Cars, trains and planes and the right hill this time!

This diary covers some of what was happening way back in June with ongoing work wit dung/bone mosses Tetraplodon mnioides and angustatus – slender and narrow cruet mosses. Impatience in waiting for things to grow after the long winter months had the potential to lead to errors in identification, but checking the leaves of two species under the microscope helped sort the correct names. The narrow cruet moss was seen producing spores way back in April, whilst the leggier bright green stems of the mosses close by couldn’t correctly be identified until late July when bright green gave way to red and the slender cruet moss was confirmed. The colour is so vivid that in the last few weeks this moss has been visible close to the summits of three local mountains, possibly growing on mammal droppings or the bone fragments in birds of prey pellets (left) close to the rock cairns. Amazing.

The highlight of early June though was the trip to Drumochter Pass and the Sow of Atholl to try again to see the flower, blue heath - Phyllodoce caerulea, and the realisation that on my first trip, some 20 years ago, I might have even gone up the wrong hill! The more impressive of the two big hills close to the A9 as you drive through the Pass is the Boar of Badenoch and this is probably the one I climbed. Not surprisingly, no blue heath on that occasion, but locating the moth northern dart made the outing well worthwhile. So rucksac packed and boots on there would be no mistake this time, but was the weather going to do the dirty on me again? I left Nethybridge in gloriously hot sunshine and packed in the car was sun-cream and a bottle to carry water, but south of Kingussie I ran into low cloud and even bits of drizzle. So as I parked by the A9 the sun-cream and water were left behind and, so confident had I been about the weather forecast, I really was a bit light on clothing for these condition close to the top of The Sow. I wasn’t about to drive back 45 miles for more clothes so, at 8.30am I left the car, nipped across the A9 and the railway line, and headed off up the hill. A short way up I met with a legacy of the winter weather a dead red deer hind and what could have been her calf close by. Half way up I was surprised to see a patch of Ostrich-plume feather-moss (Ptilium crista-crastensis), something I usually find in the depth of the pinewoods, and a little further on a patch of flowering dwarf cornel, black and white and beautiful (left). On the summit were the first flowers of trailing azalea and amazing views for several miles north and south of the A9 (above right), with its constant roar of traffic and the occasional train on the adjacent railway line. With a view like that you realise how impossible it will be to stop the planet over-heating! A quick bite to eat and the search started, the first find being a patch of dwarf willow (Salix herbacea). As the ground got steeper (walking lines between my Leki poles) a few large purple flowers came in to view (right), similar to cross-leaved heath flowers but much larger. The timing was perfect and most of the flowers were just at their best. Without flowers it would be almost impossible to find, the leaves look just like the leaves of the crowberry plants nearby. Time for a sandwich and as I sit watching the traffic down below, a mountain hare suddenly appears just a few metres down the hill from me. A few minutes later an RAF jet passes by – just below me! Two other nice plants are found on the way down, sibbaldia and bog bilberry, and as I head back towards the A9 the sun comes out. Typical.

A week later the phone rang “Do you undertake site surveys to look for key Cairngorms National Park species?” And so I undertook my first site survey of a proposed house site just outside Aviemore. A day’s survey, a day sorting species and a day report writing, and I’d completed my first job in the world of self-employment. Normal service was then resumed and it was off to Grantown to count (as a volunteer!) the number of flowering spikes of one-flowered wintergreen (right with twinflower), cutting out patches of invading rhododendron whilst on site. This amazing site, with no protection designations, also boasts masses of twinflower and patches of creeping lady’s tresses orchid. The patch at Abernethy was counted a few days later and another day was spent searching the woods close to this site to see if more could be found. No flowers but, as last year, a patch of leaves will be worth re-visiting. A leopard slug (left) crossing a track in the rain one morning was new to me and to Abernethy. The purchase made during our attendance at the Giles Pearson “Appreciation Society” meeting came home, an amazing Welsh-type dresser (right), though this one probably originated in Ireland.

It has been a bit of a struggle to find good days to walk the Loch Garten butterfly transect but when the sun has shone a few butterflies have been seen along with a few other interesting species. A dark-green fritillary caterpillar was found on Tulloch Moor covered with masses of “bottle brush” type protrusions. The star though has to be regular encounters with a few northern emerald dragonflies (Somatochlora arctica), usually one of the most difficult dragonflies to see let alone photograph (left). However, a kind dragonfly stayed perched long enough to allow me to carefully creep up on it and get so close that only part of the dragonfly fits into the last photo.

