The first half of the month of July was spent on holiday in the Western Isles and is the content of an earlier diary.
On return from our holiday, it was straight back to walking the Loch Garten butterfly transect where the first ringlets were on the wing along with good numbers of small pearl-bordered fritillaries and a few green-veined whites. A bonus for this visit was finding that the six-spot burnet colony was still present on Tulloch Moor. Cycling back from Boat of Garten the next day after checking a local site for corn marigold, I stopped
off at a field near Tomdhu where a single frog orchid had been found two years a go whilst looking for bees on devil’s bit scabious. I couldn’t find anything last year so wasn’t too sure about success in 2010. Real care is needed when walking in these important flower fields, they are usually important because they have, whether by accident or intent, been managed sympathetically and the vegetation is usually natural and luxuriant. Fragrant orchids were found first and checking a couple of sites where I thought the last flower had been seen, I found the first frog orchid (right) on the edge of a small depression. Whoa, there was another right by my foot! A green orchid in green grass, not easy. In all 18 flower s
pikes were found but only a small area had been checked. Sadly, the farmer was happy to know they were present but didn’t want any more of the site counted. I was on a roll, so thought I should check the field at the end of our road in Nethybridge, where a house building application had been turned down recently, just to be sure it wasn’t hiding any orchids. It wasn’t but I did find over 40 plants of moonwort (left) a strange looking member of the fern family. The days roll ended in Grantown on Spey when, in the evening, I visited a common twayblade site I found a couple of years ago whilst on an aspen hoverfly course. On the side of the track where there had been a couple of dozen flowers when first found, there were just a couple and I was fearing the worst, but on the other side there were several plants two foot tall and, over the fence I could see many more. A systematic count revealed 170 flowering spikes, so a very important site for what is a rare plant in this area.
I was
again watching the weather forecast for my highlight of the month outing, another attempt to see the mountain ringlet butterfly near Creag Meagaidh. Hopes were high as I departed the house in mainly sunny weather, getting to Creag Meagaidh by 9am. I applied a bit of sun cream to arms and neck and headed off up the hill but in no particular hurry as the best time for butterfly activity is 11am to 4pm, so plenty of time to climb to the 600 metre area. Common blue butterflies were already on the wing along with the occasional meadow brown so things looked promising. After my last visit the local BSBI recorder (http://www.bsbi.org.uk/ ) asked for any plant records from this under-recorded area, so I recorded as I went along. A largish caterpillar by the track had me puzzled (left), not quite right for emperor moth, but about the same size – red sword grass (green form). Gradually, the top of the hill was clouding over and I began to worry that my mountain ringlet jinx was about to strike again – no sun! Perhaps this was going to end up being anot
her botanising day, so the visit would not be without its value. The magical 600m contour with abundant Molinia and Nardus grasslands was reached at 10.30am and a light shower of drizzle passed by but despite the slight dampness the day was quite warm – there was hope. Half-way through listing the plants where I’d stopped, a very dark butterfly came floating down the hill, right colour, but too big, despite the height up the hill, it was a Scotch argus. Too late to see it first, a smaller, dark butterfly flew up from my feet and disappeared off up the hill, with me following in the same general direc
tion – they do exist, my first mountain ringlet. The next two encounters are just the same, with the disturbed butterflies flying fairly big distances either up or down the hill. Rucksac off and camera in hand I continue to walk back and forth across the hill and eventually another one is found which allows me a good view and is kind enough to allow me to take its 
photograph (right). Then it gets better and a blink of sun appears and in the increasing heat two more butterflies take to the wing. Time for lunch (left), hot-cross buns with peanut butter and jam, followed by an attempt to get a decent photo of the grass of Parna
ssus (right). More sun, a few more butterflies, and might there be more round the corner of the hill? So, staying at between 600 and 650 metres I head off south-west across the hill, and in all the suitable spots, grassy and with lots of tormentil and hawkweed type flowers, a few butterflies are seen, particularly when the sun shone. Over towards Ben Nevis I can see lots of heavy rain clouds heading my way and as I have reached a brilliant rocky minor waterfall with Scottish asphodel, lemon-scented fern and, strangely, melancholy thistle, it is time to head off back down the hill, and into the rain – but who cares after such a good day.
