Mark Walters
Archaeologist at Heneb: The Trust for Welsh Archaeology. Into: Sound & Music, Photography, Botany, Environment, Palaeontology, Geology, Astronomy, Art, LiDAR, 3D, 15th-19th c. Fortifications & Industrial Archaeology, Ancient History, Numismatics, Gaming
- The view at the house we are staying at near Oldany, Assynt. It’s very restful and quiet except for the motor homes ploughing along the NC500 route with varying degrees of driving skill on show 🙂
- Knockan Crag geological trail, Oldany fish trap and harbour, Suilven, Ardvreck Castle
- Lots of Deer in the Culag Woods. Found a wishing tree 🙂
- Had a walk up to the Kirkaigh Falls along the poet Norman MacCaig’s memorial trail to the waterfall and Suilven beyond. A doubly emotional walk as Gill would have loved this up through the woodland & along the river. Norman was a family friend from the mid 70’s onwards until he died in 1996.
- The Bone Caves S. of Inchnadamph in the Durness limestone. The cave system formed over 200,000 years ago. Bones of Lynx, Polar Bear, Arctic Fox, Lemming, Wolf & more have been found since 1889. The caves were also used as shelters by humans 8000 years ago. I was greeted by 2 Ravens & a Peregrine 🙂
- The Traligill Caves - Scotlands most extensive cave system. Beautiful walk up to these caves from Inchnadamph, Assynt
- Two for the Tin Shed Appreciation Society in Elphin, Assynt
- So many Early Purple Orchid on the hills today above Loch Assynt
- Currently touring Assynt in the Scottish Highlands. Haven’t been here since we were living on the east coast near Tain. I had forgotten just how impressive the mountains are and the geopark trails are great. Past Suilven and Quinag today and a mooch round the fishing village of Lochinver and Stoer.
- It’s all happening on the Montgomeryshire Canal now - Yellow Iris in flower. Lovely views of the earliest Broad bodied Chaser I have seen. Plenty of the rarely recorded Hairy Dragonfly and loads of Beautiful Demoiselle and damselflies. Swans nesting - 7 eggs !
- Loads of Hairy Dragonfly on the Montgomeryshire Canal today near us. Example shown is a male. Also a male Beautiful Demoiselle.
- Scorched earth
- Nice reconstruction art on the info panels at Arbor Low by Peter Urmston.
- A walk in the Derbyshire Dales today and dropped in to see the Arbor Low Neolithic henge with its inner stone circle & burial mounds. Haven’t been here since the late 80s & if anything it’s more impressive than I remember. One lady telling me that the stone slabs were sunbathing recliners 😁
- The burned areas on Gentleshaw Common really highlight the old field boundaries now
- I think these are Green Longhorn day moths. There was a cloud of them fluttering around a young Oak with their extraordinarily long antennae a vibrating blur in flight. Mostly males I think who got very excited when a female joined the group.
- Great to find that Gentleshaw Hill, Staffordshire wasn’t as badly scorched by fire as I thought & is already recovering with new growth. It’s rare bit of heathland habitat. Nice and cool in the breeze up here accompanied by the song of Willow Warblers, Whitethroat and Blackcaps
- Sundown out the back
- Stormy skies out the back and a rumble of thunder
- Catching up with the Thames Valley Archaeological Services team excavating the small farmstead near Cefn Coch, Powys ahead of a quarry extension. Solid late 18th - early 19th c . dating with a byre and house & at least 3 phases of change. Possibly associated with the nearby rabbit farm earthworks.
- Germander Speedwell glowing in the towpath verges.
- The Horse Chestnut flower candelabras are in full bloom
- Hundreds of young fish travelling along the Montgomeryshire Canal at the moment. Never seen so many.
- This was quite a disturbing watch last night. I don’t know how Louis managed to keep calm in some very stressful situations.
- Reposted by Mark Walters[Not loaded yet]
- The legs akimbo chilled out collie - shameless 🙂
- Reposted by Mark Walters[Not loaded yet]
- Nice to have a copy of the second edition of Harrap’s Wild Flowers. My 2013 first edition copy is in bad shape now as the glue on the spine eventually gives up with use and pages become loose. It’s still the best photographic guide & I resort to Rose’s or other keys if I can’t ID a plant here.
- Nice to see Meadow Saxifrage on the northern slopes of the Breidden and plenty of Wood Sorrel too.
- Tree Pipit singing on the Breidden
- The Breidden hills are in full Bluebell mode now. Out early on the hill & rewarded with Tree Pipits displaying with their parachuting flight from treetops, lots of indignant Meadow Pipits watching me from their grassy mounds, the first Cuckoo I have heard since 2023 when we were on Arran & warblers
- Watching the Andy Summers documentary based on his memoir about the rise of the band The Police and never realised what a great black and white photographer Andy Summers is. The street/docu photos taken during tours are superb.
- Canada Geese keeping a low profile today out the back
- Wow 😮 The French #lidar data coverage has filled out a lot since I last looked. Will have to have a look through the new areas available. geoservices.ign.fr/lidarhd
- I’m impressed with the Flora Incognita app which is aimed mainly at wild plant IDs rather than garden plants. Tested it on 50 common plants and trees that I know well down the canal, sometimes using only young leaves rather than flowers, and it got them 100% right.
- Reposted by Mark Walters“The government’s planning and infrastructure bill is the worst assault on England’s ecosystems in living memory. It erases decades of environmental protections, including inherited EU legislation which even the Tories promised to uphold.” Please read & share. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
- This day last year Gill and I were exploring the Cwmystwyth lead mines area. There were no signs at that point that she was very ill with ovarian cancer - a bit thin but everyone put that down to lots of exercise and diet (a common symptom ID mistake for women). I miss her so much on walks now 🥲
- That’s the dragonfly season under way then 🙂 First Large Red Damselfly seen today on our section of the Montgomeryshire Canal. They are always the earliest species to emerge. I’m hoping the Hairy Dragonfly survived the CRT dredging over winter and we should see those early in May.
- Nice to see the Tiarella (popularly called Foam Flower) starting to come up now. Gill planted these many years back and they always reliably appear in mid April in a shady spot of the garden. I’m not sure which cultivar these are.
