Balranald in the rain...Good sea!

 A rather soggy day, so in the afternoon a walk round the nature trail...some spectacular waves! 

Grey skies...

Lapwing.

Kidney Vetch.

..and a few waves....

..and back, in the rain, to the pod.

Tobha Mor

Tobha Mor lies just west of Loch Druidibeag and has been an important eclesiastic settlement since Mediaeval times. There is still a church there and the remains of four chapels. The thatched cottages in the 'village' are a tourist attraction in their own right as is the beach. We, however,  chose to walk between the beach and village to look for the Lesser Butterfly-orchid...and to do a field sketch - those will be blogged later!

Behind the beach...

Lesser Butterfly-orchid ...and below.

Looking inland.

Newly re-thatched...

RSPB Loch Druidibeag

After a few days we became all beached out! A walk in the hills was called for and while the weather wasn't conducive to going up anything the RSPB's guided trail at Loch Druidibeag gave us a good walk out. 

Bog Pimpernel.

Oblong-leaved Sundew, Drosera intermedia.

Round-leaved Sundew, Drosera rotundifolia.

Breezy!

Heath Spotted-orchid.

Bog Asphodel.

A detour through a nice bit of woodland which looked ideal for Lesser Twayblade...

On the return to the car we also had a long fly past of a White-tailed Eagle.

Berneray

After visiting Clachan Sands we headed up to Berneray - again beautiful flowers and beaches! Corn Marigolds and Poppies - beautiful! 

... and a random Red Deer stag ...on the roadside on the way back.

Clachan Sands (2) In search of the Hebridean Marsh-Orchid

Apart from the beach at Clachan Sands being beautiful, I wanted to go and see if I could find the Hebridean Marsh-orchid. Now, that may sound simple, but it is the nomenclature of this orchid that makes it hard! To quote from the Wild Guides Britain's Orchids book by Sean Cole and Mike Waller (which is an absolutely superb book and highly recommended):

I quote, 'Hebridean Marsh-orchid Dactylorhiza ebudensis. In 2000, a small population of stocky, richly coloured marsh-orchids on the machair of North Uist (Outer Hebrides) were assigned species rank as Hebridean Marsh-orchid D. ebudensis. However, Bateman (2012) reclassified these orchids as Pugsley's Marsh-orchid D. traunsteinerioides' ssp francis-drucei vaar edudensis.'

The book then goes into further detail, but I'll leave that for now. So armed with said book and various photos of what is apparently the Hebridean Marsh-orchid we headed off into a superb area where there were abundant orchids of many kinds and undoubtedly their hybrids. I found two likely candidates which have since been given the thumbs up as probably Hebridean Marsh-orchids. 

..and specimen 2....

Clachan Sands (I)

A glorious start to the day, with good views of three different Short-eared Owls on the way over the Committee Road. We then parked up and headed for beach at Clachan Sands. Wow!

Abundant Frog Orchids.

Happy Rocky!

More machair.

Patterns in the sand...

It's amazing how nature creates such beautiful art that we have no chance of repeating ...a wind blown spot - as I found out when I sat down to paint!