Towards the end of June we get towards the orchid counting season but with a wee change having taken place during the winter, there will be help this year. During the early part of the year the Cairngorm Park Tourist Board and House Building Society – sorry, Cairngorm National Park Authority, appointed Andy Scobie (right) as the Park’s Rare Plants Officer (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8611779.stm) with a remit to establish the true population levels of the lesser butterfly orchid, twinflower, small cow-wheat and intermediate wintergreen within the Park and to work to retaining and enhance their populations. The main site for the lesser butterfly orchid locally, if not in Scotland and possibly the UK, is at Flowerfield/Glencairn by the B970, I site I have counted for the last two years. Last year, the field was counted in the most systematic way that it has ever been counted, using line transects, canes, tapes and a hand tally counter. Being one of Andy’s target species the count this year was to be a joint effort with Andy leading the way with me helping, building on the methodology of 2009. This years count took place over 28-29 June, and within the first hour of counting, in supposedly the less populated area close to the house, we had already counted several hundred flowers. On one of the first section counts in the main field, again, several hundred plants were recorded and at this point, we realised we were involved in possibly the highest count ever made at this one site. By the time Andy had to leave to attend a meeting at 5pm we had only completed about 2/3 of the area, and the count would continue into the next day. The next day I had to walk the butterfly transect and was only able to join Andy mid-afternoon, but by 5pm the count was finished. 2,800 butterfly orchids (left) had been counted, twice the count in 2009, and several hundred small white orchids had been counted but no attempt was made to count the 1000+ fragrant orchids. Absolutely incredible, and a real honour to have been involved. In addition several six-spot burnets were seen, several mating (right) and many flying around with the pollinia from the fragrant orchids stuck to their heads (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchidaceae for explanation of the role of insects & pollinia). Counting of another field nearby where no lesser butterfly orchids were found last year had 30 flowering spikes along with 5 small white orchids. An after effect of the severe winter? Who knows.

The last day of June was very busy. With little wind, and the sun shining the Loch Garten butterfly transect was walked at 11am and completed in an hour and a half and then there was a rapid dash to my BTO breeding bird survey square near Grantown on Spey, where I had taken up a request for the same transect to be walked to record butterflies (and moths and dragonflies). The site is half an hour from the nearest road so didn’t get underway until 2pm. Unlike last year when no butterflies were recorded under marginal conditions, this first walk found 1 green-veined white and 2 small pearl-bordered fritillaries and finished at 4pm. Before the walk back to the car I sat down to eat an apple and suddenly just a couple of metres to my left, a stoat popped up, meerkat-like, wondering what I was! Sadly, I didn’t have the camera out and ready. Meadow pipit’s feeding a young cuckoo nearby rounded of the day nicely. You can’t win them all. A bonus for the day though was seeing an ugly looking fly called Laphria flava, waiting for passing bees to rob. It obviously thought I was a useful perch as I was stood, with camera in hand, waiting for it to land!
July’s diary will follow very shortly.

Happy reading

Stewart & Janet

Rhinocerous beetle in an aspen wood at Crathie

Fruiting dwarf cornel - just as beautiful

All photos © Stewart Taylor

Where were the black guillemots?

10 July
Leave Sollas at 9am, ferry by 9.45 and depart 10.30. No otters by ferry terminal today. Glorious sun and very little wind – a different world. Camera with big lens ready for the crossing to see what turns up near the ferry. Great northern diver, a few floating seals and black guillemots and cormorants on the exposed rocks. Lots of gannets (left) and tempted to try and get a decent photo of one diving. Almost. On last few crossings there have been lots of black guillemots on the red and green marker buoys, but not today. Typical, weather good enough for camera and big lens on deck – no show! Golden eagle near Rodel (right) and lunch by the dunes near Northton. No sand dune bees. A mile up the road we meet the start of the Tarbert half marathon and it take a couple of miles to get past the participants. Not just 13+ miles, but a huge hill to get over at two-thirds distance. Janet visits the Harris Tweed shop and as she leaves the shop the first of the runners arrives, just 1 hour and 15 minutes after starting. Amazing. Over the Khyber Pass and we leave Harris and enter Lewis, just as rocky, and we push on to keep our date with Cristina at the cottage in Tolsta Chaolais, arriving amazingly just on time. Unpack, cup of tea and a bit of golf and news on TV. A village walk in the evening to stretch our legs, joined by one of the village dogs – its going to be one of those weeks. A few aspen trees noted on the other side of the loch from the cottage, may be worth a visit.

