Shades of Red

Red is one of autumn's colours, particularly in a year like this when we've had a fine October to burn the colour into the landscape.  It seems to have been one of the dominant shades in the sunrises throughout the month - this one is this morning's which, after a sharp frost had been melted off the grass, led on to some bright sunshine.  But, by midday, the clouds had moved in bringing a thin, cold rain.

There's red in the leaves this year - Ardnamurchan's trees have excelled themselves in mimicking the fall colours of North America this October.  The leaves of plants like the blackberry, above, seem to be revelling in unaccustomed reds.

But the most startling reds have been reserved for the berries.  This rowan is just down the road from us, and it has never had such a weight of berries on it before.  There are so many on some of the branches that it's a miracle they haven't broken off.

It's rowan berries that the Fieldfares were enjoying on the other side of the peninsula yesterday, but the Ormsaigbeg harvest is being eaten by our resident starlings, thrushes and blackbirds, and by animals such as the pine martens, who leave little piles of poo in the middle of paths that are full of rowan seeds.