Natural highs and lows

It may have been apparent from my previous post that Megan and I have recently spent some time outwith the county. Once again, we took our Summer holiday in a self-catering let on the outskirts of Blairgowrie in Perthshire, but this time for two weeks, the better to soak up the ambience of trees and rivers, as well as a wealth of birdsong. So how did a fortnight's wildlife watching go? Well, the weather was just peachy, barely a drop of rain, with the only persistent precipitation occurring on Day 15 during the drive home through Sutherland and Caithness. We explored nature reserves from Loch Fleet to the Tay Reedbeds, sauntered along riverbanks, through woods and by fast-flowing burns, eyes and ears open for plant and animal life. It could be said that this is a bit of a bus-person's holiday for Megan, what with her job as a wildlife guide, but finding things she's never seen before or witnessing different behaviours are just as exciting as ever. Caledonia did not disappoi...

As may have been discerned from the comments at the end of the previous blogpost, we have been away on our "Summer" holiday, fortuitously discovering some balmy weather but sadly missing out on a serendipitous meet-up with Mark, the beinn bicycling bard of Blogger . Whilst he and Deb were pedalling by our home in Stromness, Megan and I were driving by their holiday accommodation near Melvich. For 2025, our holiday location was Blairgowrie, on the south west side of the River Ericht in Perth and Kinross. This was a little further south than our usual jaunts but, as the meteorology proved, was certainly near enough to the Equator for this scribe. The journey down through northern Scotland and the Cairngorms was done in several sections, with overnight stays in Dornoch and Aboyne, before finally arriving in leafy and blossomy Blairgowrie. Whenever the narrowness of the road or the speed limit dictated that we keep below 40mph, the car windows were opened and we listened intently...

Crivens! We've been back from holiday for more than three weeks and I still haven't finished my round-up of goings-on. The month of May is impatiently drumming its fingers on the table top of life and exasperatedly wondering just when it will have its moment in the spotlight. So let's sum up the last few days of our sojourn to the Cairngorm area and the trip home. Although there was an abundance of wildlife around our rented cottage, for the final day of our holiday, we decided to go further afield, and drove via Tomintoul and the Lecht Road to the Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve. En route, we stopped off for breakfast at an excellent roadside cafe near Corgarff, and we can recommend the black pudding and egg rolls. The Nature.scot website has this to say about the Muir of Dinnet reserve: " The sheer variety of habitats and landforms makes this an amazing place for wildlife and people alike." Which is good enough for us, we needed no further encouragement....