Cairngorms Life

Computer still working, which is a surprise as I fixed it. Not sure what will be on offer but the Glen seems to be coming alive with wild flowers, so that’s how I will start the blog off.

The first image is of just a farmers field showing off the diversity of organic, natural fields. The Daises and Buttercups are in abundance and for some reason remind me of Julie Andrews singing “The Hills Are Alive” in the Sound of Music.

One thing the heathland on our daily walk is full of are Orchids, this one is a Spotted Heath Orchid. Now most of you will know that normally these are pale pink but in Glen Fender a vast majority of them are this deeper near purple colour. Though the same plant as the pink one it is believed but not proven that it might be a hybrid, mixed with the Northern Spotted Orchid. On todays walk we must have seen well over 50 of them.

Had the moth trap out last night as it was forecast to be dry, only caught four moths, could not understand why only four as we had had a warm sunny day before . Then I looked at my out door minimum / maximum thermometer and saw why, can you believe three days away from the longest day and the temperature last night went down to FOUR degrees Celsius.

Now I know this is a member of the Hawk Moth family, but being new to identifying them I am not sure which. It could be a Striped Hawk Moth, but that has a but that has a different thorax, or it could be a Eyed hawk Moth which has the pink hindwing, but my species does not have the eyes on that pink? So I shall have to send the shot off to an expert and come back to you with what type it is.

We have many different coloured Aquilegia in the garden, pink, white, interbred between the two, but by far the best of all of them are these elegant yellow ones. I think one of the main things it has going for it is the fact that it hangs at this angle allowing you to see the beauty of it where the other colours just hang down and you have to falsely lift them and prop them up in order to get a decent shot of them. One thing about the whole family is that the bees really love them, especially Bumble Bees.

An important day on the calendar today, yes it is Fathers Day here in the U.K. As usual my two “boys” didn’t forget and one gave me a very generous Amazon gift card (which 2/3rds I have spent) for me to buy some much needed fishing gear. The other gave me a photographers light box, which is exactly what it says on the tin. A polycarbonate box with a ring of LED lights in the top, to enable me to shoot all sorts of different things with 6 different coloured backgrounds. Hopefully it will be helpful to photograph my moths in it, but by way of an experiment I took shots of the different backdrops using this yellow rose as a tester & the black background seemed to suit the shot best.

As way of a added bonus today I have added the two shots below. Whilst having a “happy Fathers Day chat with one of my sons at 8.30 at night, look what strolled into the garden. The Hybrid Wildcat that we had only seen on the trail camera , very alert and aware that I had grabbed the camera, it stayed just long enough for me to grab some shots. I and my son on the other end of the phone got really excited and as soon as we had finished chatting I had to send him then shots. As much as I loved the presents and cards from my boys, this was a moment I shall never forget. Have sent the shots off to the study group as well.

The eyes were piercing and it spent most of the time just staring at me.

As the Pyracanthia comes into flower, so the Bees and wasps descend on it in their drones, while photographing this Buff Tailed Bumble Bee there must have been ten others in the vicinity of the hedge row. The noise is incredible if you are sitting in that part of the garden that is all you can hear, I presume they are so noisy because of the size of those little wings that have to propel that big fat body around, they certainly seem out of proportion to the body.

I started off this blog with a field of Buttercups and Daisies and have walked in our garden and discovered by the pond these Buttercups that I think are on steroids. Though I must admit they look terrific when & I repeat when, the sunshine’s on them . It is a surprise to me that anything is still alive in the garden as overnight at some point the temperature went down to exactly zero C, even for us that sort of temperature, for the middle of June is a bit extreme.

Found this unusual Beetle on the garage door, it looks like it has no head, was not aware about what it was as not really up on my Beetles ( only the Liverpool Fab Four, I know they are spelt differently ) . So asked on a forum and soon got the answer, which when you look at it the name is obvious, it’s a Rhinoceros Beetle. Apparently fairly rare this far North, guess that is another sign of climate change, species are moving further North.

Well this certainly has been a second half of the month I will never forget. Firstly we had never seen a Wildcat apart from on the trail camera and it turns up in daylight and well enough for me to get some great shots of it. Now tonight at 7.30 I looked out the lounge window at our squirrel box and thought ” That’s not a squirrel” only to find it was a Pine Martin. The wife grabbed my camera for me and luckily I had my long lens on and though through double glazing and in pouring rain, managed these half decent shots of it. Now in the 17 odd years we have been here we caught a very fast glimpse of one running over the compost heaps, no photo. This one stayed long enough to eat all the peanuts before disappearing. I had already taken the shot of the day a family of 4 baby Goldfinches being fed by their parent , so I guess I will hope they will be back tomorrow and you can see it then.

Much of Glen Fender is moorland with drainage from fields producing boggy areas where all sorts of plants grow, which is why the Glen has such a diverse and rare habitat. But one plant that is very prevalent throughout is the one above Cotton Grass. This photo is one of a plant in my garden pond, though I never introduced it to the pond it has arrived and is thriving, which I am not unhappy about as it adds a natural looking feel to the pond, along with the Buttercups and Spotted Heath Orchid I showed you a shot of earlier in the blog. Not so keen when it sheds it’s seeds and covers the pond, but I will put up with it .

Our ambition is for the very top of our garden to just grow wild, making it a haven for insects of all kinds. To start that process off we did as all the experts tell you to do, start of by introducing Rattle to the grass, over two years we have more than introduced it, we have created a mini meadow of hundreds of Rattle plants. They are an attractive plant anyway and when they have flowered and dry out the seeds in the flower heads do literally rattle and with a wee shake of them around the area do set very easily and most importantly survive our harsh winter conditions. With this shot I was experimenting with taking a shot as low as I could and getting that bokeh effect going through the plants, not sure it worked but I liked the effect.

The trouble (well it is not really a trouble) with this time of the year is that all the plants seem to be at their best, so therefore I have got to try and squeeze as many into the blog as possible and if you prefer my bird and animal shots you may find this a bit boring. But as you can see above I am sorry but it is another plant. This one is slowly taking over one of the flower beds but is a very attractive plant. My expert is not in at present but I think it is a late flowering member of the Primula family and the pendulum flowers are on a stem up to a foot long, very sturdy ( they have withstood the gale force winds we had a couple of days ago) and thick. a great addition to the garden.

Went trout fishing for a couple of hours this afternoon, really hot and sunny (you heard correct) so didn’t hold out much luck in catching anything, so took the camera along as well. The fishing was as hard as I expected, managed to catch one Rainbow, which is already cooked and prepared to drop into my neighbour tomorrow for his supper. There were an awful lot of Common Blue Damselfly around and managed to catch a few good shots including the one above. With such an abundance around the water I am always surprised that you very seldom see the trout take them and I have often tried a imitation one on my fly rod, but never managed to catch one on them either..

Two for the price of one again, The first shot was not far short of becoming today’s shot as I took this sunset at 1040 last night, we were on our way to bed and it was so bright and filled all the west facing windows with a bright orange glow.

Look at the next shot, who wouldn’t want this beautiful looking plant in their garden, the detail in the petals, the hint of green and pink coming out from it’s centre, the sheer size of the flower head, a gardeners delight. But it is a plant I found on growing on the roadside down the road from us when I was out early this morning looking for Hares. It is Cow Parsnip a type of Hogweed. On researching it ( this blog is not just put together you know ) , turns out Hogweed got it’s name because it was gathered and used as food for pigs, it also states that the young stems are fairly pleasant to eat and taste a bit like asparagus, had to try it, was okay but not to sure about the asparagus taste.

Lets light a candle and celebrate, no not the football. Just the fact that I have achieved my halfway mark in this photo challenge, 6 at times testing months on trying to find a different subject everyday. Sometimes I so desperately wanted to bring you a shot of something I had photographed before but that was superior to the first one, hence on occasions the doubling up or trebling up of shots as I just wanted you to see it . But I have achieved it so far, just another 6 months to find subjects, I think I will be fine for a couple of months as new things are arriving in the garden and nature wise but in the barren months between lovely Autumn colours and Winter may be a problem. My life saver maybe if travel restrictions are lifted and we can get across to New York to visit our other son , though that is not very much part of the Cairngorms National Park , we all need a break.

Thank you all that have followed me through this challenge, your comments have been an encouragement, let us hope I can keep going as I am loving it.

