Morrone Birkwood: Monday 9th May
Today we visited the Morrone Birkwood and did the circular walking trail there. Morrone is a Corbett that sits overlooking Braemar to the SSW, with an altitude of 859m. Birkwood is Scottish for Birchwood. Our main aim was to search for Netted Mountain Moth – in which effort we were unsuccessful – despite this being one of its listed sites and doing the trail twice. In fact there was surprisingly little Lepidopteran activity altogether considering it was still and 23 deg C. But the lack of entomological interest was compensated by the beauty of the area and the gorgeously sunny day. Distance 4.5km, Ascent 120m (x2)
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Plant of the day: Juniper (Juniperus communis) Family: Cupressaceae
One of only 3 native British conifers (the others being Scots Pine and Yew) and the smallest – more of an evergreen shrub than a tree. Usually has male and female flowers on separate plants. Characterised by fleshy, berry like female cones, green when young, blue-black when mature. Needles stiff and sharp-pointed, short (5-15mm) in whorls of 3.