sunshine this week (blackbird sunbathing left), but the miserable weather prevailed when the sun wasn't on display. I'll not tell you what is happening just outside the window as I write, needless to say, the Met Office have issued a severe weather warning.......! The damper days allowed the final touches to be made to the wee Osmia bee report, thirty eight sites visited and the bee being seen at eight of them, who knows what might have been found if the sun had shone. The nice thing about the survey was the "other" things that were found just by staying in one place for long enough for other insects and plants to be seen. Highlight was a new site for small blue butterfly and finding the big Conopid fly Physocephala nigra, a first record east of the Great Glen (no picture but check out http://www.hbrg.org.uk/Conopids/ConopidMain.html). The saddest find was an injured buzzard with a possible shotgun injury to one wing in the now notorious Tomatin "triangle" where the deaths of 3 red kites in the last two years is probably just the tip of the iceberg. "Me Guv? But the kites were eating my beetles and worms".A walk round the block yesterday found 30 species of birds, we still have lots of spotted flycatchers and swifts feeding over the woods and bogs. Small tit flocks are starting to form and Nigel, Rachel, Aaron and Daniel saw a few crested tits during their stay last week. They also found slow worms at Loch an Eilean! The fields though are becoming a lot qui
eter and most of the waders have now departed and rooks and jackdaws are seen in numbers feeding in the recently cut silage fields. My old swift nest box in Tulloch had two pairs nesting in it this year but the one in the garden here has failed to attract any so it will be back to the drawing board this winter. Young bats have also been heard squeaking in the roof space between the garage and bike shed at Firwood, I've long suspected they used this site but this is the first time I have heard young. Main birds of the garden are coal, blue and great tits, siskins, blackbird and family, greenfinches, yellowhammers, house sparrows, collared doves, woodpigeons, adult and juvenile great spot woodpecker, wren, chaffinch, dunnock, robin and the occasional sparrowhawk. The red squirrels continue to entertain with three of four regularly around the feeders.
eter and most of the waders have now departed and rooks and jackdaws are seen in numbers feeding in the recently cut silage fields. My old swift nest box in Tulloch had two pairs nesting in it this year but the one in the garden here has failed to attract any so it will be back to the drawing board this winter. Young bats have also been heard squeaking in the roof space between the garage and bike shed at Firwood, I've long suspected they used this site but this is the first time I have heard young. Main birds of the garden are coal, blue and great tits, siskins, blackbird and family, greenfinches, yellowhammers, house sparrows, collared doves, woodpigeons, adult and juvenile great spot woodpecker, wren, chaffinch, dunnock, robin and the occasional sparrowhawk. The red squirrels continue to entertain with three of four regularly around the feeders. In Scotland we now have open access via the Land Reform Act (Scotland) 2003, with those exercising this right following the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. In effect this asks everyone to act responsibly when out in the countryside (see http://www.snh.org.uk/strategy/access/sr-afor00.asp) not just walking but when on horses, on mountain bikes and even in canoes. Most of Abernethy Forest is covered by the strictest of designations, ie SSSI, SAC, SPA, NNR, Ramsar etc, and if the owners want to carry out any damaging operations, however minor (collecting a few ants or digging a hole for instance) they have to obtain written consent from the Government agency, Scottish Natural Heritage. However, under the access laws it is proving difficult to say no to mass participation events like triathlons, big charity events which, 
potentially, could see hundreds of participants descending on the Abernethy Reserve, during the breeding season. It is down to the participants/organisers to be "responsible". Similarly, and despite several lochs locally having developed access for boating and canoing, this activity is now allowed on Loch Garten by "responsible" people. Loch Garten is home to otters and goldeneye, both protected, and is a regular roost site for a number of species of wildfowl, and is looked over for most of the year by thousands of visitors watching the wildlife. The wildlife is disturbed by any waterborne activity but it is allowed under "responsible" access. I'm not sure that this is right and would suggest that designated sites are for nature and Loch Morlich, Loch Insh and all the fishing lochs are where folk should paddle their canoes.