Ity has been sixteen long days without a P.C. ( mainly thanks to Royal Mail delayed delivery) but I am back up and working. As I have said in the past I like to take the photo of the day and put it straight onto the draft for the half month, that keeps it fresh in this empty brain of mine and is so much easier than writing it up all at once. So I had to remember to take a photograph daily, keep them in camera ( along with all other shots I have taken ) until I could transfer them onto the repaired computer (repaired by me by the way, a computer geek at last), had a wee panic when I was short of one shot for the 8th of this month, but found it in the wrong folder eventually. So here I go putting words to photos for the last day of last month and up until today the 15th.

Two for the price of one on the last day of May. The first shot is from my moth trap, the first real warm night since I got it for my birthday and I had loads to identify. This particularly large specimen is a Poplar Hawk moth, a stunning beast that I had never seen before.

The second shot is taken not on my main camera but on my trail camera, set up because my son had seen this Wildcat in the garden late one night. Oxford University are doing a study of them and I sent this and a few more shots off to them to get they’re opinion of it, they seem to think it is a hybrid that has bred with a domestic cat, but were interested in it. In fact a member of staff last week came with some catmint type plant that they love in a hessian piece of sacking that I have put out on string with the hope that the cat will bite into it and a DNA can be extracted from it. As of last night I have captured pictures of the cat sniffing it but not biting it. Exciting times though and thrilled that such a beast actually comes in the garden.

Our garden this time of the year is full of these Icelandic Poppies, all yellow and they only last a day but a great little plant to have in the garden, all we do is allow it to go to seed and let it sprinkle itself around the garden.

Not a great lover of rhodendrum but amongst the Azaleas this one is a stunning colour, so it can stay.

Springwatch was saying that there is a shortage of Blue Tits nesting in boxes this year or that those that have had failed because of the cold start and lateness of food for the babes. I agree this is the only box that is occupied and is (so far) successfully raising young. We did have a fright last week when the near gale force winds blew the lid off and left 3 very young featherless babes very venerable, but I managed to go out about 8 at night when I spotted it and re-attach it. Still both parents are busy feeding so hopefully I will show you some fledged Blue Tits later on.

A couple of male Mallards complete with reflection a good sunny day for once, on a local pond not my garden one.

First of the fledglings in the garden one of the, maybe, three babes from the House Sparrows nest above my bedroom window, being well fed (courtesy of me of course) and looked after by the parents. It still has that whiteness around the beak making it look larger when opened up for feeding.

Okay normally this is a common bird for most of you, for us it is a bird we have seen mainly during the breeding season and I have shown you already that it had built two nests within the garden, but abandoned both. Well at least it is still around and on a dark miserable day it was great to see this lovely Thrush coming in for a feed, we call these elegant little birds, to me almost royal in appearance.

Again I am so generous to you all, two photos for today as I could not choose which one I preferred. The top one is a field that we see on our walks up the glen. I just loved the way the farmer had mown this grass and how it showed all the different levels within that field.

The second I am informed by by one of my sons is a Four Dotted Chaser, okay there are four dots on each wing, but with two wings shouldn’t it be called an eight dot? Anyway it is the first dragon fly we have seen this “summer?” and I was fortunate enough to have the right lens on at the right spot as it settled down.

I just loved getting this shot, it was taken in the heart of the village by the information centre, with people walking the area all day long and the rabbits just dart into the undergrowth when you walk past. This youngster just popped his head up out of the long grass and I knew where he had gone and was ready for it to appear. Glad to say our population around the house have been eradicated by a young lad with a ferret, so the garden is rabbit free.

Okay I have shown you my mealworms but I thought I would show you the complete life cycle, which by the end of the year I hope to be self sufficient in this much appreciated bird food. At present I buy the mealworms in they then turn into the armour plated looking laves that are white, before becoming beetles that then breed, lay eggs and turn into mealworms.

I am really giving you value for money this month, three different stages above of the eclipse we had. Started about ten in the morning in the first shot, progressed to it’s peak about eleven twenty, before finishing in the last shot about ten past twelve. So glad that we had some cloud to dim it down as when it was in clear sky it was to powerful for the filters I had on the camera. But pleased I managed to get these shots (plus a few more I have not put up) .

This is the River Tilt from the road bridge, as you can see the river levels are very low, mainly due to the fact we have not had much rain and being a spate river it is only really any height when there has been rain. Middle left you can see a small pool just off the main river, this is the diversion into the lade that feeds the mill and due to the low levels the lade is completely dry, so no flour being milled. Normally when this low the spit in between the river and the lade can normally be piled up to give the majority to the mill. But as the salmon are coming up the river to spawn, the Environmental Agency will not allow any alterations to the water course.

This is a standard Primula that we had to have in the garden because of it’s name a “Dusty Miller” the nickname of all Millers, well except mine which is “Daisy”, don’t ask.

On one of our daily walks I saw this and loved it, I love the way nature just takes up any opportunity it can to grow where ever possible.

This Potentilla took a real beating in the extra long cold Winter we have just had and we really thought we would need to replace it as a hedgerow, but the plants that have matured up here seem to be a hardy bunch and these have bloomed their socks off and as an added bonus the Bees love it.

So pleased for my last shot I can show you this beauty a Rainbow Trout weighing in at exactly 3 lb a personal best for me from our local water at Blair Walker the water I showed you in another blog. Will be smashing to eat when I cold smoke it later on in the year, don’t worry it is in the freezer until that day.

That is me caught up from the computer shortage, my two fingers are burning from typing, but I made it.

At last some of the stringent restrictions we have had during lockdown have lifted and most places in Scotland can enjoy a bit more freedom. One good thing that has come out of this long winter lockdown is that people have had time from their busy lives to notice the beauty that surrounds them. An appreciation of nature has shown that deep down it is important to all of us and that it is there for all to enjoy, whether you live in a city flat or out in the wilds like us greenery and the natural world that is within is beautiful. Maybe this will make the world a better place for all.

Our first image is of a female Chaffinch, I have shown you the male before which was a very colourful bird and though the female is a lot plainer it is still a beautiful bird. Over the last week or so we have had an influx of both Chaffinches and Siskins and they are now the main birds we see on the feeders. I guess these are migratory birds that will spend the summer with us and breed before flying off to warmer climes, whatever they are a welcome addition to the garden population.

Another sign that things are warming up we have at last got some Cowslips coming out, though not a great number like our garden conditions we do get pockets of them appearing in the garden, though not that many out in the wild.

Okay we have to accept Wasp’s are going to be with us throughout the summer nobody really looks forward to their arrival. This is one of the first we have seen in the garden but no doubt they will multiply as the weather improves. Some of you may not be aware that two years ago a swarm took over an empty Blue Tit box in my garden and literally covered the whole of the outside of the box with their paper nest and just left a tiny hole in the middle to get inside the box. It was fantastic in the winter when I cleaned it out to see the intricate building work they had done within.

As you are aware I lost all of the fish in my pond due to the very prolonged freezing weather so as my birthday is rapidly approaching when one of my two sons asked what I would like for my birthday I automatically said “fish for my pond please”. So today while shopping in Perth we called into the pet store and purchased ten new fish including the five in the picture above. They hid for the first thirty minutes of releasing them, but then seemed to be exploring their new home, lets hope they enjoy it, I shall have great pleasure in watching them swimming around.

Great excitement in our household as this new freedom we have got allows our other son from Sheffield to visit us tomorrow and stay with us, this is the first time we have seen him since September.

Nothing beats a mothers joy of seeing one of her two sons after 9 months of lockdown, such relief that just poured out.

Okay a bit unusual this shot, so busy today as it is not only my birthday it is also the opportunity to have the Christmas meal we missed out on with our son and partner. This shows the devastation we caused to that long awaited to eat turkey, just delicious and worth waiting for. Having a break before we tackle the Christmas pud and custard, I will try not to fall asleep in the meantime.

My main birthday present was a night time moth trap which I have dreamt of owning for years, So of course last night it had to go out for a trial run, even though it was blowing a gale and very cold. I didn’t hold up much hope of catching a single moth under those conditions. To my surprise this morning I had one moth inside the trap and due to the fact there are hundreds of different moths with the help of my son we eventually found the name of the one above. Of course (being me) it is very common throughout the U.K. and is called a Streamer. So all I need now is the weather to warm up, some dry nights and a lot of patience to look up what it is when I do catch some.

Called a Lollipop Primula this cracking little plant is just making an appearance in our garden, it is the standard type version of a normal Primula and when fully out in a ball looks like a lollipop on a stick, hence it’s name. Beautiful colours with it’s orange/red underside and the striking yellow petals.

Three for the price of one today, these are the three different colours of Forget-Me-Nots that are abundant in the garden at the moment. Light conditions were not that good as it has rained ALL day, in fact the hills had an icing sugar dusting of snow overnight. But have tried to show the normal blue, followed by the pink and the not so common white. I have been assured by my head gardener that if these lovely little plants were not controlled they would take over the whole of the garden.

