Natural Life of a small island in the middle of a Scottish Loch

[glinda]

A while back (in..umm...May) I went on a wee day trip to Inchmahome Priory, which is a ruined priory on an island in the middle of Lake of Mentieth. I finally got round to do doing a photo post of the trip and thought you guys might appreciate some of the more nature based stuff that I saw.



A solitary Canada Goose had taken up residence on the lawn and seemed to be helping the staff police the place.

The occupants of the boat I arrived on had cheerful banter with the boat driver about what the goose might do to us if we tried to avoid buying a ticket...



The air is really clear on the island so there's some serious lichen on the trees and walls.




There were three massive old trees at a crossroads on the path around the island. Due to my visit being now five months ago I've forgotten what species of trees they were but they were majestic, my dad got great some shots of the one that came down in a storm that looks like its escaped from Alice in Wonderland or Pan's Labyrinth.

And for unknown reasons all the trees in Mary's Bower (named after the young princess when she visited) are numbered with these little tabs.

Comments

[lark_ascends]

Awesome.

[clare_dragonfly]

Gorgeous! I wouldn't mess with that duck.

[untonuggan]

I really like the lichen! (No pun intended, honestly.)

[spiralsheep]

I especially love the tree liches, although the trees are good too. Thank you for sharing.

There are lots of number-tagged trees in the West Midlands too.

[glinda]

Thanks :)

It's been suggested to me that the tagging thing might be a forestry commission thing (surveying a particular type of tree?) which would make sense if you've seen similar tagging other places...

[spiralsheep]

I've always assumed it's for official tree-tagging purposes (although not exclusively by the FC) but it seems odd to me cos the tree will just grow over a tag, especially such a small one. I dunno. I'm sure you could phone a local ranger and ask if you rly want to know for sure. :-)

[firefly99]

Those lichen balls are fantastic. I've never seen any like that in real life.

[glinda]

I'd never seen anything like it before either, I guess it's a combination of clean air and no one disturbing their growth?

[fancyfool]

So lovely. Where is the priory? Canada?

[glinda]

Thanks, no the priory is in Scotland (the Trossachs to be precise) despite the name, there are resident populations of Canada Geese in the British Isles too.

[turlough]

Those old trees are fantastic!

[ex_bibbinut154]

Lovely, lovely photos. :)
My cats want to eat that duck! ;) LOL