Out and About Again!

After my visit to Teesside, I set off again in a Westerly direction on Thursday.

Plan A was to catch up with the fritillaries at Mabie Forest near Dumfries as I had done last year at about this time last year with some success.  

Unfortunately the good weather had already broken in South West Scotland to be replaced by dull and windy conditions so that not a single fritillary was seen. In fact there were hardly any pollinators at all and the only one that appeared regularly was the speckled yellow moth.

Speckled Yellow

We encountered exactly 15 of them all told.

The only other two items of note seen were harder to identify and I was initially only able to find suggested genera.

 

Genus Oedemera?

Genus Orthotaenia?

The only UK representative of the latter genus is the dusky marble moth. which can however be confused with the dark strawberry tortrix so you can take your pick...

However Oedemara Virescens, the false blister beetle, is common in the South of Scotland and so seems a good bet. Anything rather than another 'impossible to say' verdict!

On Friday I returned to England in rather better weather to take part in a course on conducting survey counts near Hadrian's Wall with the Butterfly Conservation "Making Peatlands Work for Lepidoptera" project.

The practical session was a bit of a mixed bag in that we only saw one of our target species - a total of five green hairstreak - in a one hour session. But we did see some interesting things including two bees I was pleased to have definite sightings of.

Unfortunately I was busy changing my hearing aid and only got a quick glimpse of the first one - a moss carder bee, which was thought to be a queen starting a nest on the edge of our marked walk.  I may have seen this on a couple of previous occasions but have not been able to confirm.

In terms of butterflies there were a few small heath (first for me this year) on the borders of the site we were surveying but I was supposed to be counting large heath and duly registered a nil return! A few large butterflies were seen in flight but were thought to be painted ladies. Otherwise we only saw whites in flight and the only one I saw close up was a green-veined white.

On the other hand we did find a couple of caterpillars.

Drinker Moth Caterpillar (underside)

Oak Eggar Moth Caterpillar

Also seen was a nice example of the Silver Y Moth which was captured in a bug box.

Silver Y Moth

However the best for me was the last - a heath bumble bee, which I definitely have never seen before:

Heath Bumble Bee

It was also good to see that numerous peatland flower species were doing well including hare's tail cotton grass, common cotton grass and cross-leaved heath.  There were probably others but plants were not for me a priority for the day.

Up in The Highlands 3

Day four of our stay was spent at Marr Lodge after a lovely, scenic drive through the moors of Aberdeenshire.

We did a longish walk up the valley from there and back and at an early stage encountered some birds at the top of some young conifers.  Some were pipits and I thought I saw a couple of linnets but the one decent photo we got might be of a young stonechat.  It's a bit hard to be sure from the front on view:

Linnet or stonechat?

On the basis of the above I'd say stonechat but another poorer photo I got of a bird in the same flock looks more like a linnet.  After that there was a stretch of path where we had to avoid treading on small millipedes on the path, at least fifteen that I came across and a large moth caterpillar on a rock. Again I'm not sure which kind as fox moth and drinker moth caterpillars look quite similar.

Drinker or Fox Moth Caterpillar?

Millipede

Continuing the insect theme, we came across this moth more than once.  After consulting with an expert, I can establish that it was a common heath.

Common Heath

The colouring of this species can vary a bit, it seems.

Further up the path we were noticing more and more pipits.  I assumed they were all meadow pipits but was pleased to note that one was clearly a tree pipit as I hadn't seen the one the day before.

Tree Pipit

Meadow Pipit

On the way back we followed the river through the woods where there are some striking rocky waterfalls.  As well as more tree pipits, we were saying how surprising it was that we hadn't seen a dipper when suddenly one flew past us upriver.

The journey back the day after was a touch disappointing.  We visited a supposed red squirrel feeder station near Boat of Garten but saw no squirrels and one site that was more a tourist walk.  It was also advising the presence of red squirrels as did most other places visited but we saw none at all during the whole stay.  We drove on to the Lough of The Lowes site only to arrive 15 minutes before it closed, thus unfortunately depriving us of apparently the best view of an osprey nest in the UK.

The was a slight consolation at The Hermitage nearby where we saw the tallest pine trees in the country, numerous wagtails and more impressive waterfalls.  And on the way up we did catch up with a dipper, sitting completely still on a stone.  It was still there in exactly the same position when we passed by again an hour later.

Dipper