I was out early yesterday morning to photograph the Auchinellan waterfall again, when I was joined by a robin. The robin is one of the most curious and least timid of British birds and this one stayed within a couple of metres of me for a series of shots.
For readers from any other part of the world where you’ve got birds called robins, they’re counterfeit, and this is the original and best.
This post was shared on Tumblr and has since gained over 30,000 notes. That makes it my most popular photo ever published, and it was an afterthought that I posted it in the first place.
Someone on Tumblr has identified the fungus as Honey Fungus (Amillaria spp.). Apparently they are edible, but I’m not going to try.
Click on the images for more fotos of phungi:
Fungal foray
Another fungal foray
Woodland fungi
Snow piled onto a spruce branch.
We had an unusual-for-Argyll drop of snow earlier this week. This was a find from a walk from the office at lunchtime.
The 319m (1056 ft) high Beinn Bhàn clear of the cloud of yesterday and in the early morning light.
There was a party up at the big hoose last night for friends celebrating dad’s 50th and daughter’s 21st. Well, to be honest, there were at least three different parties going on with young people in one room, old people in another and the middle-aged and badly-behaved in a third. We left fairly early because of the revision I mentioned yesterday, but no doubt there are some sore heads around. At least the view from our window appears to be clear-headed.
The 319m (1056 ft) high Beinn Bhàn looking quite mountainous in the wintry weather we’re having at the moment.
I’m supposed to be revising for an exam on Tuesday, but when scenes like this appear out of the window, you’ve just got to get the camera into action and share with friends.
The underside of small bracket fungi growing on a fallen Scots pine limb. Flash-illuminated.
The weather around here has been foul for days, so it was a delight to be able to get out of the office for a walk at lunchtime today. And, like a good boy, I took the camera with me. This is all that’s fit to share.
The Paps of Jura, seen from Dun Dubh on a winter’s afternoon.
Dun Chonollaich in silhouette from Dun Dubh. Fog lying in Kilmartin Glen beyond.
Fog lingering over the glens south of Loch Awe. Home is under there somewhere.
Looking down from the summit of Dun Dubh, near Loch Awe in Argyll, towards the Auchinellan estate, mostly hidden under the fog which had covered the area for the last three days. Taken on 28th December 2014.
Patrick Mackie 