Roe Doe Encounter

I don't mind spending time waiting, watching, in the hope of seeing something interesting, as I did this morning when, on walking through Speckled Wood (on the left in this picture), I glimpsed a roe deer buck running along the fence that separates the wood from the field, so I felt there was a good chance he might have jumped it and hidden himself in the long grass. In the event, I didn't see him again, but, after waiting a few minutes....

....I saw a roe doe which appeared out of the grass and walked tentatively towards me....

...as if she was looking for, or expecting something.

....she stopped at a sound from the woods to my left, a bleating, rather like a lamb's but higher-pitched, before....

...advancing some more and then stopping again, spending a good ten minutes there, looking around, listening to the occasional call of what was evidently her kid before finally deciding....

....that it wasn't safe to approach any closer, when she turned away and went back to hide herself in....

....the long grass and cow parsley.

A Few Butterflies

This morning we walked one of our favourite walks, one which, when we lived at the other end of the village, we probably did three or four times a week - north along the coast path that heads for Wick and John o' Groats, a path which passes below Dunrobin Castle. These days we walk it far too rarely but we enjoy it because there are....

....a variety of different habitats along a relatively short section of path. This small open area, as well as being by far the coldest section in the winter months, is also the only place locally where we've found ringlet butterflies. Sadly, we didn't find any ringlets today - it's probably still too cold and breezy - but we did see the first....

....common blue of the year, a female.

We also saw a small skipper and, later, when we returned home....

....a rather moth-eaten red admiral.

We walked as far as the gate which leads out from the forestry which surrounds the castle into open farm fields, to find that recent erosion had almost undermined one of the gate posts, obliging the farmer, for safety's sake, to....

....knock down part of the wall to allow walkers easy access to his land.

We didn't see much in the way of wildlife. With the tide high, most of the shore birds were elsewhere though there were a few oystercatchers around, one of which, from the way it was sitting and moving the stones around it, might have been on its nest.

An Old Man

In 1988 my brother Richard (left) and his family flew from Australia to visit us in Maldon, one of the reasons being so that three of the grandchildren could be christened in our local church, All Saints. By that time my father was very frail so it was obvious that this would be the last time Richard would see him - and I think it was understood that, when Dad died, he would not fly thousands of mile to attend the funeral.

Because my  parents had moved from Hastings to Maldon so that we could be closer and be able to support each other, I saw a fair bit of my father as he deteriorated, less so physically than mentally. There were symptoms of this creeping old age. For example, when I was able to join him at the local pub for a beer or two, he would tell me the same stories, sometimes twice in the same session. At any other time this might have irritated me but it didn't; if he enjoyed telling and retelling those stories that was fine by me. However, when the day came that he felt unable to walk the few hundred yards for his daily beer we knew that the end was close.

In those last days, while he was nursed at home by my mother, he must have looked back on his life in which he had seen the world, and I do wonder what his thoughts were. For example, I wonder which part of his life, in retrospect, he most enjoyed, the part to which, were it possible, he would have most wanted to return. I would like to think that it was the years in Mombasa in the late fifties and early sixties when he was managing director of the import-export and ships's agency firm for which he had worked for many decades, when he was well known and well respected in the town, and when he was still able to be involved in the part of the business which he most enjoyed: dealing with ships.

Perhaps, though, it was the years just before he set out for Africa. I suggest this because he made it very clear that, when he retired, he would be returning to a life in England, to a good pub, some firm friends, and a chance to watch some county cricket - preferably Essex, for that was the team he had followed when he was a boy in Leytonstone.

I do hope that, in his last, declining months, he found comfort his memories, that he was able to look back with some satisfaction at a life well lived.

Excitement!

We spend a good proportion of every day outside, either in the garden or on a walk in the local countryside. At this time of year we would expect to be seeing butterflies but, with the weather continuing cold and the number of butterflies in serious decline, we haven't seen one in ten days.

So I hope you will understand my excitement at seeing a green-veined white in the garden this morning

Wildflower Hotspots

There are certain places which seem to be much richer in wildflower species than neighbouring, often very similar sites. This is one, where a narrow path branches off from the main forestry track that climbs to the summit of Bheinn Bhraggie. In this case, one factor in the proliferation of wildflowers may be the open aspect of the site.

Along with all the usual daisies, dandelions, buttercups, tormentil, eggs and bacon, more unusual flowers found within twenty-five metres of the junction include....

....yellow pimpernel. This is one of the only a few places locally where we find it, and it grows here in numbers. The yellow variety isn't as exciting as the scarlet - which we haven't found here - nor as rare as the blue which we searched for, unsuccessfully, when we lived in Suffolk.

I think this is heath speedwell but would be pleased if someone corrected me. It's an unassuming little plant but delicately beautiful, flowering in small numbers at this site.

In some ways bugle is very similar in structure but it's bigger and bolder. As with so many of these small wildflowers, bugle seems to have places it favours which are often quite far apart.

This is the unhappily-named lousewort., a flower which is very common out on the open moorland but more unusual in our local woods. This is the first lousewort we've found this year.

Lastly, this pretty flower is chickweed wintergreen or arctic starflower. It grows under the coniferous trees and along the sides of the paths, and is one of those flowers which occurs in patches some distance apart. At a glance it can easily be confused with word anemone or wood sorrel, both of which grow nearby in these woods.

Deer Hunting

Walking through Speckled Wood yesterday morning on our way down to the village we had brief sight of a roe buck deep in the shade of the young deciduous trees that form the wood, so today we came back in hunting mode, searching through that section much more warily, and had the pleasure of....

....a staring match with the same young buck.

He has obviously formed the habit of staying stock still when humans approach, not moving unless he's sure he's been spotted. Today he might not have moved at all had not a much younger roe deer which we hadn't spotted suddenly taken panic and precipitated him into jumping over the fence and disappearing into the field beyond.

I saw the buck again, but briefly, when I walked back later and was feeling very pleased with myself when I met a man walking his dog who told me that, yesterday, he'd seen no fewer than four roe deer at the same time in the same woodland, and was aware more generally of many more deer in the woods above our house. Which leaves us with the question, "Where did they all go through the winter when the more open views through the forestry should have made them much more visible?

Littleferry Walk

We drove to Littleferry this morning for the 10.30 low tide, finding the beach stripped of much of the sand which was there when we last visited - but then, that seems to be the pattern now, where....

....wind and sea conspire to make regular alterations to the strand line.

We saw precious little in the way of birds until, beautifully camouflaged amongst the cobbles, we spotted a small flock of mixed sanderlings and ringed plovers, just over twenty in all, of which the sanderlings took flight but the plovers simply stood still and were the devil to find - there are three in this picture.

As creatures of habit, we returned to the car by following the paths that criss-cross the links, finding more signs of the changing season with....

....the first bell heather in flower and....

....the first Littleferry northern marsh orchids: in a few weeks there'll be hundreds.