11 July
Back to normal, a wet and windy start, but a chance to see the British Grand Prix before heading off after lunch for a walk at Kirkibost. Another lucky day with 2 golden eagles overhead on the way, more eagles on this trip already than most of our previous visits. Sun out, ice creams at the only shop open on the island on a Sunday at Breacleit and down to the coast to park up. Amazingly we find a chunk of woodland round a couple of houses and have singing song thrushes and chaffinches and the only willow warbler so far. At Kirkibost pier (right, the notice reads "Keep Pier Tidy!") we have a pleasant surprise and find firstly an amazing craft shop (left) full of brilliantly made wooden crabs, lobsters, boats and even a chainsaw http://www.cornets-craft.com/home.html , and in the next shed a man with a new Bonas Griffiths type double-width hand weaving loom hoping to set himself up in the tweed trade. No adverts, no craft shop signs so quite lucky that we found them. On the way back we spot a bit of aspen woodland hanging on a cliff so we have to stop to investigate. One good lichen and another one to check along with a few nice ferns – including black spleenwort and sea spleenwort and a family of ravens overhead. Late back to the cottage but just in time to see the best bit of the World Cup final – the only goal! Well done Spain.

12 July
Lewis Chessmen day and a bee search day with a few other places to visit along the way. First stop a group of houses at a place called Giosla on the B8011 where a small power station operates. Visits to wood turner and photographer gallery and then a short walk up to the hydro dam where a rapidly declining UK plant had been recorded in the past – heath cudweed. “There’s a cudweed here” said Janet, before we had even left the roadside, marsh cudweed so a good start. Some mealy coloured leaves by the track turn out to be mountain everlasting and then a real surprise a plant with the amazing name of pirri-pirri bur (right), a rare but spreading introduction from New Zealand, like a nearby patch of a countryman, New Zealand willowherb. And there, by the dam, just as it was in 1994, was heath cudweed (left). Oystercatcher with young also by the dam and a small colony of common gulls on the loch with a red-throated diver calling overhead. We then push on for lunch at Traigh Uuige by Carnais, where the chessmen were found all those years ago. Janet walks the beach and I thrash around in the dunes looking for suitable sites for the wee dune bee but without luck, but an enjoyable walk all the same in a marvellous spot. A wee moss found on damp, bare dune sand will require further investigation. A huge carved wooden copy of the King of the chessmen can be found close to the car park. (http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/national_museum/special_exhibitions/lewis_chessmen_unmasked/investigate.aspx ) Two calling corncrakes close by but despite sitting a few feet away from one of them we fail to actually see the bird. Nothing changes! An evening outing to a nearby loch finds a frog, a raven’s nest and a juniper bush, a rarity out here.

13 July
A day up north with the first stop at the rejuvenated Harris Tweed weaving mill at Shawbost. Sadly, the colours Janet needs are no longer produced, originating as they did from Mr ‘Haggis’s’ mill in Stornoway, which we hear in now producing just one tweed, down from the four he decreed after his take-over. It was so good to see lots of folk employed at the Shawbost mill and also to hear that over 100 weavers still produce tweed in their own wee weaving sheds locally. The Morven Gallery is the next stop to see the new art exhibitions. The monster apple pie and lemon meringue draw us in to the café and, despite it being close to lunch time we indulge ourselves and suggest anyone passing the gallery should also do the same! The painting Janet likes best is £2300 so time to go and head for the Barvas cemetery and dunes. The first plant to stop us is a gentian, but which one? From the photo it turns out to be fellwort or autumn gentian (left) something we have never knowingly seen before. There are meadow brown butterflies everywhere, and, with the sun shining, the wee bee, if it is here, should also be on the wing. A damp and lightly vegetated section of dune has many plants (right) of the sedge Carex maritima, short in stature, curved and with a dark compact flower head, an endangered species nationally. These dunes are so richly covered with flowers, mainly red clover, ragwort and umbellifers that they resemble the rich machair of the Uists, but despite lots of walking the wee bee isn’t found. Photographing a caterpillar proves painful as I am bitten on the hand by a “delta-winged” cleg which is promptly squashed and as I take its photo it bites back (ouch - left) proving to be not quite dead – not for long! The proboscis is still well embedded in my hand. Tonight’s evening outing is to the loch next to the cottage just to check out the aspens seen on the 10th. The aspens don’t disappoint and despite their stunted gnarled form (right) several trees produce new locations for the lichen Degelia plumbea and surprise of the visit was finding several small hazel bushes. Wind up to force 5-6, the ferry day must be close!