Going up hills seems to be how July ended. The first was to Don-
side to climb a hill to see a mountain lichen called Slorina crocea, which at 650 metres, is one of the plants lower known sites. The aim of this trip was to see the lichen and the habitat it occupied so that a search could be made in other areas. There are no Abernethy records nor is it known from this side of the Cairngorms. I was a bit late in setting off, again waiting to see if the day would dry up, so didn’t leave the car until 2.30pm with a promise to be home by 6.30, I horsed up the hill and reached a track, but it was the wrong track so had to horse on a bit more. But the effort was worthwhile and the lichen was found all along two hill tracks growing with dwarf cudweed. The good thing about the rain was that the lichen was at its best, bright green with orange patches (above right), 
when dry it goes a dull brown colour. The next day saw good weather and the next butterfly visit to my BTO BBS square, which again took me to 500 metres. Small heath was an addition from this visit along with the wee moth Rannoch looper. At the end of the transect I was ready with my camera this time just in case the stoat should re-appear, no stoat but the first inland site for those strange insects with the name conoped fly (left), the sighting being made all the more special by finding and photographing a pair mating. These strange flies are parasites of bumblebees, injecting their eggs into the bees so that the fly larva has an instant meal when they hatch.
An
email a couple of days later provided another highlight, dark-red helleborine. About 30 years ago we had an outing with my parents to this site near Tomintoul so that my Dad could see this rare orchid, and there it was with broad-leaved helleborines and common twayblades. In recent years no one had seen it at this site and I began to worry about mis-identification, particularly as I had failed to find my slide photograph of the plant taken during that visit. I few years ago I wrote to the council to see if they could stop cutting the tops off all the orchids with their crazy verge grass cutting operations, and I received confirmation from SNH last summer that this had stopped. Then the email arrived to say that they were back and that two young flowers had been seen. Andy’s email though, suggested that the tops of these flowers mig
ht have gone, nibbled off by rabbits, but I thought it worth a visit all the same. I couldn’t see any dark-red helleborines but I did find a couple of northern brown argus butterflies nearby (left). It just so happened that chalet guests David, Anita and Christopher had never seen this butterfly and had specifically asked me to let them know if I came across it. How fortunate. Next day they went to see the butterfly (successfully) but also returned having seen what they were certain was a single dark-red helleborine. I zoomed back that evening and sure enough, there it was, high up on the banking in all its glory (right). A closer check revealed that there might have also been a second plant, which again had fallen prey to the rabbits. Thank you David, Anita and Christopher for being so observant.
The month ended with a couple of outings to the Meall a Bhuachaille area above Glenmore and on the edge of the Abernethy reserve, initially to look for the Solorina lichen, but also to wander down the north side of the hill to try and find a long lost twinflower site. On the first visit I made my way to the summit via the “old” path, now little used since the Forestry Commission created a new path slightly more to the south, the old path following a more direct route but full of steepness problems and peaty patches which was allowing
a path to develop that was ever widening and in need, in the end, of major repairs. In places, the old path has almost disappeared under spreading patches of bearberry, but my aim in following it was that now it was little used, the lichen might have found it to its liking, plus other plants of interest might have also re-colonised the route. A reasonable plant list developed but without anything of major importance but the presences of the dung/bone narrow cruet moss at two locations was nice to see particularly at 700 metres asl. From the top of the hill I could see, in the distance, the ancient, stunted birches in the higher reaches of the Allt Mullach. These trees (right) must be a tiny remnant of the
once more extensive Abernethy Forest, hanging on in an area where man had failed to destroy them. It was in this general area that David Wood managed to find a small patch of twinflower whilst carrying out an NVC (national vegetation classification) survey in 1991, and I can remember at the time that he said you will have a job re-finding this patch. Having spent some time trying to re-find many of the older listed Abernethy sites I thought it would be useful to see if this patch of twinflower could be re-located. Despite two visits, lots of walking transects across the general area of the original record, nothing was found, proving David right! Lots of blaeberries and cloudberries to eat, the remains of a successful red grouse nest under the heather (left) and meeting the ancient gnarled birches for the first time made all the effort worthwhile.
