A sunny day always tempts us to go to a beach, but which one? Haven't been to Rascarel for ages, the loss of the parking area to visitors to the chalets means we now have to park at the forest gate. This is no bad thing as it means a walk through the wood and lots of birds and, at this time of year, birdsong along the way. It is a shame most of the trees are fir trees with very dense undergrowth but trees at least!
Imagine our surprise therefore when we reached the gate and there were no trees! Most of the trees to the right of the track have been chopped down. It does explain why there is such a smooth new road!
It always looks so desolate when forests have been felled - just the odd tree left standing. A wren was making good use of one of the piles of branches, hopping in and out, and singing away. For such a little bird they produce such a loud, but tuneful, song. We always love to hear the wren and sometimes it is just hear. It is always worth standing still for a few minutes to try and catch a glimpse of the wren, their sticky-up tail is often the giveaway to their presence.
The removal of the trees does however reveal stone walls and dwellings that used to be here before being hidden by the trees. The walls, despite being hidden, look fairly substantial in places and lovely with their coat of moss. The dryness of the moss shows how little rain, relatively speaking, we have had in the last few weeks. After the winter moss everywhere had been looking green and lush, but now it looks rather shabby in places.
Wandering along, there were birds in the trees to the left of the track, but not the usual flitting across from one side to the other in front of us. We did see lots of male chaffinch, looking very smart with their pink chests, along with coal tit, great tit and a buzzard circling in the air above us. It was very still with no wind for us walking the track but obviously up there he was finding good thermals and drifting round and round quite happily.
We now came to Loch Mackie, looking very full of water after the winter rains, and although the trees surrounding it are still dressed in their winter outfits there are signs of growth in the water as the iris are sprouting well. The water was very still in the corner here and the reflections were lovely to see.
Heading down to the beach, rather than on to Balcary, we follow the track parallel to the wall. On the other side of the wall is a stream, chuckling down to the beach. Now the trees are gone we can look over the wall and see much more clearly. Clumps of primroses and celandines are visible at the edge of the water with lots of buds just bursting opening in the sunshine.
The gorse bushes are looking so vibrant now, with bright yellow flowers covering the bushes. We have noticed this last week they have started to look so cheery by the side of the roads when massed together. It is also nice to see brown, ploughed fields appearing in the countryside along with the stripes of rolled grass fields. The gorse, however, are becoming a favourite flower to look out for - and of course the bees love them! The bushes we pass now are buzzing - we can hear the bees inside. A pause for a few minutes reveals the honey bees moving from bloom to bloom. We can see the pollen sacs on their legs so they have obviously been busy. There are also a few flies about now in the sunshine too.
Now the trees are gone the view of the beach appears much sooner.
Once we get down on the beach we look at the hillside and see how they have felled the trees right down to the bottom of the hill. How bare it appears. Hopefully it will be replanted sometime soon, but I'm sure it will green up and have flowers and bushes sprouting up there very soon.
We have our lunch sitting on two big stones on the beach. How peaceful with just the waves whooshing on the shore and the odd gull or oystercatcher calling. A lady, with an inquisitive Dalmatian wondering if we have anything for him, passes by, but apart from her we have only seen two or three other couples during the whole walk. The sun feels quite warm as we wander about picking up the odd shell or two and watching shrimps in the rock pools.
Time to move on, still not towards Balcary but back towards Rascarel Bay. More gorgeous gorse with busy bees as we wander along. We hear a pheasant calling and loads of rooks squawking. Many more chaffinches flitter around the car park for the new chalets, along with our first chiffchaff of the year! He/she was not singing their "chiff-chaff" recognisable song, but we are told that was what it was likely to be. As we walk past the new bridge and the stream towards the road, we see where the numerous rooks are nesting.
A short walk back along the road to where we parked the car, and a very pleasant wander is over.
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