Thursday 31st August

So here we are at the end of August and it looks like my attempt to coax the buddleia into September flowering will only just succeed for a couple of days.  Three out of five plants have more or less given up the ghost and the other two have just a few blooms left and are promising only a few new ones.

First and last painted lady

There's still the odd red admiral or peacock visiting the garden but basically the show is over for another year.  It makes it all the more heartening that one week ago, a single painted lady appeared, the only one I've noticed in the garden this year. Unfortunately, I just  managed to snap it from the underside but you can see clearly enough what it is.

So the summer is pretty much over and, as every year these days, I'm left to reflect how much more I would ideally have made of it. The old wisdom about not making enough time to stop and stare holds good and one poignant moment this morning underlined it.

I had just gone out to fill the bird table and feed the fishes and turned back for a moment to get something I'd forgotten.  Suddenly the sun came out and I noticed that the fish were already feeding and that the tree bumblebee was on the lavender next to the pond again.  I put my foot up on the small partition wall to just watch for a minute and a red admiral flew down and landed on the knee of my cords, maybe ten inches from my face.  It all lasted but a few seconds but I was momentarily transported into a simple joy that is the real reason for being a nature watcher and possibly for living at all.

Meanwhile, the last two bike rides haven't produced much but there was an amusing little incident on the way up to Loch Ettrick yesterday.  I was suddenly aware of some birds screeching and saw a buzzard fly up into a tree in the field to my right. I stopped to get the binoculars out and spotted a couple of fat looking birds I took to be turkeys. But a couple of cyclists following me identified them as guinea fowl, so a sort of first sighting for me.  They didn't seem very doemesticated but, according to wikipedia scaring off birds of prey is one of the things they are used for.  They also help prevent the spread of lyme disease by eating ticks, so I can think of a couple of other places where I should like to see them introduced!

Saturday 19th August

It cintinues to be a very mixed summer.

The peacocks and red admirals are visiting the garden in increasing numbers but I think I have only seen about four small tortoiseshells in total.  So far there hasn't been a painted lady.

Realising that the butterfly season is coming to a close I went bike riding down to the Solway Coast

Wall Brown

at Port of Warren on Thursday, hoping that I might see something out of the usual without doing a major hike.

This wasn't to be but the wall butterfly was out in force, so it was pleasing to see one again after nearly a year.

Otherwise there was a couple of sedge warblers in the trees next to the beach and one bird with a yellow stripe on its side that must have been a goldfinch - except that somehow I didn't think it was.

I was sort of thinking a holly blue or grayling might turn up by chance but in a way it was good they didn't as I only had my mobile ohone with me.

Today I joined the local Butterfly Conservation group walk at Mossdale in very dark and threatening weather.  Fortunately it brightened up and we got an hour or so of hazy sunshine, during which a surprising number of butterflies appeared.

There must have been over 50 peacocks, a good number of red admirals and a single painted lady on the way to the bridge over the Black Water of Dee, after which we spotted maybe 30 scotch argos until the weather closed in.

Painted Lady

Scotch Argos

I also got this photograph of a blue damselfly that I was rather pleased with, though apparently there are a few different kinds of blue damselfly and they are very hard to tell apart.  This sort of knowledge is the result of going out with people with some expertise!

Damselfly

Having researched the matter, I believe this was a common blue damselfly.

After we got past the farm the track was unpassable except in wellingtons, so we turned back as the rain became heavy for a time.  Afterwards there were still one or two butterflies around, including a painted lady, possibly the same one we saw on the way out.

Saturday 12th August

In a couple of ways I should have waited a bit before making the last post.  Later on the same day, I was able to report no less than five peacocks, three red admirals and one small tortoiseshell on the buddleia, plus a green-veined white and a small white elsewhere in the garden.

Then the next day I heard the swifts screeching again although I haven't heard them again since.

Following the garden theme, I've been taking a bit more interest in the bumblebees that visit the lavender by the pond.  I think I may have misidientified one regular species as red-tailed bumblebees when closer inspection shows that they were in fact they were early bumblebees.

Three days ago I noticed that the lavender was being bent rather more than usual by a larger bumblebee that clearly didn't have the stripes of the buff-tailed variety.  It turns out it was a tree bumblebee.

Tree Bumblebee

I got briefly excited about this when the Bumblebee Conservation site showed it as not present in Scotland but enquiries via Dumfries and Galloway Wildlife and Birding suggest that it has in fact been present in the South of Scotland for a few years now.

In the meanwhile, I have attempted a couple of butterfly trips that have yielded nothing of note - a quick forage aroung the Caerlaverock Nature Reserve in promisingly bright weather and a walk today around Rockcliffe looking for grayling and holly blue.  Unfortunately, the teatime weather forecast was way off the mark and the sun was scarcely to be seen.

There was an awful lot of this plant growing by the path and next to the beaches, so far unidentified.

???

The flowers look a bit like cowslips.

Monday 7th August

Red admirals are now appearing regularly in the garden as the buddleia blooms though I think the maximum I've seen at any one time is three.  Last week there was also a nowadays rare appearance from a small tortoiseshell.  Then the same day I found one squashed on the patio step so I just hope it wasn't the same one and that I didn't accidentally stand on it when I took the rubbish out.

Today was also the first appearance of a peacock since early spring.  One thing I haven't noticed for a few days is any swifts chasing each other around the houses.  Surely they can't already have departed for Africa?

Last Friday I took a bike trip to the Birkshaw Forest from Lochmaben, hoping to see a few butterflies during an afternoon that was forecast to be sunny.  Birkshaw is one location where the Essex Skipper can be seen, though I would have settled for a bit of variety including a few blues.

In fact the sun disappeared totally and all I saw was a few peacocks trying to warm themselves up on the stones in an otherwise promising-looking flower meadow.  One of them was particularly large and the markings around the rings seemed to me to be more pronounced than usual.

Peacock on the rock

It was certainly in splendid condition.

Also of some interest was this fly the likes I've never seen before and a a fine maple I noticed on the end of a line of conifers.

Mystery fly

Surprise maple

P.s. A small white just turned up on the lavender.