To finish off the month we had an outing with a
difference by the River Findhorn. To start the outing we parked where we found the impressive morel fungus a few weeks ago (at NH959462), and the plan was to see if it was possible to walk along the west bank of the river to arrive at the Ardclach Bell Tower. The OS map shows a path part of the way used by fishermen, but beyond that might prove a bit of a challenge on the steep bank of the river. Scotch argus butterflies were everywhere and by the river lots of golden rod plants were flowering. At the end of the t
rack an obvious un-official track had developed but the further along the river we went this also began to peter out. However, in the distance, on a very steep bank, it looked like there might also be a kind of fisherman’s track which might get us to the church below the tower. At the start of this “new” path was a very impressive vantage point (left), a rocky outcrop, high above the river with excellent views both up and down the river. A few very narrow bits of path before the path widened and lead us to the boarded up church below the bell tower on the hill. Wild cherries (geans) were hanging in good numbers on some trees by the road up to the tower and one ash tree had three good lichens growing on it. The track to the tower is steep but once there you can go inside and look around. The Tower (left) is quite an old building with a date stone for 1655 (http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/15482/details/ardclach+bell+tower/ ) and if walls could speak no doubt there w
ould be tales to be told. Starting of as a watch tower and prison it eventually became the bell tower for the now boarded up church down by the river. To make our walk circular we headed back down to the road which we followed back to the A939 and back to the bridge over the Findhorn and the car. One plant of note by the side of the A939 was climbing corydalis, a plant with white flowers hanging down from the roadside wall and, deep inside one of the thistle flower-heads was a bee-beetle, a couple of notables to end a nice day out.
That’s it for a couple of weeks when I will be reporting on this seasons tooth fungi survey.
Enjoy the read
Stewart & Janet
On return from our holiday, it was straight back to walking the Loch Garten butterfly transect where the first ringlets were on the wing along with good numbers of small pearl-bordered fritillaries and a few green-veined whites. A bonus for this visit was finding that the six-spot burnet colony was still present on Tulloch Moor. Cycling back from Boat of Garten the next day after checking a local site for corn marigold, I stopped
off at a field near Tomdhu where a single frog orchid had been found two years a go whilst looking for bees on devil’s bit scabious. I couldn’t find anything last year so wasn’t too sure about success in 2010. Real care is needed when walking in these important flower fields, they are usually important because they have, whether by accident or intent, been managed sympathetically and the vegetation is usually natural and luxuriant. Fragrant orchids were found first and checking a couple of sites where I thought the last flower had been seen, I found the first frog orchid (right) on the edge of a small depression. Whoa, there was another right by my foot! A green orchid in green grass, not easy. In all 18 flower s
pikes were found but only a small area had been checked. Sadly, the farmer was happy to know they were present but didn’t want any more of the site counted. I was on a roll, so thought I should check the field at the end of our road in Nethybridge, where a house building application had been turned down recently, just to be sure it wasn’t hiding any orchids. It wasn’t but I did find over 40 plants of moonwort (left) a strange looking member of the fern family. The days roll ended in Grantown on Spey when, in the evening, I visited a common twayblade site I found a couple of years ago whilst on an aspen hoverfly course. On the side of the track where there had been a couple of dozen flowers when first found, there were just a couple and I was fearing the worst, but on the other side there were several plants two foot tall and, over the fence I could see many more. A systematic count revealed 170 flowering spikes, so a very important site for what is a rare plant in this area.I was
again watching the weather forecast for my highlight of the month outing, another attempt to see the mountain ringlet butterfly near Creag Meagaidh. Hopes were high as I departed the house in mainly sunny weather, getting to Creag Meagaidh by 9am. I applied a bit of sun cream to arms and neck and headed off up the hill but in no particular hurry as the best time for butterfly activity is 11am to 4pm, so plenty of time to climb to the 600 metre area. Common blue butterflies were already on the wing along with the occasional meadow brown so things looked promising. After my last visit the local BSBI recorder (http://www.bsbi.org.uk/ ) asked for any plant records from this under-recorded area, so I recorded as I went along. A largish caterpillar by the track had me puzzled (left), not quite right for emperor moth, but about the same size – red sword grass (green form). Gradually, the top of the hill was clouding over and I began to worry that my mountain ringlet jinx was about to strike again – no sun! Perhaps this was going to end up being anot
