Clyde Clippers in Aberdeen Harbour

 Clyde Clippers now offer boat trips round Aberdeen harbour. Despite the no show from the bottle nosed dolphins  their Marine Wildlife Cruise was a memorable and highly enjoyable experience.

Despite highly favourable weather conditions the expected bottle nosed dolphins failed to show. Wildlife sightings were limited to several jelly fish, a pin tail, guillemots and several assorted gulls. 

We embarked on what seemed to be a minute vessel in comparison with the giants in the harbour

The views of Aberdeen from the harbour were magnificent

We had fears that the dreaded haar which so often plagues the east coast would scupper our plans but could not have had a better day. Offshore a gentle, refreshing breeze made the heat bearable.

 The Torry Battery, built around 1861 during the Napoleonic Wars, overlooks the entrance to the harbour.

Lighthouse at the end of the old south breakwater, Torry Battery in the background.

 

Looking towards the Esplanade, the Beach Ball room in the centre.

Sharing our trip were children from Chernobyl

The children were supported by the Aberdeen City and Shire Link of the Chernobyl Children Lifeline a charity formed after the nuclear explosion of 1986. The children are brought to Scotland for a respite visit during which they benefit from medical check ups and from clean fresh air away from the contaminated food air and water.   We take these granted  but such is the level of contamination in Belarus that a visit of a few weeks greatly boosts their immune systems. 

Branched Bur-reed in the Kessock Burn

The Kessock Burn outside Fraserburgh's Tesco store is currently completely overgrown with vegetation which in turn completely conceals the mess of litter in the burn
.
Branched Bur-reed (Sparganium erectum)

The large leaves of the marsh marigolds poke out below the spear like leaves of the curious  Branched bur-reed and the fragrant cream flowered meadow sweet which fill the bed of the burn.

Poppies in Fraserburgh

 A blaze of scarlet poppies on the Fraserburgh Bypass 

From the wild flower mix sown by the council a couple of years ago the poppies and a few cornflowers have self seeded and provide  a vibrant splash of colour.

Speyside: some June botanical treasures

Dell Woods 

Chickweed wintergreen (Trientalis europaea)

This delicate flower abounds in the pine woods.

Tr
 Mossy Cyphel (Minuartia  sedoides)

This low cushion forming plant grows on gravel in the old station sidings at Nethy Bridge.
Unexciting to look at but also very uncommon

Duack Bridge

White dog roses (Rosa canina) along the Speyside Way

Fragrant Orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) growing beside the Puggy Line trail through Dell Woods, Nethy Bridge

One of the many roe deer

Properly Lochan Mor,according to no less an authority than Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus,The Highland Lady herself, but now known as the Lily Loch has several large patches of White Water-lily (Nymphaea alba) 

Alpine Bistort (Polygonum viviparum)
Patches of this short perennial grow by the woodland path leading from Inverdruie to Lochan Mor The bulbils on the lower part of the stem will eventually fall off to produce new plants.

Meadow land on the west side of the road from Nethy Bridge to Coylumbridge
This magnificent meadow, is studded with the spikes of butterfly orchids, there are also patches of thyme, tormentil and Common rockrose suggesting that the soil is slightly calcareous. A fence makes photography difficult.

 Butterfly orchid (Platanthera)

Magpie Moth

The Magpie

Abraxas grossulariata

A magpie moth caught my eye this afternoon resting on the leaves of a euonymous type bush in a neighbours garden in Fraserburgh.

The eye catching, butterfly like moth has black and white wings with an orange band, the head is orange with black markings.The wingspan is about 4cms.  The unusual wing markings make the moth conspicuous and act as a warning to predators that moth is poisonous. A night flier it is attracted to light so is easily caught in light traps. Victorian naturalists were given to collecting and breeding this moth in order to produce colour variations. 

The moth is short lived the adults emerge from over wintering as pupae in late spring and live for only three to four weeks.The caterpillars, as brightly coloured as the adults,  feed on bushes including gooseberry and currant  and were considered a pest until their numbers declined.

June flowers on the Wastart

By early June, the Rosehearty Wastart, that most familiar of wild places,  comes alive with wild flowers and there is huge satisfaction in finding each particular species growing in its favoured location.

Craig Ogston Gwyte

The sea really was this blue so that the lemon necks and snow white wings of the gannets making regular eastwards fly-pasts parallel to the shore gleamed against the water. There were also small flights of eiders, cormorants, a couple of fulmars and landward  constant larksong. There were  rafts of gulls well out to sea so we spent some time looking for the dolphins which often appear seeking the same shoal of fish as the gulls. None appeared but  later there were several off Phingask

Rufus sunbathing in a starry patch of tormentil

Cuckoo Flower or Lady's Smock grows in the damper places in the old lazy beds under Pitheughie which is Where we also found the first orchids of the year

Looking out for bunnies

Thrift grows in the most inhospitable places

Under better conditions such as here above the' Pots and Pans' it forms a tussocky mauve quilt

Always in early June one of the delights of the Wastart is coming upon  the colonies of Spring Squill growing in the drier places, often, as here, alongside tormentil.

The blue stars of Spring Squill, described as locally common, one of my favourite wild flowers.

 The rock above the squill patch was littered with crab body parts

Pitfour again

Pitfour: Bluebells and Pink Purslane under the trees by the canal 

The blue spikes of Bugle in  damp spot by the lake

Family outing: almost all of the 60 or so swans have recently left the lake leaving only a couple of possibly injured swans and this family of 9 cygnets and their parents.