potentially, could see hundreds of participants descending on the Abernethy Reserve, during the breeding season. It is down to the participants/organisers to be "responsible". Similarly, and despite several lochs locally having developed access for boating and canoing, this activity is now allowed on Loch Garten by "responsible" people. Loch Garten is home to otters and goldeneye, both protected, and is a regular roost site for a number of species of wildfowl, and is looked over for most of the year by thousands of visitors watching the wildlife. The wildlife is disturbed by any waterborne activity but it is allowed under "responsible" access. I'm not sure that this is right and would suggest that designated sites are for nature and Loch Morlich, Loch Insh and all the fishing lochs are where folk should paddle their canoes. It was a great week for seeing and working with some of our rarer species of flora and fauna. Tomintoul is an area long famous for its rich Highland flora sitting as it does on an outcrop of l
ime rich rock and, passing through the area at this time of year, it is always worth staying a while and checking and recording what you see. The aim on Monday was to go and check on the health of a few of the plants growing there. First I dropped in to look at a site where two unusual plants are growing, Don's twitch and Field garlic. The first is a grass, very similar to the common couch grass, the bane of gardeners and lawn maintenance practitioners throughout the land. However, George Don's grass (pictured left) and originally Agropyron donianum, is restricted to "rock ledges in the Highlands", and had been one of those plants which for years I had wanted to see, linked back in time as it was to Don's botanical excursions to the Highlands in the 1800s. As time has passed the grass has been further studied and in now listed as Elymus caninum var. don. a name I must admit, would never have inspired me to go and look for it! Not great but website does give a little background to 
George Don (1798 - 1856). http://www.pitlochry.org.uk/garden9.php?id=4 . Also at the same site is something very unusual for this part of Britain a wild relative of our onion, Field garlic (Allium oleraceum) and a plant looking more like something Janet grows in the flower garden rather than on a rocky ledge in the wild. This plant (right) and its past history links back almost to George Don's time as it was discovered at its current location way back in the 1890's by a local parish minister! Since a local outdoor centre stopped climbing all over the rocks this plant seems to be doing well, and spreading a little along the rock face.
ime rich rock and, passing through the area at this time of year, it is always worth staying a while and checking and recording what you see. The aim on Monday was to go and check on the health of a few of the plants growing there. First I dropped in to look at a site where two unusual plants are growing, Don's twitch and Field garlic. The first is a grass, very similar to the common couch grass, the bane of gardeners and lawn maintenance practitioners throughout the land. However, George Don's grass (pictured left) and originally Agropyron donianum, is restricted to "rock ledges in the Highlands", and had been one of those plants which for years I had wanted to see, linked back in time as it was to Don's botanical excursions to the Highlands in the 1800s. As time has passed the grass has been further studied and in now listed as Elymus caninum var. don. a name I must admit, would never have inspired me to go and look for it! Not great but website does give a little background to 
George Don (1798 - 1856). http://www.pitlochry.org.uk/garden9.php?id=4 . Also at the same site is something very unusual for this part of Britain a wild relative of our onion, Field garlic (Allium oleraceum) and a plant looking more like something Janet grows in the flower garden rather than on a rocky ledge in the wild. This plant (right) and its past history links back almost to George Don's time as it was discovered at its current location way back in the 1890's by a local parish minister! Since a local outdoor centre stopped climbing all over the rocks this plant seems to be doing well, and spreading a little along the rock face. 
