The Taylor's at Tea in the Park!

Wellies on, waterproofs on and off we went, our second visit to Tea in the Park. If you are ever in this area in August a visit to Tea in the Park at the Glenlivet village hall is highly recommended and for a few pounds you can have soup, sandwiches, home baking tea and coffee, and you end up so stuffed that you have to go for a walk. If you like a dram, the walk detailed will take you right past the Glenlivet distillery where you can pop in for a free tasting. The folk from the village hold this event each year to raise funds for the village hall etc. and with mums, dads and children all involved it is well worth supporting.
The whole area is great for getting out and exploring and it is worth having a good look at the OS map before setting out to plan your route. On Sunday we had lunch and then did the circular route shown on the map left, setting off from Glenlivet village (car park by cemetery) and heading south to Blairfindy Lodge before heading back down the hill to the village. It's road walking but great on a day when there had been lots of rain so sticking to the road meant it was nice and dry underfoot. The distillery is open most days so you could pop in as you follow this route. You will see from the map that part of where we walked follows the Speyside Way "spur" to Tomintoul, so you could extend the walk if needed. The views as you walk gently up the hill are very good looking over farmland and heather moor towards Ben Rinnes a few miles to the north. A walk up the Ben would make a nice alternative and something I must do for a future diary. The houses and castle in the picture belong to Castletown, a wee road running east opposite the distillery. Look also at the blue sky and clouds which lasted all of two hours!

One of the requirements for a distillery is a local supply of clean water and, in some parts of Scotland the distinctive flavouring of the amber nectar comes from peaty water and peat smoke, particularly the Islay malts (peat cutters on Islay right). As we drove over the hills to Glenlivet we saw quite a rare sight locally, someone still cutting peats! Once of a time many local folk spent much of their summer months cutting, stacking and lifting peats before taking them home from the peat moss to burn. For many families this would have been their main source of fuel, the local landowners at the time, making it illegal to remove wood from the surrounding forests. Throughout Abernethy, all the peat areas have signs of earlier cutting and there are few bogs that have not had some cutting over them. The picture left shows a typical peat cutting face in the bog, probably from around the time of the first World War. Peat is formed by the growing and decaying of the plants and sphagnum moss on the surface of the bog and the bog literally grows upwards, year by year, retaining in its make up a wee history book of what has gone on on the bog and in the surrounding area over several thousand years. Some of the Abernethy peat bogs are more than six metres deep providing a direct link right back to the time of the last ice age some 10,000 years ago. In Tomintoul Edward Stuart makes a living by cutting peat on a commercial scale selling the dried peat for household fuel or for use in the garden. To do this Edward has a large area of peat several acres in size and the peat is cut using a tractor mounted machine which takes the peat from below the bog surface and spews it out in long square sausages across the bog. Hand peat cutters use a specially shaped spade (left) with an L shaped blade to cut their peats. The dried peats (right) show chunks of vegetation trapped within the peat, plant remains that have lain undisturbed in the anaerobic peat for a few thousand years. Trapped pollen grains within the peat also allow a picture to be developed as to what sort of woodland or vegetation grew on or around the bog and how it changed over millennia. A clear picture develops of tree removal (fewer tree pollen as you rise through the peat levels) and heather arrival and dominance once the trees have gone. Amazing. This website explains the pollen process quite well. http://www.peatlandsni.gov.uk/archaeology/pollen.htm .

This week has been a bit dominated by looking down at FUNGI! It would appear that this years crop of (some) fungi is developing quite early and though not an expert I have been looking at one particular group of fungi known as the "tooth" fungi. The technical term is stipitate hydnoids the term covering a group of fungi that don't have gills (like the mushrooms you may regularly eat) but have spines below the cap, producing spores just as in the normal gill fungi. There are 15-18 species in the UK, two-thirds of which have been found within Abernethy Forest making the site one of the more important sites within the UK for this particular group. The two fungi right are the blue corky spine fungus Hydnellum caeruleum a real beauty when fresh. Over the years I was involved in the discovery of Sarcodon glaucopus being found in the UK for the first time. More recently, a dark-blue spine fungus found during a lunchtime walk, has sparked off a check via DNA techniques. Also, dried material from America has been sourced to try and identify another "oddity" possibly Phellodon atratus (left). So it is with the latter species in mind that I have been wandering the forest over the last few days. If you would like to see something of the work on DNA check out: http://authors.elsevier.com/offprints/MYCRES269/cc196648dce29bf1590827ccb00054e1 though this site is only available for a few weeks, and for spine fungi in general: http://www.ukbap.org.uk/ukplans.aspx?ID=338 .

