Galloway Kite Trail - a walk at Parton

 One of the conservation success stories of recent decades has been the return of the Red Kite to Scotland (this is something I'll write more about on my Crafty Green Poet substack next Wednesday). We've travelled along the Galloway Kite Trail a few times in the past, but never before had we done the walk at Parton. This short walk passes between a small area of ancient woodland on one side and fields on the other. 

We saw a couple of Red Kites here (as we did elsewhere in Dumfries and Galloway, this magnificent bird of prey is now quite common in the south west of Scotland). We also saw an astonishing number of Red Admiral Butterflies, well over fifty of them, feeding on windfall apples and the berries of the rowan trees.  

Also notable were the wonderful lichens on the trees and rocks, her are just some of them: