Loch Meadie

Today's afternoon expedition was to Loch Meadie. I'd checked it out on the map and there was a farm track running alongside it and a layby to park in, so I packed up my camera rucksack (including tripod for once) and set out.

We'd had the most amazing stripey sky all morning, which was just starting to pass:



I didn't see a single piece of wildlife all day, though I heard a couple of birds. Not sure whether it was the time of year, the place or the fact that the tripod clanked loudly - probably the latter! So I became a landscape photographer for the day:



Until the sky went flat grey and I had to turn to lichens:



and water:



I'm having a play with Lightroom 2.2 at the moment and so far am very impressed. Not quite got to grips with it yet (I've had it less than 24 hours), but I'm finding it a lot more intuitive than Photoshop Elements.

A plover-free zone

You're all going to get very bored if I continue my plover obsession on my daily walk, so today's post is not only a plover-free zone, I didn't even take a photograph of one while I was down there.

It occurred to me as I was walking back up that I'd shown you the beach, but not the path to it, so here it is:



It winds through the grass and then up through the trees on the right, which is midge city at the moment. I did try going up the direct way yesterday, over the stile on the bottom of the croft, but the cow parsley is as tall as I am and the thistles and nettles nearly as large, so I think I'll leave that route alone until it starts to die back a bit.

Lots of butterflies about though - this was the best shot I got today, as it was windy and my subjects kept getting blown 20 or 30 yards just as I'd focused:



Still in a macro frame of mind, I went onto the beach and shot ripples on the Allt Beag:



seaweed in a rockpool:



and rabbit footprints in the dunes:



In fact this would have been an all-macro post if I hadn't found this whopping great rockpool and decided it needed to be captured for posterity due to its size!



Tomorrow is the Halkirk Highland Games, so as long as the weather stays nice (it's looking promising), expect lots of men in kilts pictures over the weekend...