Nature Notes from Skye
(and occasionally other places)
Sun 29 May 2005 Scorrybreac. Frequent showers with sunny intervals.
![]() Flower c 8 mm across |
![]() Flower c 8 mm across |
The Shining Cranesbill is quite frequent in Britain as a whole but very uncommon on Skye. At the far end of Scorrybreac it grows on an old drystone wall and also on natural rock at the foot of a cliff.
![]() RH flower c 9 mm across |
![]() Flower c 9 mm across |
In the same area grows Brooklime, which is also uncommon on Skye. It grows in a very muddy sheep track that descends the cliff face. The mud has splashed onto the flower in the close-up.
An interesting lichen from the same area is Dermatocarpon miniatum, which grows on a vertical rock face overhung with ivy.
The first centipede to feature on this site. It was in a very sluggish state - barely alive, it seemed, with its head under a piece of lichen. It is a Lithobius species, probably L forficatus, the Common Centipede.
![]() Picture c 17.5 mm wide |
Look out, those hairs can sting! A close-up of the Nettle gall Puccinia urticata.