Went fishing today and caught two very nice Rainbow Trout one was a cross between a Rainbow and a Brown Trout called a Tiger and as (of course) I had my camera with me was going to be the shot for today, but I am afraid it was surpassed by this little beauty.

I am hopeless at identifying most wading birds as it is an area of ornithology I have not really studied , so I asked some friends on a forum what it was as it is like two or three similar birds. Turns out it is a Common Sandpiper, trust me to not know what it was and it has the name Common because it is just that and is seen throughout the British Isles. I had seen it up at Blair Walker before but always in flight never sitting on a post as this one was, thank you Sandpiper for the pose.

Slowly one by one the Azaleas are coming out, this yellow one is always the first and gives off the most wonderful scent of them all. Over the next couple of weeks I will try and bring you each colour as it makes a terrific show on one side of the garden. The lady who owned this house before us really knew her stuff when it came to laying out the garden and we do appreciate it, as to be honest we could not have planned it half as well as she did.

I have not had a clue on how many hundreds of moths that we have in G.B. and as I stated on the last moth posting, just how difficult it would be to identify each one. At present (I think mainly down to the cold weather we are having) the above is only the second moth I have caught in my trap and that took me a good half an hour to find what it was. Just imagine in the summer, when we have loads of moths flying around and get caught in the trap, how long it is going to take me to identify everyone.

Anyway I think I have found the name of the one above, I magnify the fact that I THINK it is a Dwarf Pug, once again a very common moth throughout Britain, which likes conifers. As our garden is full of them it is not that surprising to find it here. I do like the way it flew to the window on release and that enabled me to get such a clear shot of it.

One thing I have been amazed at during this quest for a different shot each day is how observant I have become with things that in the past I have taken for granted. This is a prime example, look at the new growth on this Christmas tree, it is really beautiful, such a luscious lime green and a very vigorous growth throughout the tree, love it.

Almost ashamed to put this on as it is so out of focus, I have my excuses 1/ I was walking up to Sarah’s Pond, which is a very steep climb and I was well out of breath. 2/ I was carrying my fishing rod and landing net and could not put it down in case the Fox noticed the movement and was gone before getting a shot off with the camera of course. 3/ It saw me and I knew I literally had seconds to grab the shot, 4/The Sigma 150-600 lens is very heavy to take a long distant rushed shot and lastly 5/ it was over 100 yards away from me. So this was very much a grabbed shot and it is the only Fox I have ever seen in the 18 odd years we have been here. Just caught the movement of it out of the corner of my eye and it was just staring at me, but I am not sure where it was before I saw it.

I just love the way these Ferns unruffle themselves like a curled up insect tongue just ready to pounce on something and in this present sunny conditions they are radiant.

Just to say my desktop computer has gone and died on me, so though I am a day early for the end of the month I will continue taking my daily shots but will not be able to convey my blog to you until I get it fixed. Which I hope will not be to long.

Thought this morning (true to form) well this is May and overnight temperature was two plus for once, what a great start to the month, then the sun came out and it started to warm up. Thought right a morning outside and watch the Grand Prix qualifying after lunch. So out came the hose and a great chance to wash the forestry dirt of the car from my fishing trip. Washed three quarters of the car and the sun disappeared, looked towards Rannoch and could see the rain falling. That is normally a sign that we have about ten minutes before it reaches us, so rushed to finish cleaning the car, got to the wheels before it started hailstones then snow, but I did finish the car before going in to defrost. So much for a good start to the month.

As we have continued to have frequent showers since todays photo comes via me sitting in the living room shooting through the double glazing, true lazy man photography, therefore this is the resulting first of the month shot.

A rather unusual angle of looking at a Wood Pigeon, giving me the eye because it knows that when it has been on the feeders for a while I will (sorry) frighten it off, because if I do not it will eat a sack of food in a week not a month. I have seen their crops so full that it bulges as big as it’s neck. It was only when I looked at this shot on the computer that I saw the Tick below it’s left eye, I bet that is annoying for it.

This is a lovely little garden plant that seems to like our garden though very shy as it is hidden amongst the heathers. It is of course (even I knew this one) a Snake’s head Fritillary, presumably getting the name because of its snake head shape and the mottled appearance of a snakes body, see I can work this gardening lark out. Every year we think it is not going to come out as apparently the mice like the bulbs, but every year up it pops, we have 3 out at present but looks like another 4 or more have got leaf’s but no flowers yet.

A Greenfinch blending in well with it’s surroundings, I have always considered these an evil looking bird, a friend from over twenty years ago had a licence to breed these in captivity and when he went on holiday I used to look after them. They would always just stay in their aviary and stare at me while I replenished their feeders, where other wild birds he had would go into the shed part of their aviary to nervous to come out. Maybe it’s the dark patch around the eyes or the rather thick beak just never sure of them. When we first moved here they were one of the most common birds we saw in the garden, then about five years ago they started to just keel over and die by the feeders, sent some off to a animal lab and was told they had a form of canker that was highly contagious to finches. I had to increase my hygiene as the beaks were leaving a saliva on the feeders that were passing it on to others, so was washing my containers once or twice a week. It was very common throughout Scotland a devastated Greenfinch populations and even now we do not have the same number of them as we have had before.

The nest above was one of my most wonderful finds within our garden, it is a nest built to absolute perfection. Moss on the outside and smoothly lined with mud on the inside , it belongs to a bird that frequents our garden but never in the 18 years of being here nested here before. It is the nest of a Song Thrush. a bird as eloquent as its nest, sharp lines with a majestic posture. So when my wife found it and showed me a couple of days ago I peeped in and she was sitting in it, left it a while, saw her in the garden so went to check what was in the nest, three eggs. Have looked in from a distance and yesterday she just sat all day, so today I went to take a shot of her with her head sticking out from about ten yards away. But she wasn’t there, so thought right I will go in and take the eggs. Only to find that the nest had been predated and no eggs were present, I was and still am devastated.

What could have done this? We realise we have Pine Martins about, also Stoats and Weasels, my feelings it was one of the latter two as the branches are a bit to flimsy for a Martin. Last week in a spot the other end of the garden we had exactly the same thing with a Blackbirds nest with three eggs also. This makes me think it will be a lean year for the birds nesting in the garden, maybe only the House Sparrows will produce a brood as their nest box hotels are high on the gable ends of our roof. All lower Tit boxes are in danger as a Stoat ot Weasel will easily get into them, I shall just have to keep an eye on them as a couple are being occupied already. So sad, but as Mr Packham would say, “that’s nature”. Below is the only destroyed egg I was able to find below the nest, but just look at the beauty of the colour and spots, perfection from a perfect bird.

Our garden is very much a shade garden as most of it faces East, grabbing plenty of light in the morning then spending the rest of the day in at least partial shade, therefore ferns grow well on this side of the house. This little one just has to find the smallest of crevices in the rock wall s and away it goes, so delicate but able to withstand these fairly harsh conditions.

Today is election day and I am a presiding officer at this lovely building in a small Perthshire village some 15 miles from home. I need to be up and out of the house by five thirty am to enable me to get there and set everything up before seven. So imagine my surprise on waking before five to discover three inches of snow on my car. One of the fastest wash and dress times I have ever recorded to get out and sweep the car off and make my way out of the house by five twenty. As we are fairly high up the first section of our road was a bit tricky to negotiate but once down in the village the snow was thinner and the roads were clear, presumably because of the heat stored in the tarmac. It was only on negotiating the the higher section of the very bendy road to the polling station that it was dodgy, but got there okay to be welcomed by this view. The hall has been recently refurbished and the caretaker had put all the heaters on, so we were in a warm environment for the day and despite the weather we had a sixty percent turnout which was good.

Normally a fairly shy bird this Jay and occasionally it’s mate visit the garden, unless I am in my hide I cannot get a shot of them as they will fly off straight away, this was taken through the double glazing in the living room. These birds are considered pest and do get shot with a gun more than with a camera, I can understand this and though i am not to keen on them they are beautifully coloured birds. The main problem for me is they are yet another predator that will rob a nest of both eggs and chicks. My theory is if I allow it to have a good feed from my feeders, it may not find the need to go looking for nests and believe me if not disturbed they will eat a lot of bird seed, taking the larger bits of seed not eaten by the Finches and Tits.