her botanising day, so the visit would not be without its value. The magical 600m contour with abundant Molinia and Nardus grasslands was reached at 10.30am and a light shower of drizzle passed by but despite the slight dampness the day was quite warm – there was hope. Half-way through listing the plants where I’d stopped, a very dark butterfly came floating down the hill, right colour, but too big, despite the height up the hill, it was a Scotch argus. Too late to see it first, a smaller, dark butterfly flew up from my feet and disappeared off up the hill, with me following in the same general direc
tion – they do exist, my first mountain ringlet. The next two encounters are just the same, with the disturbed butterflies flying fairly big distances either up or down the hill. Rucksac off and camera in hand I continue to walk back and forth across the hill and eventually another one is found which allows me a good view and is kind enough to allow me to take its 
photograph (right). Then it gets better and a blink of sun appears and in the increasing heat two more butterflies take to the wing. Time for lunch (left), hot-cross buns with peanut butter and jam, followed by an attempt to get a decent photo of the grass of Parna
ssus (right). More sun, a few more butterflies, and might there be more round the corner of the hill? So, staying at between 600 and 650 metres I head off south-west across the hill, and in all the suitable spots, grassy and with lots of tormentil and hawkweed type flowers, a few butterflies are seen, particularly when the sun shone. Over towards Ben Nevis I can see lots of heavy rain clouds heading my way and as I have reached a brilliant rocky minor waterfall with Scottish asphodel, lemon-scented fern and, strangely, melancholy thistle, it is time to head off back down the hill, and into the rain – but who cares after such a good day.Going up hills seems to be how July ended. The first was to Don-
side to climb a hill to see a mountain lichen called Slorina crocea, which at 650 metres, is one of the plants lower known sites. The aim of this trip was to see the lichen and the habitat it occupied so that a search could be made in other areas. There are no Abernethy records nor is it known from this side of the Cairngorms. I was a bit late in setting off, again waiting to see if the day would dry up, so didn’t leave the car until 2.30pm with a promise to be home by 6.30, I horsed up the hill and reached a track, but it was the wrong track so had to horse on a bit more. But the effort was worthwhile and the lichen was found all along two hill tracks growing with dwarf cudweed. The good thing about the rain was that the lichen was at its best, bright green with orange patches (above right), 
when dry it goes a dull brown colour. The next day saw good weather and the next butterfly visit to my BTO BBS square, which again took me to 500 metres. Small heath was an addition from this visit along with the wee moth Rannoch looper. At the end of the transect I was ready with my camera this time just in case the stoat should re-appear, no stoat but the first inland site for those strange insects with the name conoped fly (left), the sighting being made all the more special by finding and photographing a pair mating. These strange flies are parasites of bumblebees, injecting their eggs into the bees so that the fly larva has an instant meal when they hatch.An
email a couple of days later provided another highlight, dark-red helleborine. About 30 years ago we had an outing with my parents to this site near Tomintoul so that my Dad could see this rare orchid, and there it was with broad-leaved helleborines and common twayblades. In recent years no one had seen it at this site and I began to worry about mis-identification, particularly as I had failed to find my slide photograph of the plant taken during that visit. I few years ago I wrote to the council to see if they could stop cutting the tops off all the orchids with their crazy verge grass cutting operations, and I received confirmation from SNH last summer that this had stopped. Then the email arrived to say that they were back and that two young flowers had been seen. Andy’s email though, suggested that the tops of these flowers mig
