To-day’s walk: Looking at the forecast it is heading down hill later this week after a very dry month. It was a very clear picture first thing but a thin cloud arrived, thankfully not before I had my walk. I was astonished to see how dry it was underfoot after such a short time of sun, light breeze and hard frost. It certainly makes you think about the climate here. What if the West had a sustained Easterly wind, I suspect it would not take too long for Rona (and the West) to look very different. Imagining whilst I walked, if we had a year or two of this, it was interesting to contemplate that whilst walking.

Disappointingly the seaweed as always full of plastic we have in the past filled tonne bags, sadly we don’t have that time anymore, meanwhile it continues to pollute.

I had gone out to see if I could get a picture of the Curlews, they were noisy yesterday but absent to-day, the Oystercatchers greeted me with their piping. 4 to-day in the Bay but there are more about. The East wind moved any deer in front of me but I caught a couple. The Harbour Forest planted by the Victorians over 170 years ago had the usual wee birds flitting about, lots of Wrens and a noisy flock of Seagulls following me, they are normally stationed around the House and Outrun.

The so called ‘RainForest’ was far from that to-day, tinder dry and in these hungry months looking bare just waiting for the temperature to rise and the days to get longer. It will not be long before all the trees burst into life. These days of sunshine will perhaps bring them on but temperatures have remained pretty low. The Scots Pine continues to spread but windblown and browsed, it is slow, some are getting away though, others struggling past the grazing and holding onto the thin soil despite the gales.

The deer dry bath and wallow has had the usual activity, some may point and say, peat erosion, I would say totally normal deer activity. This is what they do, I cannot say if the dry area of exposed peat supports anything but the wallow in summer seems to have plenty dragon flies around and who would deny the deer a bath.

With the trees bare the impact of the wind is only too obvious, finding a Sitka Spruce on the bare hill where no spruce ever existed, windblown from the nearest ex Forestry Commission Forest at Storr perhaps. We have a few regenerating Sitka on Rona and for sure they are fast colonising areas of open moor in Scotland adjacent to Commercial plantations. They will be a major issue in future for sure.
All in all a good hour and a half in dry sunny weather.