The wild Violets above are part of our garden that we both enjoy and do not like. They are such a lovely colour and even with this strange weather we are experiencing in these times, just keep popping up throughout the garden. The main problem is if you let them they will just take over the area they are growing in and out compete any plant that gets in their way. Therefore we tolerate them in small bunches but if they get to big they are swiftly removed, so enjoy them while you can as next year these will not be in this spot.

I realise that this is seven months away from the next Christmas, but when I saw this drawer open I just had to include the inspirational shot that this is. My wife spends her winter knitting and the main things she enjoys knitting are these nativity sets. , Baby Jesus in Mary’ s arms Joseph 3 kings, 3 shepherds and (as she calls them as they are so fiddley) 3 blessed sheep. Until she gives them out to charities etc at Christmas she stores them in this drawer, I think there are seven sets in here, with another eight sets elsewhere. It just seemed that as I walked past the open drawer it was to good an opportunity to miss, love them all.

Today warrants two photos as it is an important event for the village The Watermill has at last opened, all be it with restrictions but we can at last get some proper bread, a good coffee and wonderful scones. Of course we were down early to indulge ourselves and actually managed to get one of the indoor seats, so cosy as well.

The first shot is Kirsty and her sister Fiona working hard in the kitchen making the drinks and soup, todays special was Carrot, Ginger and Coconut, smelt wonderful. The second shot is Julie and Eli serving the customers with their array of freshly baked bread, a white olive loaf for me today. So good to have some life back into the village makes you think “the new normal” is around the corner.

At last things seem to be changing weather wise, we have actually gone four days without a frost and it looks like the rest of the week is going to be the same. That will be the first week since before Christmas we have gone without at least one frost in a week. This is now reflecting in the way nature is reacting, with plants shrubs and trees beginning to get a move on for the time they have lost due to our weather. No better example of this than the Rowan trees in the garden, as you can see from above they are starting to come into leaf, followed (hopefully) by some good blossom and produce plenty of berries to keep the birds going in the winter months. Legend has it up here that if you cut down the last Rowan in your garden you will have bad luck for the rest of your life. Fortunately for us the birds have distributed seeds throughout the garden and we have a wide variety of sized trees in the garden, so if one gets to big in a particular spot I can cut it down with no fear of being a misery in future. This then gives us the added bonus of if the wood is well seasoned it is a great wood for the log burner as it it burns hot and slowly, ideal.

I think I am staying within the parameters of what I set out to do “take a different subject each day”, as at this time of the year we have a fair few birds nesting within and around the garden and over the next couple of weeks I would like to include the activity at the different nests. I have already shown you the predated Thrushes nest (which incidentally has rebuilt another nest and is sitting on eggs within the garden) , but will continue to show you other species within my area. Todays example is most probably the untidiest bird when it comes to nesting we have, this (above) is the nest of a House Sparrow. Every year we have at least four or five nesting, where when we moved in we never saw a Sparrow anywhere. We encouraged them to visit us, firstly by feeding them and then building them Sparrow hotels, a long box with three separate compartments and three entry holes. But as the population grew they decided to improvise their own nesting sites, hence the taking over of two of my three artificial House Martin cups, plus two rooms in the hotels. Totally ruins my chances of ever getting House martins nesting on the house. As the House Sparrow is a declining species I do not really object.

A bird that is so quick that for ages I have been unable during this year to capture on camera, the Nuthatch. I was sitting in our lounge having a drink and I noticed one was coming regularly to the feeder with no top and as I had filled it this morning it was fairly full, thus easy pickings for a long beaked bird as it is. Went and got my camera and sat and sat and sat for well over twenty minutes and it didn’t return. Just going to give up and it came, popped its head into the top and came out with a big peanut that you can see above. I do try and keep my windows clean for just such an occasion, but the double glazing does distort the shot a bit so not the best I have taken but at least it is another garden species I can tick of my list of those i want to get during this year of different shots.

In a village such as where we live it is rare to see anything new being built, we have a charming family house being built two hundred yards down the road for us, but down in the village nothing seems to get built. Well these very modest, colourful terraced properties have just been built by the Atholl Estate have just been finished with three of the six properties already occupied. My opinion is they are delightful, well made little houses and will be very popular with most folks. Of course if they were in the main street they would look totally out of place with the old buildings, but tucked away beyond the Mill I really like them.

Previously I have shown you the male Siskin today is the turn of the female and I think you can see why I think they are my favourite bird. Such a contrast to the bold dark patched male but still beautiful colours and a gentle looking bird, but beware other birds, if either sex is on the feeders they will boss it over larger birds and get their feed in first, tough little birds. And a fitting bird to finish this mid May blog, will start the next tomorrow. Hope you enjoy.

I know I should not be wishing the month away but so much is happening in this last half of April that will bring happiness into May. Next week we get our second jab (or jag up here in Scotland) so by may we should be well covered against this horrid virus. 25th of this month our local trout fishing club opens up all 3 waters, we can fish the River Garry at the moment but it is still a bit early for any activity with the wild Brown Trout and the Salmon will not be this far up the system yet. But the two still waters Blair Walker and Sarah’s pond our the real crown in our waters. Blair contains Rainbow and Brown Trout the former being stocked in there by the club, but the Browns came from Sarah’s pond which is above Blair and part of the Castles hydro electric scheme. The water in Sarah’s comes off the hills and when it has reached a certain level goes down an overflow pipe into a burn and down to Blair Walker pond/Lochan. When this was dug out 5 or 6 years ago the club stocked the top pond with Brownies which have grown and bred keeping a good head of fish in there, unfortunately when we have had heavy rain some of the fish went down the pipe but survived to get into Blair where they have thrived. Getting back to why I want May here, those Brown Trout in the still waters will come onto the feed well and I might have the joy of catching a few.

Also (if all goes well) on May 17th Scotland will open up more and visitors can stay overnight, so we should see one of our sons who lives in England. Plus the added bonus of my birthday, though a year older I do love birthdays.

Considering the still below freezing nights this little beautiful Anemone shows itself off daily as soon as the sun hits it, before it comes out of the shade it is a very tight little bud and looks very drab, but when it opens up it is stunning and an unusual colour to boot.

My pond is a bit sad at the moment as I have no electricity going out to feed the water pump or it’s filter, plus some of the weeds in it affected by the on/off ice covering. But one thing that is in it’s peak is this Marsh Marigold double flower. Plenty of blooms on it and looking very colourful, I have always struggled photographing anything that is yellow & due to getting advice from a Canon forum I am on, I am slowly learning how to shoot them. Along with the Daffodils & Primroses our garden has a lot of yellow in it, just to test me all the more.

The above shot is a very unusual sight this time of the year, especially with the amount of bad weather we have had this winter. This was honestly taken today and look at all the berries on it, never in all the years we have been up here have we seen such a late surplus of berries. We normally have a flock of Redwings and Fieldfares through the eat every berry before the end of the year, this winter I have not got a single photo of either species. It could be the fact that when they came down from more Northern climes the winds just allowed them to bypass us or it was mild enough to have stayed further North, I just do not know. Our native birds such as Blackbirds and Thrushes have eaten a fair few and we even had a Jay eating them yesterday, but I guess with these species they prefer our sultanas or seed to having to digest the berries, pip and all. But to see the seeds just falling to the ground uneaten is a first for us. Still it does make for an attractive shot for me to take and record such an event.

Apart from birds of prey, this is most probably my favourite bird, a male Siskin (no not the concrete one). Yellow is my colour from school house times and the yellow inn this bird is beautiful. Such a feisty bird as well, just after this shot he saw off that male Sparrow hiding behind the statue one and allowed his partner to come in and feed, she is a lot duller than him but still a cracking little bird. Some of may remember way back in B.C. (before Covid) I had a bird ringer here and she caught a female that had travelled up from outside Brussels, Belgium to feed in my garden, some reputation for good food I am getting. But look closely at the colours in this bird , such striking lines and now when it is preparing to mate it is at it’s best.

This feeder on the lawn in front of the kitchen window is very popular with most of the species who eat seed, ranging from Robins, Blackbirds, Doves and even Crows, mainly because it is well surrounded by bushes that are within reach for them, but quick enough to enter when the Sparrowhawk comes flying through.

I should run a competition to see who can guess,1/ What is it? 2/ What is he going to talk about?

Th answer to 1/ is it is half an apple and 2/ I just wanted to show you how thorough the Blackbirds in our garden are at eating all the flesh, but leaving the core and skin behind. It normally takes about a day or sometimes two to get it to this stage then they just leave it to rot, not interested anymore.. It is very rare that they penetrate the skin at all though on this example it does look as though one has got a bit enthusiastic and the beak has gone right through. Definitely a piece of art when it gets to this stage.

