#30Days Wild - Day 6

Day 6 #30DaysWild

Our walk on the wild side today was this evening, down along the shore below the house. I wanted to see how the wild flowers were coming on, along the cliffs and in the wetter areas below the raised beach, at sea level.  It was a good opportunity to storm watch too, as it has been pretty windy today, cold and wet at times too.

It was an absolute joy to walk through the fields even though it was very cold. Discovering these beauties again, like meeting old friends, albeit transitory ones.

Common Twayblade.

Pea vetch pod.

Melancholy thistle.

Water avens.

Protected from the wind.

Waves coming onto the stony beach at the Ensay burn mouth.

Waves rolling up the Ensay burn mouth.

Bluebells.

Pignut.

Water avens.

Sea campion.

The ferns down here are wonderful.

Sea thrift.

Water avens.

Stonecrop.

Red campion under the hazels.

And finally the sun appears just as it sets.

#30DaysWild Day 5

Day 5 of the #30DaysWild Challenge, and I am not sure I succeeded today, my time on the wild side was quite short... 

We woke up late, slept through the alarm!  We havent done that ever before!  Miraculously Daughter was out of bed and into the car in record time, for a nippy drive in to Tobermory.  We got there just as the school bus was arriving!   It was trying to rain.

We had arranged to go and meet some neighbours whose house is down a rough track.  We abandoned our car and walked the last bit in the, by then, pouring rain.  As we sat and drank coffee tasting delicious freshly baked cinnamon bread, we watched the clouds slowly peel back and reveal the blue blue sky underneath.  We came outside to discover this heavenly view.

Back home and the clouds won the battle over the blue sky and we had a torrential hail storm late afternoon.  

My walk on the wild side was going to have to be in Tobermory in the evening.  This large buoy was covered with barnacles and tiny mussels.

On the Fishermen's pier last year, there was a gull nesting so we went to see if it was nesting here again. There was no sign of a nest this evening, though this pesky gull was on the scrounge.  Just out of shot a man was eating fish and chips from the chip van and it was eyeing up his chips! 

Having failed to grab any chips, it flew over to see what pickings there were on the fishing boats. 

There was no sign of the Otter which has been seen over the last few days in the bay.   The wind is getting up again now, with the heavy cloud in the sky, it is already dark. I hope we still have apple blossom on the trees once this storm has passed.

#30DaysWild Day 4

#30DaysWild day 4.  

A friendly chaffinch came very close at the bus stop as I got out of the car with the dog this morning. 

The sea was calm today, and the light very grey and flat.  Oystercatchers worked the strewn seaweed on the tide line, jumping ahead of us as we walked.  Quiet, no alarm calls, no fuss.

Two female Eider duck took to the water as we got towards the far end of the beach.  That air of calm, and stillness on the surface, but with their legs paddling like crazy under water!

Back home, and time for Day 4 on the wild side.  I had some software to install, which would enable me to operate my camera remotely.  The Redpolls have been around for a few weeks now, Prasad has identified at least one of them as a Common Redpoll. I don't know if one of the ones I have photographed might be Common, I certainly don't know enough to be able to tell.  I am delighted enough just to assume they are the more common Lesser Redpoll, and enjoy their visits.   As I was setting the camera up they allowed me to come quite close before they flew off.

We have been enjoying the presence of Greenfinches and Siskins too over the last few weeks.  There are dozens of Chaffinch, who eat their way through almost a metre of bird feeder a day!

I tried a different angle on the bird feeder and was up very close.  It was probably too close as they seemed to feed off the other side, as if to keep away from the tripod.

There has been a Hooded crow around all day today, I think he is working his way into the hen run to see if he can pinch an egg or two. 

On the farm, Farmer was out checking sheep and the cows, testing out his new wellies!  Then some mundane pothole filling whilst I did book keeping. 

I doubt we will have another sunset like the spectacular one we had last night, but I will go out and enjoy some wild time in the grey evening light instead. 

#30DaysWild Day 3

#30DaysWild Day 3.. searching for an unusual fern takes me out today, for my time in the wild.  

Fledgling sparrows in the steading, sitting stock still, so we won't see them. They were completely still and totally silent. 

My time out in the wild today was along the coast towards Port Haunn.  It is such a relief to have a warmer day and lots of bright sunshine.

We go together after breakfast. Farmer needs to check the sheep and I am looking for Adder's Tongue fern along the coast. I have never seen it although we know it to be there, and it looks like an amazing plant.  We don't find, but it doesn't matter because we see lots of other things, and enjoy the searching.

