Nature Notes from Skye
(and occasionally other places)

Sun 29 May 2005 Scorrybreac.  Frequent showers with sunny intervals.

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.

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, Lithobius forficatus, the Common Centipede.  It was in a very sluggish state - barely alive, it seemed, with its head under a piece of lichen.

Look out, those hairs can sting!  A close-up of the Nettle gall Puccinia urticata.

All photos and other content copyright © Carl Farmer