This is not the first butterfly I have seen this Spring, but it is the first I have seen with camera in hand. This rather tattie around the edges Peacock was warming itself up for a good ten minutes on the garage roof, thus allowing me to go indoors, get my camera, change lens and still get outside with it in the same spot. Within a minute it flew off and was down amongst the plants feeding, so was in some ways grateful that we had minus four temperatures this morning and it had to warm itself up before foraging.

This small Lochan is called Blair Walker and where from the middle of next month you will find me fishing once a week. It is stocked annually with rainbow Trout and has natural Brown Trout in it. Normally by now members of the village angling club would be fishing it, but new rules by the fishery board insist you have to have a licence to stock fish in any waters in Scotland and of course the working of governmental organisations take a bit longer than most to complete the paperwork, so until that is done and the new stock have settled in to feeding on natural food, we cannot fish it.

The lochan is in fact part of the estates hydro electric scheme and water of the hills is collected from of the hills in a smaller pond up above Blair Walker, which is known as Sarah’s Pond named after the estate factors wife. This pond we will be allowed to fish from Monday and contains natural bred Brown Trout and is a lovely peaceful little sanctuary to fish. It is some hike to get to but so worth it, even if you don’t catch any fish. The Browns in Blair got in there when the water from Sarah’s was high and in flood and they went down through the water flow and have thrived in Blair. When I go up to Sarah’s next week I will take some shots and show you why I love it so much.

Called this shot “The Tree on the Hill” and just liked the way the eye was led between the ancient Scots Pines , then the cows & up to the hill with that lone tree on the horizon. Such a common sight around here just a single tree that survived the weather and being eaten by deer struggling to survive but sometimes reaching a state of maturity as this one has. Cannot tell what species is it is and sorry to disappoint, but I shall not be climbing Tulloch Hill to find out for you either. The cows and their calves seem very content to just lay in this glorious sunshine we are having at the moment. So glad there is some heat in the sun this time of the year as it is soon burning the frost of from the overnight minus temperatures , though it does form the haze on this shot which does spoil it a bit.

I always have trouble taking shots of anything yellow, I have sought advice and am trying out different techniques, not overly pleased with this one but thought it was worth including as such a lovely plant. This is (I am reliably told by the head gardener) is a double Celandine, the only one we have in the garden, but looking like this I hope it will propagate into a few more as I for one like it.

I am aware of the saying “Don’t cast a clout till May is out” and that it has two separate interpretations, one meaning do not take your coat of until the month of May is out, the other when the flower of the May (or Blackthorn) is in bloom.

Well the above is the flower of the May and as you can see is in full blossom (though on other parts of our walk today it was still in bud), but I can assure you with the morning temperatures were still cold and we needed our coats for this mornings walk. Though I must say the days for the last week or so have been sunny and fabulous, but of course the gardener in the family is screaming out for a bit of rain to water a very dry garden. Be careful for what you ask though it may still come out of the sky as SNOW.

Well I did say I would include a photo of Sarah’s Pond when I went fishing there. Today was that day and of course we had rain and a cold wind, just what I didn’t want, even so I went up around midday and spent 3 hours of shear enjoyment. Must have had twenty or so wee wild Brown Trout going for my fly, catching none of them until a decent nine inch one came along and snatched my fly, caught and returned ready for me to catch when it gets bigger later in the year. As you can see it is a wonderful place to fish surrounded by trees on one side and with open views down the glen and to the village on the other. A lot of weed at present but I am slowly cutting it back on non fishing days. Peace, fish and apart from the cold wind and rain a perfect place to spend your free time.

The colours of Spring are all around us still and this little plant is no exception, my human encyclopaedia (the wife) thinks it is a Arabis commonly known as as Rock Cress and is a hardy little plant to be able to thrive in this months very cold conditions. Thrive it does and looks great up against the rock.

As it is called cress I decided to investigate the plant a bit more online and discovered that it is indeed edible, tasting very much like a normal cress. Another fact that surprises me is that it originated from the Southern Mediterranean, so a bit of a shock that it is hardy up here in the North. Good for Bees and Butterflies so that is good news.

I think as a (amateur) photographer it does open your eyes to seeing things in a different way and this challenge has proved that to me, trying to get a different subject each day with out repeating myself for the full 365 days , is making me see things that I would normally take for granted. So, 118 days in, on a cold showery day I was looking for inspiration and the above shot was it. One of the first rhubarb leaves to come out of its winter hibernation and the rich colours just shone out at me. I love rhubarb any way but this was so good to see, the bud next to the stem the promise of more to come, might be a good summer for making my prize winning rhubarb and ginger jam.

Today I had arranged with 3 of my friends to fish at the above loch, Loch Bhac ( pronounced vac) , all of us on arrival in our separate cars wish we hadn’t booked it for today as this Loch is very open and 330M above sea level was very exposed to the strong North Easterly wind that was blowing from across the trees on the left-hand side of the shot. The two humps of hill are in fact the Munro’s within half a mile of our house that by now you have all seen photos of. But to reach this Loch you have to go along a very twisty road beside Loch Tummel for some 6 miles then onto a gravel forestry road for a further 6 miles, a remote but beautiful location, on a fine day. but cold and showery today. I have not mentioned fish caught, because there were not any, I did have a Rainbow Trout on for about 5 seconds before it came off, but that was the only sighting of a fish in 4 hours of trying. The joys of angling.

Last day of the month and two first’s to confuse you. First first, if you look at the shot in the lighter coloured field about the middle of the photo are some cattle, in all the years we have lived here we have never had cows in that field these are even complete with calves. Second first is the first photo of this year to include the sheep that spend the summer in the field in front of the house. They must have been put in late last night or first thing this morning, but so good to have them back, at the moment about half what we normally have, that could be one of two reasons, 1/ the grass has not grown sufficient to put anymore sheep in the field or 2/ as the shepherd also has a day job he hasn’t had enough time to bring them all over from his farm 6 miles away. Either way it is great to have the sheep back, a sign of summer to come.

On the television weather report this morning it stated that every day of April somewhere in Britain there was a frost, we have only had a total of 6 days in this month when the overnight temperature was not below zero and that is a record for us let alone the British record. Admittingly we have some absolute beautiful sunny days once the sun has warmed us up, but too often we have had a cold wind blowing to just put an edge to the day. As I stated in the title for this blog, soon be May, well tomorrow it arrives.

Good start to the month, a really lovely warm Spring day. These miniature Tulips were tightly closed first thing this morning, a bit of warmth, plenty of sunshine & out they pop. They are no April Fool realising that they should enjoy this while they can, because Sunday we are forecast SNOW, let’s wait & see but we know it is going to get cold again. So we will enjoy the beauty while it lasts.

A follow up to yesterdays post before I put todays post up, these are those proud Tulips from yesterday, but taken first thing this morning. All flat & limp, why? Because our overnight temperature went down to MINUS 5C and was just above freezing when I went out for todays shot. No doubt they will recover today but we are forecast frost overnight nearly everyday next week.

Virtually every Easter card we have received has Daffodils on it, so as it is Good Friday I thought I would contribute to the collection. I would say that 50% of our Daffs are not out of bud yet, therefore we have plenty more colour to come. Those that are out are definitely adding to the great Spring colour the garden is showing. A great time of the year with new growth all around us.

Continuing the Easter theme, what would this time of the year be without lambs? Still a bit early for them up here but a few are appearing before the snow arrives. These are from the mixed farm up the hill from us, a very protective mother was giving me the look, as if to say you stay that side of the fence or look out. The weather is still absolutely wonderful for a bank holiday weekend, but they really are getting prepared for a good dumping of snow on Monday, so feel sorry for any new animal about to be born, or as this one is a few days old.

I have put most of my Easter Sunday sunrise shots on a separate blog, so have put this one on here, When learning (still learning) my early skills dividing a shot into thirds was an important thing to learn, unintentionally this shot shows that well. Trees in the foreground , clouds in the middle third & sunrise in the upper, well roughly anyway. The anticipation of that sunrise in such cold conditions was a show of patience for me. It was just under an hour since I had arrived at this spot, my fingers were nearly dropping off, I could see a lot more cloud on it’s way that might obscure the shot i wanted & I was hungry, as I had just jumped out of bed & went. But as you can see from the previous blog all turned out well & with the added bonus of the wildlife it was well worth carrying out my normal Easter Sunday enjoyable task.