ht have gone, nibbled off by rabbits, but I thought it worth a visit all the same. I couldn’t see any dark-red helleborines but I did find a couple of northern brown argus butterflies nearby (left). It just so happened that chalet guests David, Anita and Christopher had never seen this butterfly and had specifically asked me to let them know if I came across it. How fortunate. Next day they went to see the butterfly (successfully) but also returned having seen what they were certain was a single dark-red helleborine. I zoomed back that evening and sure enough, there it was, high up on the banking in all its glory (right). A closer check revealed that there might have also been a second plant, which again had fallen prey to the rabbits. Thank you David, Anita and Christopher for being so observant.The month ended with a couple of outings to the Meall a Bhuachaille area above Glenmore and on the edge of the Abernethy reserve, initially to look for the Solorina lichen, but also to wander down the north side of the hill to try and find a long lost twinflower site. On the first visit I made my way to the summit via the “old” path, now little used since the Forestry Commission created a new path slightly more to the south, the old path following a more direct route but full of steepness problems and peaty patches which was allowing
a path to develop that was ever widening and in need, in the end, of major repairs. In places, the old path has almost disappeared under spreading patches of bearberry, but my aim in following it was that now it was little used, the lichen might have found it to its liking, plus other plants of interest might have also re-colonised the route. A reasonable plant list developed but without anything of major importance but the presences of the dung/bone narrow cruet moss at two locations was nice to see particularly at 700 metres asl. From the top of the hill I could see, in the distance, the ancient, stunted birches in the higher reaches of the Allt Mullach. These trees (right) must be a tiny remnant of the
once more extensive Abernethy Forest, hanging on in an area where man had failed to destroy them. It was in this general area that David Wood managed to find a small patch of twinflower whilst carrying out an NVC (national vegetation classification) survey in 1991, and I can remember at the time that he said you will have a job re-finding this patch. Having spent some time trying to re-find many of the older listed Abernethy sites I thought it would be useful to see if this patch of twinflower could be re-located. Despite two visits, lots of walking transects across the general area of the original record, nothing was found, proving David right! Lots of blaeberries and cloudberries to eat, the remains of a successful red grouse nest under the heather (left) and meeting the ancient gnarled birches for the first time made all the effort worthwhile.To finish off the month we had an outing with a
difference by the River Findhorn. To start the outing we parked where we found the impressive morel fungus a few weeks ago (at NH959462), and the plan was to see if it was possible to walk along the west bank of the river to arrive at the Ardclach Bell Tower. The OS map shows a path part of the way used by fishermen, but beyond that might prove a bit of a challenge on the steep bank of the river. Scotch argus butterflies were everywhere and by the river lots of golden rod plants were flowering. At the end of the t
rack an obvious un-official track had developed but the further along the river we went this also began to peter out. However, in the distance, on a very steep bank, it looked like there might also be a kind of fisherman’s track which might get us to the church below the tower. At the start of this “new” path was a very impressive vantage point (left), a rocky outcrop, high above the river with excellent views both up and down the river. A few very narrow bits of path before the path widened and lead us to the boarded up church below the bell tower on the hill. Wild cherries (geans) were hanging in good numbers on some trees by the road up to the tower and one ash tree had three good lichens growing on it. The track to the tower is steep but once there you can go inside and look around. The Tower (left) is quite an old building with a date stone for 1655 (http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/15482/details/ardclach+bell+tower/ ) and if walls could speak no doubt there w
ould be tales to be told. Starting of as a watch tower and prison it eventually became the bell tower for the now boarded up church down by the river. To make our walk circular we headed back down to the road which we followed back to the A939 and back to the bridge over the Findhorn and the car. One plant of note by the side of the A939 was climbing corydalis, a plant with white flowers hanging down from the roadside wall and, deep inside one of the thistle flower-heads was a bee-beetle, a couple of notables to end a nice day out.That’s it for a couple of weeks when I will be reporting on this seasons tooth fungi survey.
Enjoy the read
Stewart & Janet
Wood vetch near Tomintoul
Monarch of the Glen location - Loch Laggan
All photos © Stewart Taylor
