Saturday 31 May 2014

Up a hill just to see the view...

A bit of a favourite pastime when we're up here, that. And yesterday was a bit of a favourite hill, too - Rueval, on Benbecula. It doesn't start well this - the directions for the walk when you first read about it start with "Park next to the landfill site"...thankfully this isn't as grim as it sounds, and in any event you soon leave it behind. Once you get to the top and get this view, it's well worth it anyway...


We've walked right out along that track you see there - it ends up at a deserted settlement on the East Coast of the island but we've not made it quite that far yet. There's plenty to see before you start up the hill too...lots of birds for a start...


The RSPB Raptor walks used to be held here - we'd walk out along that track for an hour, stopping every so often to see what was about, and even if we didn't see much in the way of birds of prey (although we've seen everything from Short Eared Owls to Golden Eagles in the past) there were always lots of smaller birds to see - last year there were Stonechats everywhere!

Once up the hill it was the plant life that first caught our eye - with this lovely little Orchid standing out...


...A Heath Spotted Orchid we believe - there is also a Hebridean species, but this doesn't quite look right for that. The amount of wildflowers here at this time of year are just breakthtaking - the machair is covered in a beautiful carpet of daisies, birds foot trefoil and tiny little pansies, while the moors have tormentil, marsh cotton and lousewort and milkwort. Boggier areas are covered in marsh marigolds, and the ditches are full of Iris.  it's amazing, because looking at this view...


...you'd think there was very little colour in the landscape, wouldn't you!

Robyn

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