I think by now you all know that I am no Monty Don when it comes to plants in the garden, I can mow lawns, photograph any plant you want photographing & that’s about it. So as neither the wife or my encyclopaedia knowledge of plants knew what the one above is called , we resorted to the garden books to find out for ourselves. Turns out it is called a Hacquetia epipactis & has the rare distinction of being the only species in it’s genus. The books say it thrives in rich, moist soil in shade or semi shade, well it has thrived for 18 years here in our garden providing ground cover in a semi shaded area. Though not in rich soil, but very rocky free draining soil, so we have proved the books wrong. One thing that the books did get right it is a hardy little plant, even today when the temperature at midday is still below freezing & flurries of snow it is looking terrific.

I think I have done really well not to include a bird so far this month, have looked through previous posts and was surprised that probably the most common bird in our garden, a Blue Tit has not been included in this year of photographs.. This one was taken through the kitchen window (mainly because there was no way I was going out in this weather) and this one was on its way to the feeders outside the window. We deliberately left the stumps of the conifer knowing it was an ideal perch for the feeders. This is the third day of snow we have had though the wind is not as strong, but the bird activity in the garden has increased as they need to fuel up for the cold nights.

There are a few birds that come into the garden that I would prefer to be without, two regular visitors in that category are Sparrow Hawk for taking to many of my little birds and Pigeon that eats far to much food in one session this time taking food away from my little birds. But the bird above, who itself eats a fair bit of food, is always welcome to enter my bird restaurant. It is , as you can see around it’s neck, a Collar Dove.

A beautiful bird in so many ways, it is plain but very elegant, even regal in appearance. When it lands it is as gentle as only a loose feather was landing, on taking off a noisy flap of the wings like a royal wave and it’s away. That smiling beak and big eye just wants you to keep it as a pet. As you can read I am very fond of these birds & they are welcome in my garden anytime.

Out for a walk today, with a fresh Westerly wind in our faces, have come home with rosy cheeks (facial ones). This time of the year allows you to see the new growth starting to come through in the hedgerow, but also some of last years nest builds, it shows me how clever some birds are in building. If you think of the weather we have had this last winter with such strong winds, how on earth did this nest manage to stay so intact? Not sure what small bird would have built this one, Dunnock maybe, but just look at the materials used in it’s construction, moss, lichen, grass even a strand of plastic. Makes you think why would birds put so much effort into building new nests each year, just use some of the skills you have in building it to do a bit of DIY and it is already for you to use again. I bet later on in the summer when the hedge has grown you will not be able to see this one even though it was just a few yards from the road. A work of art in its natural surroundings. Love it.

Another unusual shot from me, this time it is one of the main reasons I have a good relationship with Robins, Wrens, Blackbirds & all different members of the Tit family. They all love Mealworms especially my new found friend the Wren, this morning it heard me putting my shoes on, sat on the door handle & as I opened it it flew off & followed me to my workshop where I keep my mealworms. My wife was watching from the bedroom window & apparently as I went through the door into the workshop for a brief moment it followed me in, As soon as I turned round with my tin to replenish the feeders it was sitting on the flower tub waiting to be fed.

I took this shot as I have just had my latest supply of the Mealworms delivered a kilo of mini worms, which when I have fed them up, will be twice this size, say 1/2 inch long by then up to well over an inch. They do not take much feeding, wholemeal bran or porridge plus some banana skins& sliced cucumber for them to get their moisture from. I am hoping as the weather warms up that some of them by then will change & eventually have some early beetles to breed my own stock for next winter, though at £17 a kilo they are good value for money anyway. A kilo will normally last me 6 to 8 weeks, depending on how cold the weather is, which in turn relates to how hungry the birds are. Though as I am fairly new to this I am not sure how much will be taken to feed the next generation as they are born, would be great seeing the newly fledged queuing up by the feeders while the parents help themselves. The birds have started pairing up & some are nest building so fun times ahead.

What a lovely sight to see the field over the Glen being ploughed. In the past it has always been ploughed up & down as you can see from the tracks in the light section not yet dug. Not sure what crop will go on the field but last year it was just silage & then in the Autumn it was all killed of (hence the beige colour) therefore now ready for ploughing.

I always wonder how the gulls know that this is being dug, as no sooner had he /she started the tractor up the gulls were there. You most probably cannot see them on this shot, but when I zoomed in on the original I suppose there was 40 to50 present. At least today the weather has been dry & no snow showers, the first time for several days even with the sun out it at 1130am not gone above 1C yet, as it was minus 7C in the night.

One advantage of these clear nights is that living with no street lights we have a magnificent panorama of stars each night, just wish I could remember which group are which.

Following on from yesterdays shot, the ploughman (I can now confirm it was a man) did not quite finish the field of, so though it is a Sunday came back today to complete the job. It got me thinking maybe he would like a A4 copy of the photo, so printed it off & drove up to the field, just as he was finishing it & gave him the photo, he was well chuffed & loved it. I had parked in this field entrance opposite side of the road to the ploughed field & thought it might be good to take a shot back to our place. I had my landscape lens on (10-18 if your interested) rather than the 150-600 from the previous shot so not so easy to spot our house as not zoomed in. But if you look at the dark conifer in the centre of the shot, the tip of that tree on the left hand side is where it is. A decent enough day plenty of sunshine but still getting very cold nights.

Went for a walk up the road into the hills & on my way back this Stoat appeared on the road in front of me, I think it knew I was there so it just ran across the road and disappeared into the undergrowth. Had one in the garden one winter in it’s white coat, plus had one (unknown to us) rear babes under our summerhouse, it was only when we decided to tidy up at the rear of the summerhouse that it decided to move all it’s babies into a nearby woods that we saw him carrying them one at a time.

The walk today was stunning, cold, but bright sunshine and so much to see. So much in fact I will write a separate blog today with all the wildlife on it, plus the views. Will not include the Stoat but save that for here when I publish on the 15th.

This is not a very attractive shot, but this is what is left of our first batch of frogspawn, the poor frogs all came together and we were all excited when this huge heap of spawn appeared. Then to follow the night temperatures after that you will realise why it has started to rot & collect algae. -5C followed by -8,-8 -8-9 and last night (getting better-5C). Therefore every day when we got up the pond was frozen, but by midday the sun had melted the ice, so the poor spawn (well at least the top layer) has been frozen also and obviously has not survived. I am not going to disturb it as the layers below might have come through it with the upper level insulating it, but I am not holding out much hope. Maybe, just maybe we may get another spawning after this weather goes away and we warm up a bit, I can but hope.

Added bonus today, around the end of our evening meal, the wife noticed a couple of Hares in the field, on putting the binoculars on them noticed one was still in it’s white winter coat so dashed for the camera. The field has a dip in it so managed to get within about 150yards of the white one before it saw me & that distance rapidly became 200 yards. Zoomed in got this one shot of any good after cropping it to give you this close up. Then spotted two further hares in the next field another 50yards on, so got those as well. The white one eventually joined them but they then decided to run off so a brief encounter but worth the effort so close after a full meal.

Todays plant is a Trillion or common name of a Wood Lily, as you can see it gets it’s name from the fact that it has three leaves and when the terrific deep red flower open , that has three petals also. Even in Scotland this is considered a very hardy plant and if you look at the top leaf you can see it has curled up slightly due to frost damage. Looking at the base of the plant you can see further stems coming through in fact we have had the plant five years and after the first year we have a new stem each year, so we were well pleased that the fourth stem was produced this year. The plant thrives in good, well drained soil in the shade, which is exactly where it is at present, we hope the ryzones that produce the plants will continue to spread and we can have a magnificent display.

We saw and purchased the original plant from Clunie Gardens outside Aberfeldy where the woodland is full of the most wonderful show of them and where along with it’s Megonopsis it has world fame. To see a huge display of these plants in such natural grounds is a sight to behold.

Here we are the middle of April and the farmer is still having to supplementary feed the sheep, normally by now the grass would have grown sufficiently for the sheep and lambs to be feeding on it with no extra help, but this extremely cold start to the month has meant that growth has been delayed. It’s okay for me I do not have to cut the lawn so early but it must be costing the farmers up here so much more this year, is this what global warming is going to do to our climate and methods of producing food? What I like about the shepherd’s method is he lays out the food in a straight line and then goes back along the line (as he is in this shot) to check the mums and babes.

Today I have taken so many photos that I could not choose just one to show you on my shot of the day so these are just a few as an added bonus to my blog.

After a very cold night again, today is a cracking sunny day, that horrid North wind has gone & was just the day to go up the road for a walk and did mother nature hold some surprises for me.

Firstly the Geese are heading home, I just love the formations they form and the constant calling they make, if they were silent I do not think you would bother looking up and see them. The numbers were huge and with the lens I had on I was only getting about half of them in the above shots.

