Made my first trip to Loch Builg today, cycling from near Crathie. Surprised to see wild strawberry on the shore, with a tiny creeping lady's-tresses nearby. Also I'm liking the sedge on the right for slender sedge Carex lasiocarpa at Lochan Feurach, a first for Banffshire if the referee agrees...

One benefit of low water levels is that water courses with impenetrable bankside vegetation become navigable on foot. Taking advantage of this yesterday I explored a different section of the River North Esk, extending downstream the known ranges of mountain melick and sanicle.

I do like finding brambles with 7 leaflets, all the more satisfying as they can be hard to find amongst more normal leaves with 5 leaflets. This plant with strong, broad-based prickles on the stem angles is Rubus fissus. Near Strachan, Kincardineshire, yesterday.

Stoneworts seem to be in short supply in north east Scotland, and when found are often infertile. So delighted to find this specimen which I think is smooth stonewort (Nitella flexilis s s.) in a drainage channel amongst sand dunes near Cairnbulg. First BSBI record for North Aberdeenshire.

Only once before have I had a good view of a live mole. This one started off on the golf course at Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, then headed at a fair lick through long rough to a sandy area. Not fazed by the golfers, nor by me getting ahead and waiting for it to pass by. Too hot to be down a hole?

The BSBI DDb has two 10-figure grid refs for bird's-nest orchid at Easter Balmoral dated 2013. At both spots yesterday I found 1 flowering spike plus 2 from last year but none elsewhere. Precision ecological continuity, begging the question why they not widespread in similar birch woodland nearby?

'Twas a day of massed ranks at Crathie today: a veritable forest of creeping ladies-tresses in Balmoral castle grounds, at least 1000 spikes in all; a blaze of colour provided by stems of wavy hair-grass; and a huge patch of twinflower, with signs of attempted genetic enhancement by translocation.

There's an area of floodplain woodland by the River Dee in Aberdeen that I've been visiting regularly for over 30 years. Yet my latest visit yielded two additions: wood dock in damp woodland soil, and creeping yellow-cress on a shingle bank. Just goes to show, you've never seen it all!

Spent the weekend trying to track down and see for myself species reported recently by others. Success rate 4/9 bolstered by some unexpected discoveries on route. 3 of the refinds were sedges: prickly sedge; greater pond-sedge; and curved sedge courtesy of @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social.

Recording two Kincardineshire edge tetrads (all mostly in South Aberdeenshire) took me to some unexpected lycopods on the Hill of Fare (fir and interrupted clubmosses, both hectad 2nds) and a huge population of annual knawel (likely 10,000s along 300 m of farm tracks and in adjacent bare ground).

Seen during a walk along Aberdeen promenade yesterday: floral displays much greater now the Council mows less frequently; large individuals of lesser meadow-rue, popular with the bees; crested hair-grass in full flower; dandelions laid out to dry by a collector of Chinese or similar heritage.

At Cabrach today near the western edge of VC93 North Aberdeenshire. One site for shady horsetail seems lost (much marsh horsetail there now). Still present at another site, by the Allt Deveron though. Most unexpected find of the day was downy oat-grass, 1st record from the VC93 part of hectad NJ32.

Tried to refind twayblade along a disused railway line north-west of Inverurie. I wasn't expecting to succeed and didn't. But neither was I expecting to find hairy sedge or crosswort, and did. Both are rare away from the coast in North Aberdeenshire and may be accidental introductions.

Heath fragrant-orchid and alpine bistort, two of the more attractive plants recorded in the grassland above the Den of Pitlurg, Huntly, yesterday

I was hoping our ascent of Morrone, near Braemar, might yield a dandelion or two. And just look at this beauty growing in the limestone grassland: erect outer bracts; long, inrolled ligules; looks just like Taraxacum obliquum. But all BSBI DDb records for that are coastal. Interesting!

The most exciting find on today's Scottish Wildlife Trust Local Group botanical outing to Longhaven Cliffs was this patch of bladder-sedge, Carex vesicaria, on an old pipe-yard left to recolonise. There are only two other known sites for this in North Aberdeenshire, one of which is an introduction.

A late flowering primrose at Longhaven Cliffs, Peterhead, today provided a kind of phenological role-reversal for the early-flowering grass-of-Parnassus reported on Friday and still open today. Seeing both on the same site visit must be very uncommon.

Surprised to find an early-flowering grass-of-Parnassus today at Longhaven Cliffs near Peterhead. With distant sedge, which is quite scarce in North Aberdeenshire despite the extensive coastline.

This tiny area of central Aberdeen hosts three common members of the genus Senecio: 1) groundsel, 2) Oxford ragwort and 3) narrow-leaved ragwort. Growing with them are intermediaries between 1) & 2) [I think Welsh groundsel] and between 2) and 3) [though the BSBI DDb has no records of the hybrid].

In North Aberdeenshire, purple saxifrage is only known from 2 coastal sites near Aberdour. Drostan Leack has a strong population with several recent records and about 100 plants counted today. Not so at Dundarg Castle, last record by Grant Roger in 1956 and all I could find today is in these photos.

Mountain everlasting is very rare in Kincardineshire. Not since the 1950s has it been recorded away from the River North Esk near Edzell. So I was delighted to find a nice population by the Water of Dye near Strachan, perhaps where an old hectad-level record relates to.

This patch of herb-rich grassland by the River Ythan contains the only colony of purple milk-vetch known in North Aberdeenshire. 28 flowering heads counted in a 2 x 1 (horizontal) m rectangle. Some heads very young, maybe more will develop. But at the far end of the local rarity scale regardless.

After a bit of dabbling around with sleeves rolled up I managed to coax some lesser bladderwort to the surface of a boggy pool at Loch of Mortlach, Huntly, today. Luckily, the water was warm and there was plenty of dry sphagnum about to clean my hands on. Do pros have tools for this sort of thing?

Foxtail brome is having a bumper year by the Bridge of Dee roundabout, Aberdeen. Today's total of 45 flowering heads on 13 plants bucks the recent trend of dwindling population size. Most plants were close to the metal railing: fertilised by passing dogs or protected from road spray and weedkiller?

I've had my eye on this patch of grass near Fettercairn in Kincardineshire for a couple of years now. And finally the surrounding deer fence has become so dilapidated I could get to it. Suspicions confirmed, it's wood small-reed, a scarce plant in these parts.

Spring squill was flowering nicely at Kinnaird Head, Fraserburgh, today. Then sought without success south of Peterhead, but the roseroot flowers there were in peak condition.

In North Aberdeenshire, wood stitchwort is only known from close to the River Deveron, so it was good find it still present when passing Huntly yesterday. And nice to find alternate-leaved golden-saxifrage and greater tussock-sedge growing nearby

Came to Dornoch on a quest to refresh a 1973 record for the dandelion Taraxacum obliquum. I think mission accomplished within a few metres of the beach car park: the combination of erect outer bracts and tubularly-inrolled ligules are seems distinctive.

Conveniently, the path up Ben Vrackie runs just a few metres above a flush into which brown bog-rush has been translocated. Higher up, a minor detour is required to reach the base rich cliffs where purple oxytropis is just coming into flower. And near the summit we met this very tame dotterel.

Ascended Cam Chreag in Mid-Perthshire today. Trailing azalea plentiful above 800 m. Flower buds closed but a lovely colour. Interrupted clubmoss and petty whin lower down, both with only 2 previous records in hectad NN54. Also a dandelion with inrolled ligules: maybe Taraxacum inopinatum or argutum?