Perthshire and Midlothian

Photo: Meall Ghaordaidh.

Thanks to work I'm still just about managing to get to some wild places and see some beautiful scenery and I must admit it's very good for the soul. This morning I was working high above Glen Lyon on the opposite side to the northern slopes of the mighty Ben Lawers in Perthshire. This place has a very remote feel with high mountains and remote moors still covered in snow, and even drifting over one of the roads which forced me to turn back and find another route up the valley.

Photo: Ben Lawers.

The jewel in the crown  is Ben Lawers, the 13th highest mountain in the UK at 1214m or 3983ft. It's a spectacular mountain and also one of the finest botanical sites in the UK with many rare alpine plants such as drooping and arctic saxifrage, arctic fleabane, snow gentian, holly fern and many more. I've climbed it twice but not since July 1988. I'm long over due another visit, but not likely this year.

Photo: The road from Pubil to Killin.

The falls of Dochart at Killin

Photo: Meall Ghaordaidh.

On the way up to Glen Lyon I called in at Musselburgh, near Edinburgh. This is one of my favourite places and today I stopped off at Fisherrow harbour where I managed to see three of the four species of scoter which were in the area, surf, common and about 25 velvet scoter. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself otherwise, I managed to miss the star of the show, a drake American white-winged scoter. One for another day.

Also on the sea today about 15 slavonian grebes and 25 proper long-tailed ducks in adult plumage with long tails as opposed to the rather drab 1st winters we often see locally. Occasionally a flock of five or more would fly up and chase each other around for a while. This is one of the reasons why I like this place, it's great to see all of these sea ducks so well.