Walking near Forres

Today I go walking in some Scots Pine woods near a place called Half Davoch (Altyre woods).  Some of the woods are open, with large gaps between the trees, but a lot of what I walk through is planted in plantation format.  I spend a bit of time walking through an area of around 25 years growth, and then a younger plantation where the trees are just 7 or 8 years old.

In the open woods the few standing Scots Pines are fantastically tall, majestic looking trees, probably hundreds of years old.  Their bark is deeply fissured, and there are plenty of young broad leaf trees growing around them.

In the maturing plantation area there are a few sickly looking Birch, and much less light.  But despite this I see lots of moss and lichen on the trees and ground, and hear constant bird noise from the Tits, Finches and Wood Pigeons that are flying around me in amongst the trees.  I walk into the woods, far enough that all I can see are trees.  It would be easy to imagine that the woods went on forever, but I can always hear the traffic on the nearby A940.

On a side road on the way home a hare runs out into the road ahead of me, and a small deer with a small white tail crosses the road at speed.