On one of the roadside verges approaching Tomintoul there has long been a colony of broad-leaved helleborines and a colony of twayblade orchids. In the past dark-red helleborine also used to be found there. In passing I usually have a quick count of the number of flowering spikes, and, as had happened in 2006, the flowering spikes on some of the flowers had 
been lopped off by man and machine (right) and the summer madness pastime of roadside verge cutting. Mile after mile, inside and outside of bends and along all the straight bits, one to two metres of the roadside verge vegetation had been cut, destroying what is a great bit of habitat and a mass of summer flowers and flowering grasses. This is something the Roads Maintenance Manager would appreciate if he/she ever took the time to walk some of them. What a waste of energy and taxpayers money -"well we've bought the machinery now......& it's for the safety of the road users" will be the excuse. This bit of verge, with its flowers is part of a Site of 
Special Scientific Interest, so I await a reply from the roads department as to why the orchids are being cut. Sorry, I sound like Mr Angry today! One of the helleborines that survived is shown left, growing about two-foot tall. From Tomintoul it was a dash back to Grantown on Spey to meet up with Tom & Yvonne from Butterfly Conservation and Ellen (a fellow Highland Naturalist!) who is studying two rare 
hoverflies locally. The aim of the meeting was to take those attending out to two local sites where the aspen hoverfly Hammerscmidtia ferruginea has been recorded in the past and to visit a site where a very rare moth, dark bordered beauty Epione vespertaria, also linked to aspen, has been recorded at one of only two Scottish sites. It was hoped that following on from the meeting more people could be tempted out to look for the moth, and to sign up to monitor a local aspen stand to record annual inputs of deadwood suitable in size for the hoverfly to breed on. The outing first went to an aspen stand to look at hoverfly habitat and within the stand of trees one had recently blown over creating a lump of dead aspen suitable for the breeding hoverfly. The dead tree is only suitable for the hoverfly for 2-3 years after death, the dead tree being the site for the fly's larval stage. During this time, a bacteria-rich goo forms under the bark providing the nutrient required for the larvae to feed and grow through to adulthood. The hoverfly is rare because we don't have that much mature aspen woodland and within each wood, only small quantities of suitable 
deadwood habitat are available at any one time. Currently the outlook is quite healthy for this hoverfly and Ellen's work has shown that under the right conditions many more flies are on the wing than originally was known. See website for more information:http://www.ukbap.org.uk/UKPlans.aspx?ID=349
hoverflies locally. The aim of the meeting was to take those attending out to two local sites where the aspen hoverfly Hammerscmidtia ferruginea has been recorded in the past and to visit a site where a very rare moth, dark bordered beauty Epione vespertaria, also linked to aspen, has been recorded at one of only two Scottish sites. It was hoped that following on from the meeting more people could be tempted out to look for the moth, and to sign up to monitor a local aspen stand to record annual inputs of deadwood suitable in size for the hoverfly to breed on. The outing first went to an aspen stand to look at hoverfly habitat and within the stand of trees one had recently blown over creating a lump of dead aspen suitable for the breeding hoverfly. The dead tree is only suitable for the hoverfly for 2-3 years after death, the dead tree being the site for the fly's larval stage. During this time, a bacteria-rich goo forms under the bark providing the nutrient required for the larvae to feed and grow through to adulthood. The hoverfly is rare because we don't have that much mature aspen woodland and within each wood, only small quantities of suitable 
deadwood habitat are available at any one time. Currently the outlook is quite healthy for this hoverfly and Ellen's work has shown that under the right conditions many more flies are on the wing than originally was known. See website for more information:http://www.ukbap.org.uk/UKPlans.aspx?ID=349The moth on the other hand requires aspen trees at the start of their lives to be able to breed successfully. Dark bordered beauty moths only breed (in Scotland) where aspen suckers (new saplings growing up directly from the spreading roots of mature, 
established aspens) are well established (right). However, and this is why they appear to be rare, not any old aspen sucker will do, the aspen suckers have to be lightly grazed each year to restrict their growth to about a foot high, which encourages new young leaves to appear during June and July when the caterpillars emerge. The caterpillar left, is shown on the ideal sucker, seeming to have a preference for the new, reddish leaves at the tip of the shoot. This caterpillar is in its daytime resting position, held in place by a silken thread extending from its head to the leaf. If the picture showed more of the aspen stem you would see that the caterpillar in this pose, mimics the other short, dead stems on the shoot, again, a by-product of the destruction of stems by grazing. Amazing. Having munched away on aspen leaves for about 4-5 weeks the caterpillar pupates, probably at the base of the aspen sucker. It then winters as a 
chrysalis emerging during the following late July/August period to start the process all over again. The adult male moth is seen right - what a beauty. Work is now taking place at or near to the two known sites encouraging some areas of aspen regeneration to be grazed at the right time and by the right density of sheep, and in other areas more regeneration is being encouraged for future grazing, or in places where grazing isn't feasible, strimming the aspen suckers with a brush cutter. For more information see: http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/conservation/defrafactsheets/moths/dark_bordered_beauty.pdf. And yours truly. Well you have to rise to the challenge don't you, and I have a portable moth trap on loan and am putting it out each night in another aspen sucker stand some five miles from the current known site so, fingers crossed - an inch of rain last night certainly didn't help! 