Another outing this week saw me visiting Loch an Eilean but via the "back door". The walk itself again, makes quite a nice circular walk taking in a bit of farmland, amazing views over Cairn Gorm and Braeriach, through a part of Rothiemurchus forest and Loch an Eilean. The start is from Blackpark along the Whitewell road which is off the Aviemore to Cairngorm road, there is usually just enough room to park your car on the bend. From here, just walk up the road to Whitewell enjoying the views out over Rothiemurchuis Forest.

Tullochgrue is the next landmark though the farm and buildings have seen better days. Some restoration work has been started at the farmhouse, but progress is slow. In winter a field of birdcrop attracts lots of chaffinches, greenfinches, the odd brambling and a couple of yellowhammers along with a few noisy pheasants! The map tells of 'hut circles' to your right. Eventually you reach Whitewell which used to be home to Desmond Nethersole-Thompson (another Highland Naturalist)and now owned by his daughter. If only walls could talk!

Just off the road to your left is a memorial to two young men who perished in the Cairngorms way back in 1928. I am not sure if the booklet is available but "Mountain Shadows The Tragedy of Baird and Barrie" covers what happened during that fateful new year expedition all those years ago. The inscription reads 'Erected in proud and affectionate memory of HUGH ALEXANDER BARRIE M.A. interred here and THOMAS BAIRD M.A. interred at Baldernock who lost their lives on January 2nd 1928 whilst climbing these hills. "Find me a wind swept boulder for a bier". The last few words were written by Barrie during his last summer term at Glasgow University as part of a poem titled When I Am Dead, the full text of which is worth including here.

When I am dead

And this strange spark of life that in me lies

Is fled to join the great white core of life

That surely flames beyond eternities

And all I ever thought of as myself

Is mouldering to dust and cold dead ash
This pride of nerve and muscle - merest dross

This joy of brain and eye and touch but trash

Bury me not, I pray thee

In the dark earth where comes not any ray

Of light or warmth or aught that made life dear,

But take my whitened bones far, far away
Out of the hum and turmoil of the town.

Find me a wind swept boulder for a bier

And on it lay me down,

Where far beneath drops sheer the rocky ridge

Down to the gloomy valley, and the streams

Fall foaming white against black beetling rocks,

Where the sun's kindly radiance seldom gleams;

Where some tall peak, defiant, steadfast, mocks

The passing Gods: and all the ways of men forgotten.

So may I know

Even in that death that comes to everything

The swiftly silent swish of hurrying snow;

The lash of rain; the savage bellowing

Of stags; the bitter-keen knife edge embrace

Of the rushing wind: and still the tremulous dawn

Will touch the eyeless sockets of my face;

And I shall see the sunset and anon

Shall know the velvet kindness of the night

And see the stars.

Hmm, it was as though he knew what was coming? The memorial is in a wonderful spot, so if ever you get there admire the view, and think of the lives lost in the mountains then as well as now. Check your map and then make your way to Loch an Eilean where you can include a circuit of the loch if you are feeling fit and then back, via the Croft to Blackpark.

That's it for another week.

Enjoy the read

Stewart & Janet

Don & Tracy our first Chalet visitors to come by motor bike

All photos © Stewart Taylor

A prominent week but without a shower!

A few errors from last week to correct following a walk to the River Spey and back on Thursday. I had suggested that all the waders had now departed the Strath and headed back to the coast - not so. Following the Explore Abernethy riverside walk, two curlews were found feeding in a field, so they are still around. The highlight of that part of the walk though was the sheer abundance of thistles, mainly creeping type thistles Cirsium arvense but also a good showing of spear thistles Cirsium vulgare (left), massed areas of purple waving in the breeze, along with the butterflies they were attracting. To the fore were small tortoiseshells, followed by green-veined whites and, a single small white, and around the edges of the thistles lots of scotch argus butterflies. The butterflies were on the wing because - the sun was shining! Cutting back from the river to the Speyside Way a partly flooded field showed that not all the other waders had departed either, twenty lapwings, a dozen oystercatchers and, more oddly, about thirty adult (right) and juvenile common gulls (they don't breed very close to here), a single black-headed gull, and, as I was sorting out what was what, eight lesser black-backed gulls dropped in followed by the same number of herring gulls. There could be a possibility that the common gulls and the lesser black-backs were birds departing from their moorland breeding ground over on the Grampian hills. An adjacent field produced eight more curlews. With more rain forecast perhaps this flooded area will hold on to these birds for a week or so yet.

