Sunday, May 20, 2018
There were 50+ dunlin on the machair and the beach, with a smaller number of ringed plover.
The wind was obstructively strong and although it came from the south it was cold; I wasn't the only person walking with a hat on.
On the way out of the Coigach area I stopped to look again at the bog bean flowers that I posted about on the 13th. The following day, Country Diary in the Guardian was about an older diary from 1933, concerning a search for this plant in the New Forest by Janet Elizabeth Case. The writer of the column, Graham Long, quotes her description "spike on spike of its amazingly lovely white-fringed flowers and rosy buds" and adds himself that "the enchanting flowers are unlike anything else".
It was nice to read this after seeing them for the first time - and for that, I have the holiday traffic to thank. If there hadn't been a bunch of cars and camper vans coming and going at that moment, I wouldn't have pulled in to let them clear. If I hadn't pulled in and got out I wouldn't have heard the snipe. If I hadn't heard the snipe I wouldn't have walked along the road to locate where the sound was coming from; and if the snipe hadn't taken off from the pool, I might not have looked closely at the pool. Every spring, I set out to learn as many wild flowers as possible - and every year I forget most of them! I don't think I'll forget this one.
Before I got back in the car, a snipe started to call again - the "chipper-call" according to BWP; and somewhere near Stac Polly, a cuckoo's liquid notes were echoing.
// posted by Christine @ 3:13 PM 
