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Showing posts with the label Great Crested Grebe

A town like Alyth

At this time of year, it is nigh on impossible to suppress the urge for dappled sunlight through Beech leaves. Add in a wide, shallow burn, sinuously flowing through the scene and the only option is to give in to temptation.  We found a woodland car park at the Den o' Alyth, set off on a circuitous path through the valley, with the plan to make the mid point of the walk a lunch stop in the town of Alyth itself. Dipper A female Mallard On a woodland bench, a Common Footman moth caterpillar, a teeny-tiny forager of algae and lichen Breathe... Let the tension gently subside As well as lovely views of Dipper, we had seen several Grey Wagtails, as they hunted for invertebrates along the burn. During one of our frequent pauses, letting the tranquillity seep into our souls, Megan suddenly exclaimed, "There's a Grey Wagtail up in that tree!" Stood a few feet away, I was unsighted by another tree trunk, so was initially sceptical, especially when a Great Tit flew out of the ap...

Heading south

Summer is a tricky time for my partner, Megan, to take a holiday as this is when she is busiest with Wild Orkney Walks . For the past few years, we have been gently edging our Summer holiday date forward and shortening the time away, so as to reduce the impact upon her business during the tourist season. This year we took our Summer holiday at the end of April, a week in a cottage in rural East Anglia with walks from the door and plenty of opportunity to feed Megan's life list with birds and mammals. En route, we visited or met up with various members of my family, and we reduced the driving a little by catching the ferry to and from Aberdeen, saving three hours of motoring in both directions. We still managed to rack up 1500 miles, which is a lot of potholes, and often felt like we were in an episode of Wacky Races, especially in Englandshire. Due to transport and accommodation logistics, we left Orkney at midnight on a Wednesday, a really strange time to begin a holiday, I though...