Tag Archives: birds

Abundance

Posted on August 30, 2019 by Annie O'Garra Worsley

It is late August and the morning is fierce with light. Westwards the Outer Isles are floating in a blue haze, their familiar shapes swollen yet indistinct. I am roaming the croft fields with a bag and a walking stick. … Continue reading →

Posted in birds, crofting, encounters with wildlife, environment, experiencing nature, landscape, meadows, nature, Scotland, summer, wildflowers, wildlife | Tagged birds, experiencing nature, jungles, landscape, meadows, nature writing, summer, wildflowers, wildlife | 7 Comments

Winter blues and the magic of light

Posted on January 13, 2018 by Annie O'Garra Worsley

So much happens in midwinter, not just the mayhem of a family Christmas but out there, beyond the walls and windows, down by the shore, in the fields and in the woods. Apart from the preternatural (and for me much … Continue reading →

Posted in birds, Christmas, clouds, coasts, encounters with wildlife, environment, experiencing nature, family, ice, landforms, landscape, landscape photography, midwinter, mountains, nature, nature writing, north winds, peatbogs, photography, Rainbows, Scotland, sea, Skye, snow, solstice, storm, Storms, thunder, Trotternish, weather, wilderness, wildlife | Tagged art of nature, birds, Christmas, coast, colours of nature, darkness, ice, Inner Sound, january, light, mountains, nature, North West Highlands, Scotland, Scottish Highlands, sea, snow, snow ice mountains storm waves birds, sunrise, sunset, weather, Wild weather, wildife, wildlife, winter solstice | 10 Comments

Wild meetings and mirages

Posted on May 29, 2017 by Annie O'Garra Worsley

A heron-grey early dawn. Through my open window wet scented air slipped in. It smelled wonderful. After days of heat that has bleached bog mosses and sucked moisture from soil, the rain was very welcome. Scents slicked over my tongue … Continue reading →

Posted in beaches, birds, coasts, encounters with wildlife, environment, environment, experiencing nature, landscape, nature, wilderness, wildlife | Tagged beach, birds, coast, croft, landscape, meetings, nature, new friends, ringed plovers, stag, weather, Wester Ross, wild, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife encounters | 3 Comments

A yellow, song-filled May Day

Posted on May 1, 2017 by Annie O'Garra Worsley

The sunset sky of May Day Eve was a riot of unflinching, billowing gold and crimson. It promised heat and flames but when the night came it was cool and solid like grey marble. May 1st 04.30: sunrise is an … Continue reading →

Posted in environment, experiencing nature, myth, nature, photography, Spring | Tagged Beltane, birds, flowers, May Day, song thrush, Spring | 4 Comments

Grey tails and skylarks

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Annie O'Garra Worsley

As the first page of March opened, tall thunder clouds passed over the Cuillin and Trotternish on Skye and glided across the Inner Sound. Soundless, austere and stately, the heights of their heads were impossible to estimate and yet I … Continue reading →

Posted in coasts, environment, experiencing nature, nature, sea, Spring, weather, wilderness, wildlife | Tagged birds, coast, sea, snow, Spring, Storms, weather, wildlife | 7 Comments

Midwinter, Christmas and a new neighbour

Posted on January 11, 2017 by Annie O'Garra Worsley

I am restored. Normal winter weather has returned. From outside howlings and groanings interfere with any thoughts of planning for the day. The noise is relentless. I can’t see properly through any of my windows though I peer out of … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, midwinter, otters, solstice, Storms | Tagged birds, Christmas, midwinter, north winds, otters, sea, Storms, waves, wildlife, winter solstice | 8 Comments

Winter’s arrival and otters by the shore

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Annie O'Garra Worsley

I woke this morning after a dream about a Tru(i)mphant bloke with blond fly away hair. Actually there were hundreds of them, rather like the dream sequence in Disney’s Dumbo, where elephants dance and morph into strange shapes and then … Continue reading →

Posted in coasts, environment, experiencing nature, landscape, mountains, nature, photography, sea, snow, storm, walking, wilderness, wildlife, winter, winter weather | Tagged birds, boundaries, croft, fields, hail, ice, nature, otters, rushes, sea, shetland ponies, snow, waves, wildlife, Wind, winter weather | 7 Comments

Wild storm bounty, sea birds and blooming heather

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Annie O'Garra Worsley

A short, blast of extreme weather in the Highlands recently brought flooding and a heat wave; and lots of midges. These wildly fluctuating conditions light up the landscape with flashing colour and humming vibrancy, as if the end-of-summer days must … Continue reading →

Posted in coasts, environment, experiencing nature, landscape, nature, peatbogs, photography, river, sea, storm, wilderness, wildlife | Tagged birds, kelp, nature, sea, seabirds, seaweeds, shoreline, summer storm, The Minch, waves, weather, Wester Ross, wild, wilderness, wildlife | 5 Comments

Otter Kingdom

Posted on June 4, 2016 by Annie O'Garra Worsley

June is upon us, and the radio has reminded me that summer is ‘officially’ here. We divide the year up into practical, bite-sized wedges yet in this wild country life is governed by weather and light in a topsy-turvy maelstrom … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged animal kingdoms, birds, crofting, erradale, natural world, nature, otters, peregrines, river, summer | 2 Comments

Spring-Summer-heat

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Annie O'Garra Worsley

Heat. Real heat. Not the usual Highland snatch of sunny warmth and hazy dampness where we still need to seek a secluded spot to shelter from a cool sea breeze, but authentic summer-hot, dust-dry heat. It arrived almost instantaneously, within … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged birds, dry, gorse, Heat, marsh marigold, primrose, Red River, sand martis, sprig flowers, Spring, summer, swallows, wildlife | 5 Comments