"Scottish Snippets"

"Colour Supplement"

20 August 2005

Each week the Scottish Snippets Newsletter includes a number of photographs which illustrate the flora and fauna of the current week around Scotland. On occasions, there are so many such graphics worth including that a separate "colour supplement" is created so as not to totally overload the Newsletter. Here is this week's crop!

Rowan Berries


The advancing season is illustrated well by the arrival of the bright red berries of the Rowan (Mountain Ash) tree. This one was one of many grown by the RSPB bird reserve at Vane Farm near Kinross. Soon, the birds will be having feast on these to fatten themselves up for the winter.

Thistle


Although here are still a few thistles coming into flower, many are already over and producing their thistle down parachutes for their seeds. These can be seen floating everywhere out in the country.

Swan


Male swans can often be very aggressive - particularly towards rivals. But this swan was charging around, scattering any other bird that got in its way, regardless of species! As you can see from the wake being created, the poor mallard duck was having to move fast to get away!

Tufted Ducks


This picture might be entitled "That's Mine!" as the family of tufted ducks race each other for the piece of bread that was thrown to them (seen in the bottom left of the picture). One duck is quite prepared to clamber over the back of its sibling. And don't think that the mother tufted duck will defer to its offspring. If she gets there first, she'll snaffle the bread for herself. Tufted duck chicks can feed themselves as soon as they are hatched - and dive under the water if necessary to do so.

peacock Butterfly


No apologies for yet another picture of a Peacock butterfly! At the moment, Peacocks (and the constantly moving Small White and Large White) are the most frequently seen butterflies. So far this year, I've not seen any migrant Painted Ladies - they start out from the Mediterranean and spread across the continent.

Small Copper Butterfly

Although the Small Copper butterfly has appeared on these pages in previous weeks, it is not a frequent sight in the hedgerows or, as here, feeding on some small thistle-heads.

Squirrel

This picture is included here as an illustration of the current season as it shows a wind-fall apple being eaten by a squirrel. Oh yes, and the squirrel is cute too!


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