{"id":3534,"date":"2015-08-11T18:43:07","date_gmt":"2015-08-11T18:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/?p=3534"},"modified":"2015-08-12T16:06:57","modified_gmt":"2015-08-12T16:06:57","slug":"nature-walk-on-creag-dhu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/11\/nature-walk-on-creag-dhu\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature Walk on Creag Dhu"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A red Russula<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today I went for a proper nature walk, after cutting a lot of thistles on the farm in the morning. The birchwoods were lovely with Chanterelles, red Russulas, and the first few Orange Birch Boletes of the year.<\/p>\n

\"Orange<\/a>
Orange Birch Bolete (it was delicious)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The sun came out from time to time, enough to make the Spey Valley look lushly golden against the green wooded hills and the distant blue Cairngorms, the heather richly brown in the foreground.<\/p>\n

\"Upper<\/a>
Upper Spey Valley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Orange<\/a>
Orange crustose lichen with big black apothecia on rock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Spotted<\/a>
Spotted Flycatcher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Wood Warbler and Spotted Flycatcher Habitat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I climbed up the old mossy boulder-field of fallen rocks until I reached the old-growth Hazel woodland, and sat down. Around me, a Spotted Flycatcher brought flies to a juvenile, and a pair of bright yellow Wood Warblers flitted about the trees and showed themselves beautifully. The rocks were richly lichened, and Wild Thyme and Wood Sage (elegant spikes of green flowers with purple anthers) sprouted among the ferns. Maidenhair Spleenwort grew here and there among the rocks. It was really pretty.<\/p>\n

\"Wood<\/a>
Wood Sage, Teucrium scorodonia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then I made my way right under the last of the cliffs around to the north and up on to Creag Dhu itself, with glorious views over the Upper Spey valley. Half a dozen feral goats played the role of herbivore, along with a Roe deer that skipped away from me effortlessly up the mountain and over a crest.<\/p>\n

\"Feral<\/a>
Feral Goats on Creag Dhu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I neared the summit, a Peregrine Falcon, wings like an anchor, hung motionless in the stiff wind before swooping to the ground.<\/p>\n

Back at base, we had a magnificent mushroom sauce on our rice for dinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I went for a proper nature walk, after cutting a lot of thistles on the farm in the morning. The birchwoods were lovely with Chanterelles, red Russulas, and the first few Orange Birch Boletes of the year. The sun came out from time to time, enough to make the Spey Valley look lushly golden … Continue reading Nature Walk on Creag Dhu<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[826,829,832,828,827,506,742,622,810,831,830],"class_list":["post-3534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-history","tag-chanterelle","tag-downy-birch","tag-feral-goat","tag-hazel","tag-orange-birch-bolete","tag-peregrine-falcon","tag-roe-deer","tag-russula","tag-spotted-flycatcher","tag-wood-sage","tag-wood-warbler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3534"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3553,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3534\/revisions\/3553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}