Surprised this Roe Deer Stag eating away not expecting company at all, love the fact that his antlers are still covered in the velvet, would love to feel if that was soft or not.

The sheep were enjoying a bit of warmth on their backs after the minus 8C of last night and the Munros in the background are still fairly thick in snow, mainly fresh snow from the last 4 or 5 days.

Our two Munros are virtually void of any snow on this side, not going to venture to see what the other side is like.

Just coming back down the hill and noticed the young Red Deer stag running across the fields, from this image it looks like it is watching all the lorries on the A9. just to put it all in perspective, the stag was a good quarter of a mile away from me and the A9 is two miles away.

There was another wonderful little creature that I managed to capture in my camera, but that has gone as my shot of the day for this months photos, so you will have to wait three more days to see what that is. Love to keep my readers in suspense.

Up real early on a crisp clear morning, scraped the ice off the car & headed up the glen to catch the sunrise. This was the first shot just after 6am.

The moon was going down behind the hills, but just managed to catch it.

Getting brighter & the birds were starting to call, especially the Curlews and could hear the Grouse on the Lek, must try & find it because it is a different one to where I normally go.

The Lek is down in the hollow between the tree in the front of the shot & the farm that is half a mile away behind the tree.

At last the sun is making an appearance just below the cloud.

Sunrise and well worth the rather cold wait, Happy Easter to you all.

An added bonus on the drive home managed to grab these shots out of the car window, initially I only saw one Red Deer stag but then realised there was a herd of them behind him, only about 100 yards from my car. Wonderful, wonderful morning.

I have been trying for ages to take this shot, but a fair few things are against you in your attempt. Firstly I have to use my big telephoto lens which weighs in at just over 4lb & when fully extended (as it was for this shot) is just over 16″ long, is a fair old lump to swing about above your head. My Canon camera has a great & fairly fast auto focus, but the Buzzard doesn’t hover like a kestrel it goes around in circles trying to catch a thermal to go higher. So I have to follow the bird the best I can, wait until the sun catches it’s underneath and (unlike many ) I just take a single shot instead of a burst of shots. On this occasion I was able to get 2 decent shots off before it disappeared over our tree line, surprisingly both of them came out as fairly sharp images, something I had never achieved before. So you can imagine I rate getting this one to show you high up in my favourite shots.

I knew there would be days on my quest to get a shot a day that would be difficult, today I had a migraine, a very rare event for me. But those who have suffered will know that fairly often as part of this you will get an aura of darkness around the eyes, which makes seeing very difficult & looking through a viewfinder on a camera even harder. So I was struggling, but I did notice 2 Thrushes doing what the Crows had been doing, turning over the horse manure to find worms. As I was indoors I grabbed the camera went into the bedroom, stood on the bed (only high latched window in there) opened the window & got a few shots off. Though a good 50 yards away I cropped the shot & tonight can see that it wasn’t to bad. So quest completed & I didn’t have to photograph my bedroom as todays shot after all.

One of our local lairds is a pilot & has a few aircraft of his own, was out up the hill today when he went for a spin in his old bi-plane, this is him heading towards the top of the Munro ,Schiehallion. Must be wonderful freedom up in such a magnificent flying machine, though the open cockpit must have been a bit chilly today, but for once a lovely sunny day.

Okay I apologise, three out of the first four shots on this blog are of birds, but you have to grab the shot when the opportunity arises. I think I can count the number of times on one hand I have seen Oystercatchers in the field in front of the house let alone photograph them. So when I saw a couple in front of me this morning I just had to get the camera out. It is only when you examine the shot close up that you realise, one, the colour of it’s eyes & two, the length of its beak & I witnessed it probing at least half of that beak into the ground that I could see how useful it is to the bird. Not sure if it helps opening oysters though? I like these birds now, but when a flock of them fly over the house at 4.30am on a summer morning, squawking their heads off, I am not such a fan.

About 100 yards down the road from the house is this lovely memorial bench and as it is more or less South facing the surround always has the first miniature Daffodils out. The bench is dedicated to a couple who used to live within our little hamlet and loved this spot. It has a plaque dedicated to them by their family saying “Always lovingly remembered, Agnes & Willie McNicoil”. When we first came to the glen our neighbour Kyle used to maintain the older bench & when he was unable I did it for a season, until it started falling apart. The family were shown it on one of their visits up the glen & they replaced it with this sturdy one.

So today I have taken the view from the bench (honestly I did walk all of that 100 yards to take it on a different day) I wish I had a panoramic lens as goes further to the right with distant views of the hills. The beauty of the spot the bench is on is that it is well protected from the strong Northerly wind, plus the South facing sun on your face. Add to that it is halfway up the hill from the village and a wonderful place to have a breather on the walk up the glen. The big house on the left horizon is Tom of Lude, which has 3 converted stables next to it, that are holiday lets. The light patch near the top of the hill on the right is where the stone quarry is, a very busy place at the moment as it is supplying most of the aggregate for the dual carriageway being built on the A9 coming out of Perth. Will not be long before the field in front of the shot, will be full of lambs. Another chance of some photographs.

I know the 4th bird picture in 7 shots on this blog, but who could resist this wonderful bird posing so graciously on my garage roof. Well of course I couldn’t for those who are not “birders” it is a Pied Wagtail. It is one of a pair we saw this morning, 2 years ago a pair nested in one of my wood piles about 6 feet above the ground under a wooden roof, had babes and then something predated it, took the babes & destroyed the nest, so disappointing. So we have high hopes that if they are a pair we may have more success this year. That would cause me a dilemma, if I took a shot of the babes & put it on here, would that be classed as a repeat photo of the same bird? Not sure how far I can push the rules, maybe I would just have to put it on as an additional shot, like I did the Iris.

Oooops 8 in 10, couldn’t work out why the birds were not on the feeders, then looked just beyond them & there he sat as cool as you like, not taking his eyes of of the feeders. Had time to get the camera, go out the back door, get a little closer & reel off a couple of shots & still it just sat there. So down with the camera, pick up a handful of gravel & throw it at it, then it moved. like most birds it has also worked out an easy source of food is in our garden, I realise it is only natural but it does upset us both when we see a pile of feathers in the garden. I will try my hardest in the next 10 days not to include anymore birds in my photos, though there was also a Magpie in the garden that I haven’t got a shot of yet. Sorry.

For the first time on the blog I am giving you a Marmite moment with one of my photographs. It will be a case of you like the shot above or you think it is horrid, it is in fact a shot of our hills taken through the window while we had a brief shower. I use Rainx on my car windows which just takes the rain off the windows without having to use the wipers & thought I would try it on the house windows, it does clear them quicker but the rain goes into droplets first as seen here. So I have tried to convey the dullness of the day using those droplets. By the way I hate Marmite & only use it as a flavouring on bread to catch fish when by the water fishing.

Back to more normal photography, just to show things are moving in a Spring like direction, I hope over the next few days to show you some of the plants that are out in the garden. Though I will have to keep my fingers crossed for at our height, snow is forecast tomorrow.

Okay so we will start with this bunch of Grape Hyacinths that have come through the ground, such strong bold plants, the wife is not that fond of them as they do tend to spread, but a good dash of colour in the garden. You will note that the leaves have all been cut, not by us I hasten to add, we think it was either that deer we had in the garden or a Hare that may have sneaked in when we have left the gate open.

This is not the best of shots, so I apologies, but it was taken in a howling gale and heavy snow ( I will add a bonus picture at the end to show you ). But I feel it does show the contrasting colours of one plant that you get with Pulmonaria, which are fairly common up here in roadside banks as well as gardens. This plant is a member of the Borage family and is also known as Common Lungwort it is a plant that our few Bumblebees that are out & about are loving, The colour change is as the plant is maturing, not sure of the pink or the blue comes first.

As I said on the 26th I took that days photo in horrendous conditions, as a bonus this is what it was like 5 minutes after taking that picture. Admittingly within 10 minutes of this shot, the sun was out, but by this time the lawn was white.

Another little plant that really thrives in our garden are the bulbs above, which are Scilla’s. These bulbs have a range of shades of blue going from this paler version up to a deep Tottenham (the best team in the world) blue and have spread throughout the garden, though are at their best when in the shade. They add a real colourful, bright edge to the garden & definitely bring a touch of Spring to what (as shown yesterday) a very unpredictable weather wise, time. Clocks changing tomorrow& we are still waking up to snow on the mountain tops & just a tad cold first thing.

Went for a walk today & ended up with this splendid view of Blair Castle, normally the front of the small buildings would be spoilt by cars queueing up to pay for their visit to the castle. With no visitors still not allowed the village seems so very quiet & the castle must be looking forward to once again opening up, soon be here we hope. Get Easter done & we should be on the home straight.