established aspens) are well established (right). However, and this is why they appear to be rare, not any old aspen sucker will do, the aspen suckers have to be lightly grazed each year to restrict their growth to about a foot high, which encourages new young leaves to appear during June and July when the caterpillars emerge. The caterpillar left, is shown on the ideal sucker, seeming to have a preference for the new, reddish leaves at the tip of the shoot. This caterpillar is in its daytime resting position, held in place by a silken thread extending from its head to the leaf. If the picture showed more of the aspen stem you would see that the caterpillar in this pose, mimics the other short, dead stems on the shoot, again, a by-product of the destruction of stems by grazing. Amazing. Having munched away on aspen leaves for about 4-5 weeks the caterpillar pupates, probably at the base of the aspen sucker. It then winters as a 
chrysalis emerging during the following late July/August period to start the process all over again. The adult male moth is seen right - what a beauty. Work is now taking place at or near to the two known sites encouraging some areas of aspen regeneration to be grazed at the right time and by the right density of sheep, and in other areas more regeneration is being encouraged for future grazing, or in places where grazing isn't feasible, strimming the aspen suckers with a brush cutter. For more information see: http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/conservation/defrafactsheets/moths/dark_bordered_beauty.pdf. And yours truly. Well you have to rise to the challenge don't you, and I have a portable moth trap on loan and am putting it out each night in another aspen sucker stand some five miles from the current known site so, fingers crossed - an inch of rain last night certainly didn't help! 
Elsewhere, the pinewoods are now full of the classic pinewood orchid, creeping lady's tresses (right), and, whether it has been the huge quantities of rain or not I don't know, but the flowers generally, this summer seem to be exceptional and very long flowering, we still have lots of birds-foot trefoil in full flower, harebells are everywhere and the heather is just starting to flower so watch for a few purple pictures over the next few weeks!
Looking up, the red squirrels are now starting to feed on the new, green cones on the Scots pine trees so hopefully, we should start to see a few more crossbills returning to do the same. The picture left shows a few cones that were dropped, whole, but all the rest of the bits are cone "bracts" and the characteristic "apple core" (sort of centre right) of a cone demolished by a red squirrel.
Nature is also helping spread the blaeberry seed as only nature knows best, via the digestive systems of woodpigeons and other birds in the pinewoods and everywhere you come across deep blue/purple droppings, showing the digested seed is spreading out nicely though some do need to land on the ground!
With the ongoing coolish weather few butterflies are on the wing, hardly seen any in the garden this summer which is very odd. One butterfly though that is appearing in good numbers everywhere is the Scotch argus, probably, in sheer numbers, our commonest butterfly locally. A bit like a meadow brown but the obvious figure 8 marks on the wings make this species easy to identify.
It's stopped raining (Oops spoke too soon), there's a bog to visit and a moth trap to sort - it's just like the old days.
Enjoy the read
Janet and Mr Angry ggrrrr!
Janet's brilliant rockery
All photos © Stewart Taylor
