Ben Dolphin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿❄️⛰🌲

Unsurprisingly, most of the ticks I pick up come from the car park itself. #rangerdailydiary

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Just west of Braemar 🙂

👍

Just west of Braemar 🙂

Nice pedal up to 750m today before slogging through wet snow to Carn Bhac. Glen Christie was doing its best 'sunshine and shade' thing 🙂

I cleared all the snow away from the lee of Carn Bhac's summit cairn today and snuggled down for the requisite coffee stop. Wonderfully calm down there, out of the wind while the spindrift whizzed overhead and the clouds sped past 🙂

It was a tad bracing up high today 🙂

A full day today. Car park checks, visitor data downloads, Lui trail inspections, parking machine fixes, DofE expedition requests, review of fire bylaw signage, helping bunkhouse visitors, recruitment stuff, visitor chats, audit of spare uniforms and a whole host of emails 🙂 #rangerdailydiary

Good god it was a real stunner today. Busiest I've seen the car park since the autumn, and can't say I was surprised. -3C this morning, warm sunshine and no wind, blanket snow cover above 900m and a high of just 6C in the glen. Where else would you want to be???? 😎 #rangerdailydiary

Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.

Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.

It's almost 10C out there just now, so the cover is getting more patchy, but quite a lot up high still, above about 900m. The Cairngorms look the part but didn't get as much snow as the White Mounth etc.

Lovely day with our volunteers, clearing the drainage features in Clais Fhearnaig 🙂 #rangerdailydiary

First newt of the year for me 🙂

Footage of the cormorant. It ultimately walks so close that you can hear the 'slap' of its feet on the tarmac 🙂 Clearly on a mission, it's probably in Ballater by now 😆

So nice to be back on a Calmac ferry last week 🙂 Been a while! However, listening to folk on Arran it's terrible what they've had to put up with these past years. So much uncertainty even now, for what is a vital transport link for them.

Braemar and Glen Clunie this afternoon 🙂

Monadh Mor, beyond Glen Geusachan.

Coire nan Clach on Beinn a' Bhuird, and looking towards The Sneck.

Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuidhe, on Ben Avon. Must still be good ski touring up there....

Mount Keen looking better than it has done for years....

Cairn Toul, and Garbh Coire peering around its side. This part of the Cairngorms hasn't had nearly as much snow as the Grampians, hence it looking quite lean in comparison.

Across to Coire Etchachan....

Lochnagar still holding well.

Lofty vantage point today to observe bigger hills, and how there's still good, fairly consistent snow up high. Glas Maol showing off its ski slopes...

Lovely jaunt up and down Carn na Drochaide this afternoon. How I've missed blue skies!!

What a beautiful day! Still -2C, up from a low of -7.4C.

Still some snow here and there, at fairly low levels in Kinross-shire just now.

Still no water in this lochan, even after the wetness of the last few months. I'd never seen it empty till the last couple of years and shows no sign of filling any time soon. Gives an indication just how dry Fife was last year.

Double walk this morning, in Kinross-shire and then Fife. First up Lendrick Hill and then a quick jaunt up Falkland Hill. Lovely weather, very windy but with a bronzing sun and the skylarks singing 🙂 High of 9.7C in the Lomonds made it the warmest day of the year so far.