Today was my final day in Scotland before heading back to Norfolk, though hopefully we’ll both be up here again at the end of next month.
I decided to drive round to the other side of Bennachie and go to the official visitor centre, really just because I’d not been there yet. The centre itself had a small tea room and picnic area, plus the usual array of descriptive boards and exhibits about Bennachie. If that sounds a little dismissive it’s because I tend to avoid visitor centres in general as they tend to have too many people in and around them: I prefer my countryside with as few people in it as possible!! (call me anti-social)
The good thing is that there are plenty of well-marked walking trails based from the visitor centre, which means that Brenda and I will have plenty to explore as we get to know the area better. Today I chose to do one of the shorter ones, which I did at a very ambling pace! The woodland was beautiful.
There wasn’t a huge amount of bird life but I did get good views of common buzzard, goldcrest and great spotted woodpecker. I also saw a good range of fungi, which I’m now beginning to try to identify.
Brenda writes: “The moth trap was very quiet today but it was nice to see the micro agapeta hamana again.
No new species for July 26th:
TOTALS TO DATE:
Birds = 212
Moths = 190
Wildflowers = 262