Skye's Roadside Verges

Cupar-the-Collie gets his early morning stretch along the main road that runs by Roskhill. I say 'main road', because it is the A863 which crosses the moors from Dunvegan to Sligachan, but Skye is so traffic-free, we seldom see more than half a dozen vehicles in our 30 minute walkies.

So, every morning, wandering along with occasional pauses for a sniff (Cupar, not me), I gaze at the view (stunning), at the clouds (usually plentiful) at the birds (meadow pipets and sedge warblers most likely, plus crows, seabirds and occasional snipe) and at the roadside verges.

Just now, the wide verges are at their most resplendent. Lush swathes of waving grasses are tall and delicate and dotted throughout by yellow, blue, purple and white wild flowers. A close-up of nature at its awesome best.

But I have noticed a difference this year. Some familiar flowers are very few in number, and others seem to be missing altogether. We are used to seeing orchids (marsh and spotted), but the few that have flowered this year are small and widely scattered, while in contrast, the birds foot trefoil is absolutely everywhere. And there seem to be none of the magnificent huge spear thistles at all.... I can only assume the success or otherwise of wild flowers varies in much the same way as any other living thing. Temperatures and weather conditions vary every year, and no doubt this has an effect on some plants (and presumably on insects/animals as well).

                            

Here are a few photos of some of our local wild flowers... (and I'm cheating a bit - I took these on 25th June, last year).

As ever in this blog - click on any picture to see it bigger and view a gallery.

Birds foot trefoil

Marsh orchid

Spotted orchid

Ragged robin

Tufted vetch

Tormentil

Red clover

Ox-eye daisy

Marsh thistle

Hawkbit