Ramsey Island

Time to brave the mighty Atlantic and take the 5 minute ferry over to Ramsey Island. Bright blue skies again, very hot under the sun. We had booked a tour around the island on a boat after the island, but they decided they had better things to do, so it was postponed to the next day.

Lots more walking than I had expected, and a lot less birds, hardly anything visible from the Island itself. More Choughs but still no luck getting good shots. Some cliff-nesting birds visible from the paths. Nice views from the south of the island, looking out to Ynys Bery and lots of wildflowers everywhere (should have left the big lenses behind and stuck to flowers).

Ramsey Island elevation

Ramsey Island route

Lots of Thrift

Thrift and Birds-foot Trefoil (yellow flowers)

South of the Island

South of the Island

Old RNLI boat house

Ramsey Island Chicken

View across Ramsey Island

View to the north of the island

I've got this lump of lead with me, might as well use it to photograph flowers

And relax

Oystercatcher

The "Tin Bath"

Those pesky Choughs again

Stonechat

Island tours

Flotilla of Razorbills

Fulmars

Everpresent Grey Seal

Thrift and Bird's-foot Trefoil

Guillemots on the cliffs

Lyme Park

Another revisit of somewhere we haven't been for a few years. This time around Lyme Park and the surrounding countryside.

Lyme Park Elevation

Lyme Park route

 Nothing much of interest along the early part of the walk (once we'd found it), then we happened across a small collection of caterpillars near Higher Poynton.

Large White Caterpillar

Small White Caterpillar

Large White Caterpillars surrounding a Small White

Closely followed by some cold, slimy carryings-on in the undergrowth...

Mating Large Red Slugs

Spider

Noon-Fly

Lunch on a grassy knoll by a small stream in Lyme Park, surrounded by grasshoppers and "leggy things". This is the only hopper that came close, even then it backed almost completely into the grass. If it didn't move it would be almost impossible to see.

Common Field Grasshopper

Unexpected chicken

The Cage and Red Deer

Red Deer

Loch Buie & Loch Spelve

Making use of our extra day (staying in the same cottage for two weeks we get a bonus Saturday in between) we headed over to Loch Buie, taking in Loch Spelve on the way there and back. Curlew and Common Sandpiper were in the scrub overlooking Spelve. At Loch Buie there is a flock of very tame Chaffinch, perching on car mirrors and windows waiting to be fed, even straight from the hand. Very little else around, plus very bright sun in the middle of the day.

Chaffinch on Gill's hand

Spot the Curlew Competition

Common Sandpiper

Male Pheasant

Lamb

Heading back we took the turning to Croggan, which was fortuitous as we spotted a family of Otters playing and eating fish at the edge of the Loch (looks like mother and two offspring). Annoyingly they were mostly hidden behind a fringe of tall, red grasses at the edge, hence very poor photos. Trying to slide down to get closer was also difficult as the ground was waterlogged after heavy rain and with a stream running through the middle. Eventually the otters finished their meal and swam slowly up the loch to disappear forever around a bend, leaving us with a mixture of excitement and frustration.

Otters eating fish

Otters

Otters

Juvenile Gull (with a faulty neck)

Red Deer

A house on the way to Croggan keeps, amongst many things, ducks and chickens, many of which make use of the natural bounty of the Loch, dabbling and scratching around in the seaweed.

Sea-Chicken

Curlew

Curlew

Curlew exiting stage-right

Willow Warbler

Herring Gull with the angriest eye we've ever seen

Back on the north side of Spelve we saw two Greylag Geese, hissing and posturing at some sheep. They seemed to take exception to them being there, eventually attacking a mother and lamb (the actual attack hidden behind a rock, naturally), driving them off. A lone sheep remained, settled down to chew cud, and no amount of hissing or aggression was going to shift it.

Greylag Goose

Greylag Goose posturing

Greylag bullies with the phlegmatic sheep that would not move

Oystercatcher

Oystercatcher

Should've gone to spec savers!