Spring walks
23
May, 2002
Today I went for the Salmon Bothy walk. I was delighted to find that
the fulmars were back on the cliffs chuckling at each other. Less
than two weeks ago there were none to be seen and it is good to have
them again and know that the breeding season has begun. These strange,
very stiff-winged birds spend most of their time at sea, only coming
to land to breed. They use a rather novel way to defend themselves
on the cliffs by spitting an evil smelling oily substance at their
enemies. People who climb cliffs where they are know all about them!
The
wheatears are also back and I think that I spied a whinchat, but I
shall have to verify that one. So many birds seen appear just nondescript
little brown birds, and it is hard to memorise what you have to look
for to identify each species.
I
counted some 27 different plants in flower along this walk. It is
a habit begun when Nimrod was getting towards the end of his days
and walks took a very long time. In order to pass the time both Lance
and I would count flowering plants. This has made us aware of many
more flowers than we would normally note and has also encouraged us
to look up the names of those we don't know.
There
is a steep north facing bank along the walk which is still covered
with hundreds of pale yellow primroses and purple violets - lovely
sight. It seems to have been an especially good year for violets as
they seem to be in profusion everywhere. Now they are getting harder
to see as the grass begins to grow.
6th
May, 2002
Lance dropped me at the Crannoch car park (as he often does) so that
I could walk home with Bramble. Nothing untoward occurred until I
reached the road leading down to home. There I saw ahead of me two
crows behaving very oddly. I got the impression that first one and
then the other was chasing the other bird off and couldn't make any
sense of it until I got a bit nearer. Then I saw a very small figure
running up the side of the road. The two crows had indeed been warning
each other off! When I got closer still I could see that it was a
stoat carrying something in its mouth coming hell for leather towards
me. Without my glasses on I couldn't see exactly what it was carrying,
but something small. I know that stoats move house fairly frequently
so that it may have been a baby stoat, or it may have been a fledgling
bird. I shall never know because it suddenly became aware of what
it took to be even greater danger ahead of it, whipped round and belted
back down the road towards the crows and finally dived back into the
long grass of the verge. I had taken the precaution of grabbing Bramble's
collar, which was just as well and she was absolutely fascinated by
the smell of it. I had some trouble in persuading her that it was
not suitable prey!
29th
April, 2002
At last I have seen my first swallow of the season. It always takes
at least a week to 10 days after Clem sees them at home for me to
see them here.
23rd
April, 2002
Clem (our neighbour) predicted that the first swallows would arrive
here on or around St George's day. True to form he rang us today to
say that he had two around his house. I never see them first!
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