A very unusual expedition, with two helpers, two dogs and
no explorers at all! This was partly due to the school holidays
and a lot of the regulars being away from the district, but
a fair share of the blame went to BT, who left me without
a working phone for a week and stopped me sending round the
e-mail reminders.
Anyway, it was a promising morning so Maureen and Philippa
joined me for a circuit around Arivegaig village, a new route
for the project. We had Ellie and Cora studiously ignoring
the sheep and finding a selection of sticks too good to let
us throw.
We were expecting showers but the rain was not troublesome
and there was a nice breeze to keep the midges away. We left
the car park and walked along the old route towards Kentra
village, seeing a small group of dunlin on the sand as we
passed. I found a butterfly as we crossed the headland and
managed to get a photograph, but credit for its recognition
should go to Ellie who managed to disturb it with her paw
so that it showed enough detail to be sure it was a Meadow
Brown.
We followed a well-engineered sheep track across the salt
march and this led us up to the houses at West End. Just where
we crossed the stream there was an exposure of what I believe
were varved clay deposits from the last glaciation. Once on
the road we walked back to the bridge and saw a group of deer
on the moss.
We made a small diversion to see some Rhacomitrium hummocks
on the moss - possible the oldest plants in Europe - and then
carried on past the old standing stone near the MacNeil's
croft. We turned left again and followed the side road down
to the bridge and then walked down the river.
This is a delightful part of Arivegaig, with ash trees along
the river and the grass close-cropped by the sheep so that
it looks like a park. We took out time going down the river
side and crossed the slippery gravel at the shallows by the
car park. Without the explorers, it turned out to be a very
quick trip, but I'm sure a bunch of younger eyes and ears
would have detected more items of interest. Let's hope I have
a phone by the next expedition.
John
Dye
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