain and Italy only a few days ago, where people are broiling in temperatures over 40C.

Tropical Flower Memories

We don't use the excursions offered - at some price - by the cruise company when we dock at the ports of call but prefer to wander in the centre of town to find the 'feel' of the place and enjoy the memories which such warmer parts often bring. So, for example, in Lisbon we found bougainvillea in full bloom, recalling the bougainvilleas of Mombasa and the ones around our small bungalows in Rhodesia, in which the cats found snakes, and Jamaica.

However, perhaps the most amusing find....

....was when, near the dock gates in Naples, we stumbled across a lantana bush in full bloom. The lantana is a sort of verbena, of which we have two varieties growing in our garden here in Scotland, but it's a tropical plant which, while native to Africa and the Americas, has been introduced, and run wild in, much of the tropical world. In Mombasa it was used as....

....a hedging plant - the hedge beyond the bird bath in the front garden of our last Cliff Avenue house was lantana. It, like the Rhodesian bougainvillea, often housed snakes.

The flowers produce a hard green fruit which we used to stick in the end of an air gun instead of a metal pellet: if it hit bare skin it gave a nasty sting but didn't penetrate. I know - aren't small boys horrible!

Home

With neither seed nor peanuts in the feeders most of our garden birds had deserted us during our absence, though they were quick enough to return once the food was available again; within a day we'd seen sparrows, chaffinches, greenfinches, dunnocks, blue and great tits, blackbirds, jackdaws (with very demanding young in tow), and collared doves, the main absentees being the coal tits - I hope to change this as there are now sunflower seed feeders out for their exclusive use.

One of the first birds we checked on our return was the pair of house martins nesting under the gable end of the house. The parents are very busy back and forth so, although we haven't seen them, we're fairly certain they have young in their well-built nest.

For the first couple of days of our return, the Highlands were kind to us, with sunny days and warm nights - which was just as well as, after two weeks on the ship, we'd grown accustomed to temperatures above 25C. In the sunshine the bees were busy on what I call our prawn plant, along with a few hover flies, but the insect population as a whole is significantly down. During those two warm days I spotted only one butterfly. Perhaps they knew that....

....the weather was about to turn, with a very damp northwesterly bringing heavy rain and a threat of thunderstorms.

Ocean Wildlife

One of the greatest pleasures of being at sea is simply watching the ocean in all its moods. I spent hours on our recent trip leaning against the balcony rail thinking of very little, relaxing, and keeping half an eye open for any passing wildlife. There was some, including....

....a number of small pods of dolphins but, like these ones seen off Portugal, they passed the ship by, never turning to swim with it or gambol in its bow-wave. Perhaps, travelling at over twenty knots, they knew it was too fast for them; perhaps they had already encountered big ships like ours and had a healthy respect for it.

We sighted few whales, this one part of a small pod passing through Strait of Gibraltar. In addition, we saw jellyfish and seaweed, and....

....a few seabirds, like this gannet.

It is difficult to compare the sightings on this trip with those of the past but my impression was that the oceans are worryingly depleted. I can remember scores of dolphins and large pods of whales, and seabirds in masses around bait fish - but maybe these are the imaginings of an old man.

The Pillars of Hercules

We've just returned from a cruise in the western Mediterranean passing twice between the two great blocks of rock - Jabal Ṭāriq (Mount Tarik), our Gibraltar, and Jebel Moussa on the Moroccan side - known as the pillars of Hercules. This meeting place of two great continents and two seas is one I have visited often enough before, usually by sea when passing to and from East Africa but also....

....by land, when crossing from Spain to Morocco and back in 1962 on my abortive attempt to return to Rhodesia.

Gibraltar is always spectacular, particularly when one is passing it in the early morning on a glass-still day. We stopped for six hours on the way back when the midday heat rose into the upper twenties, and amused ourselves by sitting at a pavement cafe to watch crowds of tourists go by and comment on the Spanish-ness of everything - except the red pillar boxes and policemen in British-bobby helmets.

Shortly after leaving Gibraltar for Southampton I had what was a memorable moment, what is likely to be, for me, a last glimpse of the mainland of Africa, the continent which I consider to have so influenced my life.

Orchids

This morning we walked the steep uphill of the track that runs from Drummuie towards Loch Lunndaidh in muggy weather and under a sky which well illustrated the forecast for later today. The lower section which passes through mixed woodland, was....

....full of birdsong, and we stopped for a few minutes to watch the antics of this warbler family, possibly willow warblers.

We've found orchids along this track in previous years but this year is special. There were masses of very pale heath spotted orchids and perhaps even more....

....of what I think are marsh fragrants which Mrs MW, who has a better nose than I, declared to be wonderfully scented.

Time was when we would have cheerfully continued on to the loch itself but these days we have to be more careful, stopping at the point where the track emerges onto open moorland to sit on a convenient rock and look out at a view that stretched across Loch Fleet towards the distant Ross-shire hills.