14 July
A slightly dodgy weather forecast but we risk heading via Stornoway to the amazing beach and cliffs at Tolsta – Traigh Mhor. You will be gathering by now that the Gaelic word Traigh means beach. As we pull into the car park a new bird for the year greets us – stonechat, in fact a whole family is all around us. All the birds at home seem to have been wiped out by the winter weather. A second family is also near by. Boots on and out into the gale. Another felwort (gentian) is found as we enter the dunes, and, being a bit more sheltered, we stay in the dunes rather than walk the beach. We stop for lunch close to where a stream runs into the sea and find a huge colony of monkey flower growing along the water-course, a bonny plant but another introduction. We leave the beach and head up hill, past the cemetery to the hamlet of New Tolsta above. Throughout the Hebrides the cemeteries are all located in the dunes, presumably the only place where there is the scope to dig down without meeting rock or waterlogged peat. More monkey flower is found along the roadside along with the dreaded Japanese knotweed. The blue flowers of butterwort are evident along the roadside ditch and a nearby undisturbed bog has its close relative pale butterwort in flower along with round-leaved sundew. Sadly, the wind is keeping all insect activity at bay so no butterflies or dragonflies to report. A second day of extravagance, fish and chips in Stornoway before heading back over the Rathad a Phentland towards Carloway. This amazing road take you through the famous Lewis peatlands and there is evidence everywhere in the form of old and new peat-workings that this area must have supplied the residents of Stornoway and the surrounding villages with their fuel over many, many years. Historical bleakness. Inspired by seeing the sand dune sedge yesterday I have an evening outing to the dunes at nearby Dail Mor. Half a dozen gannets are diving in the bay and brief flashes of sun puncturing the cloud make the sea sparkle (left above). Areas where the two small burns meet the sea provide search areas but the only plant of note (to me!) was a strange looking grass (right) which turns out to be sea fern grass Catapodium marinum. A bit like the couch grass you find in gardens.

15 July
The return of gales and rain – what a last day. TV weather shows it is in for the day. Lunch at cottage before heading north in the hope that conditions improve. We become real tourists and visit the Arnol Black House close to Loch na Muilne where the red-necked phalaropes regularly breed. The black house (left) was saved in its entirety when the last residents move to a “new” house across the road in the late 1960s and now it provides a real link to how the crofters lived in these amazing thick-walled, thatched houses with an open peat fire in the centre of the living quarters (right). Attached to the living quarters is a byre for the cattle and a barn for the winter feed so in really bad weather the crofters never needed to go outside apart from the occasional topping up of the peats for the fire. The black house is open to the visiting public with the central peat-fire burning, just as when the crofters lived there. The peat smoke in the house initially makes your eyes water and catches in the back of your throat and, for the next couple of hours we both had the distinct “peat reek”. The “modern” house across the road where the black house residents moved to is also now empty and has been retained in its original condition for visitors to see. The interior is very similar to Miss Macdonald’s house in Tulloch when we moved to Loch Garten way back in 1976 – complete with box bed! Too wet to go and look for the phalaropes so we continue to head north to visit a tweed shop in Nis but with limited tweeds for sale we move on the see if there are many gannets winging their way past the Butt of Lewis lighthouse. We don’t leave the car sadly, too much ninety degree rain whizzing by. We can see the odd gannet but with visibility less than half a mile we decide to call it a day, have a quick coffee, and head back down the road, what a way to spend the last full day of our holiday. The evening weather was no better so could only hope for a dry morning tomorrow before catching the ferry at midday.

16 July
Pack the bags and tidy the cottage and on the road at 9am. Back over the peat road to Stornoway where Janet is meeting up with ex-work colleagues and I’m off to dash up to the Lew’s Castle woodlands to GPS the lichen sites found back in May with a promise to be back at the car by 11.30am. A tall ship is parked in the harbour, a recent arrival since our last visit of a few days ago. Entry to the woods has been restricted to allow the Hebridean Celtic Festival marquee room to set up on one of the castle greens for a range of bands playing between 14-17 July (http://www.hebceltfest.com/festival/outreach/ )including Runrig on 17th. After a wee detour, one of the lichen trees from May is found and recorded, and a search of other trees nearby produces another lichen with only one other record on the island – Lobaria scrobiculata. The tree is an ash tree and in addition it has the other rare island lichens, Degelia plumbea and Lobaria pulmonaria (lungwort) growing on its substantial trunk. The last two lichens are recorded on many trees close by before a dash back down the hill for the 11.30 rendezvous. The wind remains at Force 6-7, so a choppy sail is guaranteed. The ferry is almost full and departs a little late and the wind soon drives most folk down below. We stay on deck and are rewarded by a couple of sightings of small pods of porpoises racing along with the ferry, a few great skuas, diving gannets and a few puffins and guillemots. A full ferry means a long convoy of cars heading south from Ullapool so we take time for a cup of coffee in the Ceilidh Place, and have a trouble free run down the road to Inverness and on to home. Hello Firwood.

I hope you enjoyed our holiday diary.

Stewart & Janet

Arrival back at Ullapool above & buzzard on sheiling chimney near Stornoway below

All photos © Stewart Taylor