Friday 4 September 2015

Heather Prospects

Some people were off fishing at 9.30 this morning, their day's work already done. From all accounts, the fishing has been good recently, with plenty of mackerel landed and more exciting fish like lythe (pollock) and a spurdog (dogfish) being caught.

For those of us on land, a quick walk in the hills behind the house seems a good idea as the weather was forecast to become worse before it might become better.

The ling is coming into flower and doesn't seem any the worse for the summer's cooler, damper conditions. With the bell heather and cross-leaved heath also having a good year, the next few weeks should see the hills ablaze in shades of purple and lilac.

Wherever there's a feast of plants we would expect to find plenty of caterpillars but we only saw one. It looks like the caterpillar of the fox moth Macrothylacia rubi, feeding on ling.

We walked east along the hill until we looked across at the neolithic chambered cairn of Greadal Fhinn in Ormsaigmore before climbing higher on the hill and turning for home. Also in the picture are the houses along Pier Road and HM Coastguard station, at right.

By this time the weather had done what it promised and turned miserable but we were back at the house and battening down the hatches before the rain became too heavy.

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