Berneray - Machair magic

[RobSutton]

I've just come back from a trip to the Outer Hebrides. I usually go up either in early May or Late August which seem to be better times of the year for birds but it does mean I miss the magic of the machair. These poor sandy soils are the only bits of the islands that can easily be cultivated and have been for hundreds of years but on a strict rotation so soils have a chance to recover their fertility. Some bits are never ploughed but are used as rough grazing. The consequence of poor soil and rotational use means that they have a magnificent richness of wild flowers. I'd hoped to be able to photograph some of this richness on this trip (there was another reason for going and I might post some photos to do with that in another thread).

View down onto Borve Machair on Berneray


I think this area at the south end of Berneray is perhaps the richest of all the machair areas in the Outer Hebrides. This shows a section that has been ploughed and planted up with barley, though inevitably there will always be lots of oats in there as well. The yellow stripes in mid view are other areas of Barley with masses of Corn Marigolds in flower:


Towards the sea the slightly damper soils are often dominated by silverweed and at this time of year spectacular shows of red clover:




I didn't want to spend a lot of time taking individual plant portraits but wanted to show the richness of the Machair in it's totality.






When I did try some individual close ups there was the perennial problem of the wind. I didn't have a single still calm sunny day whilst I was up there. It was either gloriously sunny but very windy or still, damp and midgy - neither set of conditions are ideal for lying on the ground trying to take close ups of plants!

I did manage a nice (I think) close up of Corn Marigold:


and did even try to use the wind to catch some "movement" in some of the shots - this is probably about the best of them:


The machair even has it's own (well not quite it's own) bumblebees, the Great Yellow Bumblebee Bombus distinguendus which seems largely restricted to the Outer Hebrides and a few other Scottish Islands and odd bits of the West Coast of Scotland:


The other is the Large Carder-bee Bombus muscorum - which seems to have declined over much of it's range but is still fairly common up on the machair:


Whatever the weather and the success or otherwise of the photographs it was another wonderful trip to an amazingly beautiful place.

[Hedera]

What lovely atmospheric photos. I love the red clover one which seems to reflect the pink on the underside of the clouds. The bees are interesting too.

[diggleken]

Great stuff Rob - brought back some very happy memories of the Western Isles and their terrific scenery, plants and birds, plus otters galore of course!
I also love the slow brogue of the islanders - their warm and unrushed speech. Lovely.
Keep them coming.
Cheers
Ken

[RobSutton]

Originally Posted by Hedera

What lovely atmospheric photos. I love the red clover one which seems to reflect the pink on the underside of the clouds. The bees are interesting too.

It was the last bit of light on what had been a very dull grey day and just as it was getting too dark to photograph a bit of light came through, justing lifting it enough to get a shot.

Originally Posted by diggleken

Great stuff Rob - brought back some very happy memories of the Western Isles and their terrific scenery, plants and birds, plus otters galore of course!
I also love the slow brogue of the islanders - their warm and unrushed speech. Lovely.
Keep them coming.
Cheers
Ken

Thanks Ken - it's a place I keep going back to time and time again. I do think that after this visit it might be time to think about giving up on the camping. After the third wet day in a row the delights of living in a tent start to wane - I think it's the moving from horizontal to vertical whilst surrounded by wet clothing that is the problem. Never used to bother me when I was younger

[earthdragon64]

Lovely shots, Machair is remarkable with the vibrant colours and huge variety of species.

I was on Tiree in June this year and it will always be the yellow Isle in my memory, the mix and volume of yellow flowers was amazing.

[RobSutton]

Originally Posted by earthdragon64

Lovely shots, Machair is remarkable with the vibrant colours and huge variety of species.

I was on Tiree in June this year and it will always be the yellow Isle in my memory, the mix and volume of yellow flowers was amazing.

Thanks - Tiree is another of my favourites (though just shaded by Coll next door which has a better pub and beaches). By July the machair on Berneray was well into it's red and blue phase with red clover and harebell dominating, though still a lot of yellow from the ladies bedstraw and big white patches of eye-bright and wild carrot. Counted easily thirty species of plant in ten minutes.

[ron1863]

Lovely photographs Rob, glad you had a great holiday and it looked like the weather was kind to you

[RobSutton]

Thanks Ron - there were a few wild wet and windy days in-between the good ones as is usually the case up in the Western Isles. It just makes the good days seem even better.