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Walking Group One 25th April 2024
Five hardy souls collected today at Happy Valley for the first Hill Walk of the year .The temperature was cool with a North Easterly wind blowing and a hint of rain on arrival.
Off we set heading towards Russadale Quarry, spotting a Buzzard on the way.Turning into the footpath we remained sheltered from the wind all the way to the top of the hill.
The sun was out at the Quarry and a Greenshank was feeding at the edge of the Lochan. Then it was up the Peat road to the summit with spectacular views across Stenness and Harray Lochs, plus a view of the Closed Road beyond the Watch Stone. On the other side we looked over the Flow and down towards the Oil Platform and South Ronaldsay
Then it was back down after a stop for a snack and finally a walk around Happy Valley itself. The Daffodils planted by James and others were looking lovely and the Bluebells are days away from opening. Then it was on to a well deserved lunch at the Pier Cafe, having walked 4 miles and gone up 800 feet (and down again )
The next walk will be on Friday 24th May and hopefully more hills and views.
Keep moving.
Botany Group
by Margaret & Beryl - 17:15 on 22 May 2016
U3A Botany Group 17th May 2016
by Margaret & Beryl
After a break for the winter months five members of the Group met at Rerwick Head for the first outing of 2016. The picture below suggests that maybe we were a little early but as ever, if you look, there are interesting things to be found.
Wet Wanderers
As we wandered we found, in flower, cuckooflower, daisy, dandelion, marsh marigold, celandine, bird's foot trefoil, thrift, scurvygrass, spring squill, tormentil and best of all marsh violet.
Not yet in flower were sea mayweed, orache, sow thistle, common creeping thistle, cleavers, chickweed, meadowsweet, flag iris, hogweed, angelica, nettle, heather, sorrel, ragwort, meadow vetchling, silverweed, self heal, red and white clover, docken, blinks and plantains of the ribwort, sea and buck's-horn variety.
We also found field horsetail, common sedge, carnation sedge, field woodrush and creeping willow.
Marsh Violets
Field Horsetail & Woodrush
Not only did we see plants but also a white and grey moth clinging to dead umbellifer stem which at the time could not be identified, 9 common scoter, arctic terns and a freshly dead gannet on the beach with no obvious external cause of death.
A grey moth waiting to be identified
It was an interesting if damp afternoon.
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