Our final full day and a return to the Oa in better weather and another look at the orchids...
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| Heath Spotted x Northern Marsh Orchid. |
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| Grass of Parnassus ..looking straight down on it as the light was so bright that without the shade it was too bright to photograph. |
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| Heath Spotted x Northern Marsh Orchid. |
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| Northern Marsh Orchid. |
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| Lesser Butterfly Orchids. |
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| Bog Asphodel. |
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| Heath Spotted x Northern Marsh Orchid. |
The beach at Saligo is stunning - one of the most spectacular beaches I know. But first, the beck near where we park provided good views of Beautiful Demoiselles and also one of my favourite plants - the Branched Bur-reed. The latter provided inspiration for a piece of fused glass - which is currently in the kiln.
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| Female and male Beautiful Demoiselles. |
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| Branched Bur-reed. |
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| And the beach... |
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| The view - 'Sydney Opera House', in the distance. |
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| Previously when we have visited it's been grey and misty or blowing a gale - this was idyllic! |
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| The folding in the rocks was superb, but it was so hot that every time I tried to take a photo Rocky lay down in front of the rock to find some shade! |
Just a few of the invert's we saw on our walk....
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| A recently emerged Golden-ringed Dragonfly. You can see its shed skin too. |
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| Golden-ringed Dragonfly. |
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| Small Copper. |
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| Argent and Sable Moth. |
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| Common Blue Butterfly. |
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| A pair of Drinker Moths. |
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| Green Tiger Beetle |
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| Dark Green Fritillary. |
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| Common Blue. |
It is rare that you have time to sit and watch three Otters, that are totally unaware of you.
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| Whilst sat having lunch.... |
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| There was activity in the bay... |
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| And then they came out onto the rocks. |
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| They then disappeared briefly...enabling us to move closer... |
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| And off they went... |
A trip over to Jura and a long walk along the coast. Despite Rocky's attempts to avoid the ferry as a foot passenger, we made land and headed along the coast to Inver Lodge. This 19th Century Hunting Lodge has been substantially restored and looks fabulous. Then we made our way inland along the track and headed out to the beaches. These are splendid and lie between a series of dykes - igneous intrusions. The beaches are made of Maerl, which is a hard coralline algae, that is sensitive to sediment and climate change (it is decreasing in its distribution) as well as sand and shell. The beaches are white and we always enjoy our traditional Cowrie hunt there! While looking for Cowries we were lucky enough to spend a good length of time watching three Otters, swimming and hunting in the bay before they came onto land - that's the next blog! Then a rough walk back down the coast across beaches, dykes and cliff tops before dropping down to another glorious beach, backed by a stunning raised beach and then back to the ferry. A long but superb day.
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| On the Jura ferry. |
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| Pale Butterwort. |
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| Skullcap. |
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| Inver. |
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| The Paps. |
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| Great Sundew (Drosera anglica) |
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| The coral beaches.... |
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| Spot the Cowries! |
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| A spectacular wall of dyke. |
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| Black Guillemots. |
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| Caves at the beach back. |
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| Unbranched Bur-reed in one of the cliff top lochans. |
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| Heading back. |
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| Raised beach - a vast expanse! |
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| Sea Urchin. |
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| Looking inland over the raised beach. |
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| Lichens on the raised beach cobbles. |
