Walking down from Ben Reoch, l notice a ginger bundle off to the right, not quite bracken. Looking at it through my camera’s zoom and it is a fox, head buried in the grass. After a moment or two its head comes up and stares intently into the grass. After a couple of moments, and photos, the fox turns and looks at me. A few more moments while we look at each other then it turns and runs off. As I move down the slope I can see over the ridge the fox went over. A few sheep stand around, moving off when they see me. They don’t look to have been worried about the fox.
On Monday I was planning a walk but it felt a bit hot to go to the hills. I got the train to Milngavie and walked back down the Kelvin walkway to Glasgow.
Saw the first kingfisher on the Allander water which kept my eyes on every overhanging branch for a while.
Both the Allander and the Kelvin are lined with the pink stink of Himalayan Balsam. The path quite overgrown in places with nettles, thistles & brambles making shorts a poor choice.
Despite the warm weather the rivers are quite full. Less butterflies than I expected, green-veined whites all long the way.
Everything seems to have come to autumn early, brambles, acorns and already red hawthorn berries.
Once back in Glasgow I was looking across the river and saw a reflecting, the colour and shape of a foxes ear. Lying in the balsam above was a young looking fox. It didn’t look quite right, spread and very still. Zooming in I couldn’t see breathing and it was still when I made a loud clap. My second kingfisher of the day arrowed past.
Once I got to the science park I saw a couple of specked woods. Birds along the way: a kestrel, mobbed by wee birds; warblers, and goldfinches. I watched one goldfinch feeding a youngster in those incongruous hawthorn berries.
Afternoon, Kilpatrick Braes. Very hot. Buzzards mewing & raven croaking in blue sky. Quite a lot of peacock butterflies, mostly on downy thistles. A couple of red admiral & fritillaries flying by. A few whites by the road. Heather out, braes purple. At the turn a lizard wriggled off over the grass.
A young looking fox, all long legs & ears, runs out of a garden across the road, doubles back from the traffic. It runs between a couple of gardens so I cross the road & keek, the fox is sitting in the border looking straight back. A quick blurry phone pic & I leave quietly.
