Tuesday 26th August

Some butterflies have started to show up in the garden, if only in small numbers - small tortoiseshells, a handful of fine peacocks that seem larger than usual and just one red admiral, plus small whites.

Rode from Annan to Dumfries yesterday, stopping off briefly at Applegarthtown Nature Reserve, which was pretty much deserted. It was really to see if the sand martins were around and indeed one solitary specimen flew around for a couple of minutes. Notes in the logbook there suggest that they are being predated upon by a sparrowhawk and, sure enough, a large brown shape passed briefly right

Aspen

in front.

I checked out a couple of trees in the same area and was able to identify this aspen on the boundary of the reserve car park. Quite pleased with myself as I'm sure I've never noticed them before.

Again very little butterfly activity in spite of reasonable sunshine.

Meanwhile I submitted the pictures from the last post to Dumfries and Galloway Wildlife and Birding, as a result most of the plants featured have been identified. So I'll add a comment with the details.