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. |
An absolutely cracking day aand another hard walk, but wow! It was hot, so priority was getting up high to hopefully find a breeze, as well as taking plenty of water for all of us, but especially Rocky. The track from the coast leads gently up onto the flank of Beinn Bheigier where it steepens to gain the ridge that runs to the sumit. It's a belting ridge! Part of the reason it was hard though, was the likelyhood of Adders - for Rocky, so bless him, as we made our way along narrow paths he walked behind me - just incase....and yes we saw Adders. The highlight apart from the views was seeing Thrift fully out and on the mountain top. Something that is always nice to see.
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| Looking back down to the wooded coast - ' lovely to hear so many Cuckoos calling. |
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| The track to the base of the mountain. |
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| Gaining height nad some spectacular Fir Clubmoss. |
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| More Fir Clubmoss - the ground is so dry! |
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| Club mosses with a view... |
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| Towards the top clumps of Thrift were in flower- nice! |
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| Looking across to Jura..... |
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| Then looking along the summit ridge. |
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| Summit views. |
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| What I think is patterned ground - a periglacial feature caused by freeze/thaw cycles. |