I have put this shot up on a forum I am in & the main comment I get is “why didn’t you post process the power cables out of the shot?” Of course the shot would be better without them & I could purchase an app that would remove them, change the sky to a lovely blue one or even add a flag to the flag post. But I do not like altering anything on my shots, the cables are there, that is what I saw, that is what the camera saw, If I had the camera on different settings & it turned out to dark, maybe I would brighten it a bit, nothing major like taking things out because they spoil the image to much. I even went as far as to say it was cheating on the forum, never had so many comments after that one.

Just another sign that we are turning the corner towards Spring like weather with this Red Currant coming into bloom . I just liked the way this has just grown & appeared over the last week really, well unobservant me hadn’t seen in until today. The sun made a brief appearance when I was taking a shot of it & gave the emerging leaves a bit of brightness.

Gone slightly over the top for todays selection, see one get three free. We know these as Pom Pom Primulas and we have a good selection of them in the garden. Every year we get them come up, last year was not a good one, but as they have just started, this year seems like it might be fairly decent. The beauty of them is in their colour range, hence why I have put 4 shots up for today, these are the main colours they appear in, but sometimes they cross pollinate & we will get an in between colour. White appears to be the rarest in the garden but whatever colour they seem to perk you up when they come out.

I know, back to birds, but this is a first for me, yes we have had Red Legged Partridge in the garden before, but have never been able to photograph them before. I also know that this is not the best of shots, but it was taken through the double glazing & in pouring rain, so fairly happy. What lovely little birds only here to be stocked on the hills for shooting, but this pair seem to be clear of that hazard now as the nearest shoot that has them is some four miles away. So let us hope this is a pair & feel safe enough to set up home here & bring their babes to feed later in the year.

We knew they were about as we have come across them nearby & they have flown off, but who knows we might be able to get them used to us (like the Wren), thus enabling me to get some decent outdoor shots.

We have come to the end of the month & still I have managed my different shot every day, let us hope I can keep going in April. Shots should be easier to come by as things start to grow, birds (yes there may be more) start to nest & have babes COVID restrictions lift giving even more chances further afield. So stay safe & sensible & I will keep snapping .

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Last month I thought Spring was well on it’s way, how wrong was I. As you will see from the shots below we have had some very different weather for the first two weeks of this month. What has been consistent however has been a bitterly cold, strong wind , where down the hill in the village friends have told me hardly any wind, one of the few disadvantages of living high up the hills. We get the views & we get the peace but you have to put up with the rough & the smooth. One advantage of living up here in a small hamlet where most of us are, let’s say, getting on in years, is that all of us have had our first jab (or jag as they call it up here), just gives you that added bit of health security. Lets hope soon we will be able to get out & about a bit more & explore the lovely surrounds of the Cairngorms again & who knows maybe get a coffee out.

I hope you enjoy this first half of March photos & lets wait & see what the second half will bring us.

Let us start the month with a sunny Spring shot, one hundred yards down the road from us growing besides a small stream are these bright & cheerful Aconites basking in the ever warming sunshine, a real pick you up as you walk past them.

Another sure sign of Spring, every year about this time of the year the field in front of the house gets full of these Crows, they are a very clever bird & methodical in what they do. They land beside piles of horse manure & turn it over section by section, finding worms & creatures to eat, Presumably building up their reserves for sitting on the nest during breeding season. It is not until you enlarge a shot like this do you actually realise just how big their beaks are.

On this third day of march we realised that winter has not left us yet. We woke up to a temperature of minus 5C, with freezing fog. I could see that the Birch trees nearby were white with moisture that had frozen on the branches, So I was a bit quicker doing my ablutions, eating breakfast & feeding the birds, but as usual by the time I got in the car & headed a few miles up the road to a Birch wood, the frost had gone off & I just had to be contend with this misty shot, which I still liked.

It might be cold again but the families of House Sparrows that we have “cultivated” to live up here have started nest building, the first thing they do is clean out last years nest material. So of course we know when they are building as the paths around the house get covered in old grass, feathers, sheep’s wool etc. This is one of the males giving me the “how dare you take my photo ” looks.

Of course these are not growing in the garden , those ones are only just out of the ground. These are M&S specials, miniature Daffs growing in a pot that really cheer you up on the kitchen window.

Just to show you it is still cold, I must have left the tap slightly on when I filled the bird baths the night before & initially the watering can was joined by ice to the tap, unfortunately (as usual) by the time I was washed & dressed to go outside it had melted off the tap. Lesson learnt, always take the shot when you first see it, even if in your dressing gown & get as frozen as the tap.

The wife has just completed this jigsaw & no the pencil was not in the picture, we just placed it on the map to show exactly where our house is. The field on which the pencil is placed is where the horses are & where we saw the deer last month and also where the Crow from the earlier shot was feeding. Only one major fault with the jigsaw it does not show just how hilly the area is, the ground at the rubber end of the picture is a good 100 ft lower than us with a hill in between.

By now you will have known that I love photographing clouds, though this was an unusual one to wake up to. First glance it looks like an atomic blast mushroom over the hills towards Rannoch, not a great shot from me , but I had only just opened the curtains. Place it on a local photography forum with the heading “Hope Rannoch is okay” & gave a few people a laugh.

Walked up the hill from us hoping to see some new born lambs to put on here but they were way over the far side of the field so spotted a pair of Lapwings & captured this shot instead of the lambs, just love that crest on their heads.

Overnight we had some very gusty wind, like most of the country had & scattered around the garden were last years seed heads from the climbing Clematis. These seed heads stay attached normally until this years growth starts & as they are some 25 to 30 feet up a Silver Birch I cannot normally reach them, so took this opportunity to photograph them. On placing them on the Canon Forum I straight away got comments that the left hand one looks like Boris Johnsons hair, maybe this is what he styles himself on, after all seed head does suit him with a reported 9 children.

I do love my cows & this little beauty is no exception, though it looks a bit sad, it was happy with the rest of the herd in with it. I realise that in an earlier blog I featured cows a lot, but this herd seems a new batch so i thought you wouldn’t mind me including it (sorry never checked the sex, so have to say “it”). As I intend to take a different subject shot each day I wont include the rest of the herd in later months (promise). Though sorry that criteria does not include bird species as my hope, by the end of the year, is to include every species that I see in my garden.

Here we go again. All this talk of Spring that I have been talking about & what do we wake up to today, more white “stuff”. I do hope you appreciate the dedication I am putting into these shots, I realised that the day was forecast as being sunny, so as I drew back the curtains and saw this I thought it might melt quickly. Therefore out true grit I threw on a dressing gown & went out & took this shot, blooming cold I can assure you, but for you, I would do anything (well almost) to get my daily shot.

Bit better than yesterday, still a cold Northerly wind but able to get out & about in the garden before rushing in for a warm up & brew. Not only is this the best year so far for Snowdrops, we are surrounded with a wonderful show of Catkins. These are on just one years growth as I cut our Hazel back last year & though the shoots only stand 7-8feet tall they are covered in Catkins, where normally we would only see a few when we had coppiced the growth.

We had four horses in the field in front of us which stay in the field for the time that the sheep are not with us. Unfortunately early last week the very old white horse, that has been slower & slower walking the field, died, which was sad because being slow it was also very gentle, compared to the others. Now with the remaining three I felt sorry for them & bought some carrots just as a treat for them, so today I called them up to our edge of the field & (as I am not brave enough to feed them by hand) threw the three carrots into the field, but this one in the shot managed to find all three & ate them all before the others got a look in, then turned towards me with those eyes & said “well have you not got any more for me”, well that’s how I interoperated his whinny.

Now as you know I am not the gardener of the household & if you had asked ME what this close of a plant was I would not have a clue. Due to this hunt for a different shot each day I am discovering the beauty of such things as this plant. Some of you will have guessed it is in fact one of the many different varieties of Heather we have in the garden. In fact I was very lucky to locate it, for as I told you last month we had a visit to the garden by a Roe Deer & they are very partial to Heathers & it munched it’s way through a fair number of them in the garden & this was one of the few untouched.

If it was left to me our garden would be full of Heathers, trees, grass & maybe a few shrubs, because they are all very low maintenance plants & that would suit me fine. But as I am married to a green fingered genius, we have a lot more variety in the garden than that. Most probably going to be a saviour for this photo challenge taking shots of different ones throughout the year.

Now outside that challenge last blog I showed you a miniature Iris in bud & promised I would show you it in bloom, so in addition to my challenge, here it is.