Day 8 - RSPB Forsinard Flows Reserve

Today started with Millbank Boating Pond Junior parkrun where I was timekeeping.  All the other volunteers were so friendly and the Run Director, Donna, was amazing.  51 children took part - the highest number since their inagural event in August 2022 when they had 53.

Junior parkrun start line

After breakfast we first drove to Scrabster where we are catching the ferry tomorrow.  It all looks very easy and only took 6 minutes from the hotel.  We then followed the coast road to the west of Thurso, passing Dounraey Nuclear Power Station.

 

Dounraey Nuclear Power Station

 

A few miles later we turned southwards through the Halladale Valley.  This is a single track road with plenty of passing places which follows the river of the same name and is quite remote.  There are a few houses and farms dotted about.  We didnt see any other cars on the way, just 2 motor cycles. We made our way to the RSPB reserve at Forsinard Flows.  This was probably the most unusual reserve I have ever visited.  

Firstly as we approached it we saw a railway station, in the middle of nowhere, serving the tiny hamlet of Forsinard.  We realised that the RSPB Visitor Centre was in the Station buildings but was unattended.  They had a film show in one room, a display of what could be seen in the Flows in another and lots of information on the walls in anotherwith some postcards and pin badges for sale, with an honesty box.  There were also toilets.  Not long after getting there, the only train of the day (Sunday) arrived and one person got off and made his way to the local houses.

 

 

RSPB  Visitor Centre

 

  

RSPB Visitor Centre and station platform 

 

The former station building, now the RSPB Visitor Centre

 

Nest box made out of wooden milage signs

 

Train leaving station at Forsinard

The Flows are peat blanket boglands that are very important for numerous plants and other wildlife.  Peat is up to 10m deep in places.  It isnt safe or wise to walk on them as they are waterlogged but there was a walkway out to a viewing platform.  From the top of the platform we could see the boglands all around together with a series of little lakes, made from when the local people relied on digging peat out to burn for heating and cooking.  

 

The bog pools and flow country

 

The bog pools and flow country

 

View across the flows

 

The viewing platform

 

Possibly a Drinker Moth caterpiller

 

There was another little stone walkway around the ponds with lots of information boards explaining plants, insects and other creatures found there.  We saw a few birds in the area.

 

Swallow - this was on a post where they asked visitors to take a photo and 

email to a given address.

 

This insect was swimming quite fast on the bog pools.  

No idea what it is.

 

This is a probably a 2 banded longhorn beetle.

 

Skylark (and I heard it singing loudly 

so maybe my hearing isnt as bad as I thought)

 

Skylark

 

 

 

Possibly a Meadow Pipit

 

Possibly a Spotted Flycatcher

 

After our visit we drove back down the same road and stopped at a car park to find it is another RSPB reserve, this time at similarly named Forsinain.  There was a circular walk but most of it is currently closed due to the bird nesting season.  The only bit open led up to a woodland so we didnt bother doing this. 

 

The River Halladale at Forsinain

 

Highland Cattle

We saw a sign saying "War Memorial" which seemed a bit unusual in such a remote place but found it hidden away.  It was a memorial to those from the Halladale Valley who died in the World Wars.  There were a lot of names so this area must have been more densly populated in the early 20th centuary.  Without the sign we would never have spotted this.

 

War Memorial

 

On the way back we turned up a small road towards the coast to Sandside Bay and stopped at a little car park with great views over a very sandy beach with views of Dounraey.  However the smell of seaweed to the west of the beach was overpowering so we didnt stop long.  This sort of beach on the south coast of England would have been commercialised  many years ago but today, on a reasonably sunny, warm Sunday afternoon, there were just a couple of dog walkers.

 

North Coast beach

 

Pied Wagtail camoflaged by the seaweed.

We returned early to the hotel to get packed ready to leave tomorrow.