大象传媒

Bill Oddie visits the habitat for which the Outer Hebrides is famous - the machair. It's a Gaelic word that means 'extensive low-lying fertile plain'. Machair is unique - it is found nowhere else in the world. It is not a natural landscape - it has been created by man through farming. But fortunately, it's what Bill calls 'old fashioned farming' - which makes it perfect for birds and flowers. There are carpets of yellow and white flowers - buttercups, daisies and Bill's favourite plant in the area, cottongrass. The cottongrass is at its best now, looking like cotton wool on a stalk. Field pansies are the wild version of the ones you get in your garden. Bees are busy on the machair - and they are all types of bumblebee. It's a botanical wonderland, and also a nesting place for corncrakes.