With a clear patch of weather - we could see out to sea and the mountains attracting any cloud, we headed to RSPB Loch Druidibeg on South Uist, for a more upland walk...
 |
| A view of the mountains before they disappeared. |
 |
| Royal fern gives the islands a distinctive hue. |
 |
| Oblong-leaved Sundew Drosera intermedia |
 |
| Lousewort. |
 |
| Windswept and rugged. |
 |
| I couldn't decide - the pic above or this one ...so they both go in! |
 |
| Black Bog-rush. |
 |
| Heath Spotted-orchid. |
 |
| Nice textures and colours. |
It's always nice to see Short-eared owls in the Hebrides. This one circled round before landing on a trackside post...
A pleasant evening walk - with many Sanderling.
 |
| 'Stinky Bay' - plenty of washed up seaweed. |
 |
| The shore was alive with Sanderling. |
 |
| Off they go. |
 |
| Turnstone - so well camouflaged it wasn't worth putting the photos on - at least you can see it against the rock! |
 |
| Eider Ducks - beginning to go into eclipse. |
 |
| Dunlin. |
 |
| Sea Campion. |
 |
| A colourful mix. |
 |
| Common Gull chicks... |
 |
| Looking back. |
 |
| The Yellow Flag Iris is just coming onto flower. |
 |
| A patchwork of sandy fields. |
Continuing our walk along the peninsular north of Solas, we stopped at some well preserved wheel houses before heading back through more machair fields to the coast and beach...
 |
| The tombolo. |
 |
| A tombolo is a depositional landform that connects an island to land, or another island. |
 |
| The wheel house. |
 |
| Another Moss Carder. |
 |
| More Primroses... |
 |
| ...and more flowers! |
 |
| The sun made a brief appearance ..... |
 |
| Giving those colours... |
 |
| Then we got damp! |
 |
| And the cloud cleared. |
With a 'reasonable' forecast we headed out to Traigh Iar and Traigh Ear, the peninsular just north of Solas. A nice round walk with spectacular machair flowers ...and we almost stayed dry!
 |
| The walk begins by at the back of Traigh Ear where there is a small carpark. |
 |
| It then heads to the dunes...with the usual abandoned vehicles and implements. |
 |
| The Primroses were spectacular - up above; a White-tailed Sea Eagle. |
 |
| A Moss Carder Bee disappearing down its hole. |
 |
| Painted Lady. |
 |
| Some colourful Bird's-foot Trefoil. |
 |
| Fields of flowers... |
 |
| Primroses on the uncultivated grassland adjacent to the field of Mountain Pansies, Stork's-bill sp and Daisies ...in amongst stubble. |
 |
| Also in the field...Rue-leaved Saxifrage. |
 |
| Garden Tiger Moth caterpillar. |