This pile of stones is possibly a Viking burial ground overlooking the Treshnish Isles.

This crab shell is someone else's breakfast.  An otter perhaps?  The claws were lying near by.

The cliffs are covered in brave clumps of flowers at the moment - Roseroot, Sea campion, Thrift, and even Bluebells.  It always surprises me seeing bluebells so close to the sea and so far from obvious remains of woodland.

This mound of verdant green leaves were growing in a boggy bit of ground at the foot of the raised beach cliffs.  I don't know what it is and did'nt make time to really look at it, so I will have to go back another day. Perhaps tomorrow!

This spout cave reminds me of an eye, the seam of rock to its left could be a nose.

The burn that cuts across the raised beach above us, tumbles over the edge of the cliff and somehow the water turns blue.

Catching the sun.

Roseroot.

A last look at the Thrift which seems to grow out of nowhere, clinging on and flowering beautifully. 

#30DaysWild Day 2

#30DaysWild Day 2.

A beach 'wild' this morning before heading back into the office.  The tidelines are littered with rough cut logs, washed up on the storm, and zigzag seaweed trails dusted with sand carried by the wind.

The sea was noisy this morning.  Calming slowly down after the storms yesterday.  Crashing in to the beach and casting its spume at its constantly changing edge.  Glimpses of sunshine, with blue sky, reflecting on the wet sand.  Oyster catchers work the waves.  Today I stop and watch them. They almost bounce as they walk.  Dipping their heads into the sand and the surf.  Almost constantly moving.

I am sad to see a Gannet washed up on the tide. My favourite sea bird. We watch them from the house, so brightly white against the sea, the first thing you notice, looking for the black wing tips to verify their identity and of course that sharp mid air stall and lightning dive.  How yellow its head, and how thick and strong the beak still looks.

My first jellyfish of the season washed up.  Starlings scouring the seaweed washed up the beach, and some small birds I cannot identify without binoculars.

The parcel of Oystercatchers move up and down the beach. Wheatears are almost too busy to land, but they do, and quickly take off again, their call barely heard above the sound of the sea. I can imagine it though.

A lone camping Frenchman waves as we pass at a distance on the beach.  Later I talk to him and commiserate about the weather, it must have been windy in his camper van last night.  Yes and cold, he said.  He comes to Mull every 3 or 4 years.  His wife hates Scotland, but he loves it, and comes on his own.  He seemed happy in spite of the cold.  As was I.

#30DaysWild - Day 1

#30DaysWild is a fantastic idea from The Wildlife Trusts - to engage people of all ages in nature and in being out in the wild. I only heard about it indirectly, last night - and it started today! I liked the sound of something which makes me focus on wildlife and my experiences, so I signed up. You can too!

There was a call for bloggers to get involved too, so here I am - writing my first #30DaysWild blog.  I will try and write a blog every day of June, relating something wild.

I suppose there is a danger this won't feel very different to my usual blogging, but I decided I will use the month to be mindful of what I am seeing and make sure I really take time to 'be'. The other thing I will do is make sure I learn more about what I am seeing. All too often I see something, recognise it but cannot remember its name - particularly flowers!  So this month I will come home and look up those mysteries!

Thinking #30DaysWild this morning, when Farmer had to go and check the grazing in the field by the graveyard I went with him. For today's walk in the wild. 

There had been a tiny patch of blue sky earlier but it was quickly obscured by the grey stormy clouds, and a rising wind. The bluebells seem to be more intense this year, perhaps because it has been so cold.  These patches were a welcome bit of colour on this wet and grey morning.  

There is not as much grass growth as usual in the fields, but this is not surprising given how cold May was.

It was a lovely surprise to see Common Twayblade coming up, some tiny ones and then these ones. They are often difficult to spot, until you get your eye in and then they can appear to be everywhere.

The only pheasants here on the farm are refugees from a few places where pheasants are 'put down' for shooting. This is a safe haven for them, as they won't be shot here.  This pheasant egg has been stolen from a nest by the looks of things.

We walked back up to the house through the woodland.  This is unfurled Marsh marigold, growing in perfect damp habitat!

This was my first 'oh I recognise this, what is it again?' and when we got back to the house I looked it up - in a very lazy way. I googled 'white woodland flower out now'.  The first result was from the Natural History Museum. It is Woodruff.

As I write, it is really wild outside. The wind is forecast to get up to 60mph tonight. A lot of our trees will suffer, as they are now in leaf, and the salt blowing off the sea will burn them.  We will see tomorrow...