Heading north

During the return trip to Orkney, my calculations reckoned that there was an hour free to fritter away on some wildlife watching, as one of our rest halts on the journey. We decided to visit Insh Marshes, an RSPB reserve not far from Kingussie, as it was conveniently near to the A9 and held the potential for dragons.

Indeed, as we sat at a viewpoint, munching our sandwiches and listening to bird song, a Four-spotted Chaser flew over our heads and a couple of Large Red Damselflies could be seen in the vegetation.

To stretch our legs, we walked to one of the hides, which was down a narrow path which wound through a small valley. Fortuitously, this sheltered warm spot was absolutely chock full of Odonata. We didn't have enough pairs of eyes to follow all the action, but the time flew by as we marvelled at more Four-spotted Chasers, plus Large Red, Northern and Common Blue Damselflies.

The view from the... er... viewpoint

Large Red Damselfly

Four-spotted Chaser

Northern Damselfly

Northerns in cop

An immature Common Blue Damselfly

All too soon the hour was gone and we had to tear ourselves away and continue the journey. Happily, we will be having a week's holiday not too far from here a bit later in the year.