Barley plant exhibiting 'tillering' - Rockside Farm

Tillering - where multiple shoots spring from a single seed - with the prospect of multiple ears...  Apparently farmers sometimes lightly graze young barley with sheep at the critical stage to encourage this.

Mackerel Sky - Rockside farm

Drilling barley at Rockside

Gulls following the plough at Rockside Farm this afternoon.

Mark French was ploughing the Minister's Field prior to planting barley for Bruichladdich.

Cow - Rockside Dunes

Barnacles in the Blue

Barnacle geese in a blue blue sky near Rockside yesterday.  The weather remains hot, cloudless and still.

Whooper Swans and Barnacle Geese - Armin Grewe

Lovely shot from Armin of Whooper swans and Barnacle geese, taken last week I believe, on the fields of barley stubble between Sunderland and Rockside Farms on the Rhinns.  Many thanks Armin...

298 Whooper Swans on the Rhinns

I counted a total of 298 Whooper swans (Cygnus cygnus) between Rockside and Sunderland Farms on the Rhinns this afternoon.  201 were in a big flock on the half-cut barley field at Sunderland (top photo) and 97 on stubble at Rockside.
Carl