Whilst sitting on a wee hillside counting the lapwings etc, I was aware of something moving about along the deeper vegetation by the edge of the field. A stoat! What happened over the next ten minutes was absolutely brilliant and so funny that anyone nearby would have wondered what I was laughing at. The stoat made its way out from the edge of the field towards the nearest lapwing, the lapwing was soon aware of this approach because the stoat kept leaping up in the air, doing the occasional somersault. It would then dash back to the field edge only to return to the field, leaping about as before. Instead of the lapwing running away, more birds came towards where the stoat was performing but eventually one lapwing took to the air and dive-bombed the stoat until it retreated again to the field edge. On the stoats next excursion into the field, a magpie did the same. Was the stoat hunting, because you do read that this is a method of distracting the intended prey item? Occasionally the stoat did leap into the air to try and grab the bird's legs but whether this was with intent or not I don't know. After about ten minutes everything returned to normal, my bum was wet, and about thirty cows and one bull were fast approaching - time to go.

TV programme of the week, and it was shown twice, was about the UK's greatest engineer, Thomas Telford - I hope you saw it. What a man and what energy he must have had. But what about Brunnel I hear you shout, he was good, I agree, but not as good as Telford. Before the programme I was not aware that Telford had carried out so much work in Scotland, harbours and churches on top of the more famous projects so it is with no apology that an earlier picture is appearing again this week, a bridge that was given a special mention on the programme because it is one of the few iron bridges that Telford built in Scotland, and it's just up the road, crossing the River Spey at Craigellachie. It really is worth a visit, and in summer, there's usually a fisherman thrown in for free! It is no longer a road bridge so you are able to walk across the bridge to admire the work though this is better appreciated from below. See Diary 27 May 2007 for earlier appearance.

The week saw four nights of moth trapping looking for the dark bordered beauty moth in a local aspen wood. Not a huge success, with an inch of rain falling during the first night and temperatures as low as two degrees centigrade for the other nights, not very conducive for moth flight! However, put a light in a wood at night and you are sure to catch something so the next few pictures give a little insight into the world of moth trapping. The picture left shows the portable moth trap (metal box with light on top) being set up. The trap is powered by a small portable battery.

The moth trap in place before the heavens opened! The actinic light has the ability to draw in moths from up to one-hundred metres.

Inside the trap there are lots of section of egg boxes to allow moths entering the trap a place to settle. A few moths can be seen on the egg boxes at the bottom of the trap (the rest have been removed and the moths returned to the wood) and quite a few moths have also settled on the inside of the metal trap itself. On view are mainly true lovers knots and lesser swallow prominent.

These two whitish moths are: lesser swallow prominent left and its very close relative swallow prominent right. In addition an iron prominent was trapped. I didn't say moth trapping and identification was easy, but it is interesting and with time you do get to know the moths quite well. Something though, like the garden tiger (right) is an easy moth to identify and is regularly trapped.
http://ukmoths.org.uk/ is a website which is brilliant in helping you identify moths, though you do need to know roughly what you are looking at to aid searching, and if you fancy moth trapping yourself then Anglian Lepodopterist Supplies can help http://www.angleps.btinternet.co.uk/. There are other suppliers, just type moth traps into any search engine. And no, I didn't find a dark bordered beauty, but I will return, probably next year, when I will hope for better weather.

On my way back and forth to the trap site I came across a group of fungi growing at the base of a tree. They looked very similar to the type of fungus that has a cap that rolls back as the fungus matures producing an ink-like substance as it does so, so one cap was carefully picked and taken home for further investigation. This group of fungi are known as ink-caps and the spores that the fungus is producing do literally turn to an ink-like liquid on the edge of the cap (deliquesce). The fungus was checked with the picture in Roger Philip's book and it looks like it is the common ink cap Coprinus atramentarius, a common fungus found growing on buried wood. Having checked the "whole" fungus against the picture it was time to check the spores, the general term for the reproductive unit for the fungus, a single cell akin to a speck of dust in most fungi. I don't have a microscope powerful enough for looking at these microscopic cells but you can get an idea if the colour of the spores are correct by lying the cap, gills down, on a piece of paper and producing a spore print (right). This print is produced by the spores being deposited on the paper as they fall from the gills on the underside of the cap, probably in their millions, allowing the colour of the spores to be checked and, with a suitable microscope the spore size and knobbly shape can also be checked. An amazing world that few people have a chance to see. I had intended photographing the caps when they were curled back and showing the "ink" but sadly a flock of sheep destroyed them the following day! On one of the bogs I also came across a species with a link back to the man who did so much recording work in Abernethy as well as naming many species. This fungus grows in the old Scots pine forests and, when wet with rain, has a glutinous surface to its cap. This is Cortinarius pinicola Orton, named first by the late Peter Orton, long-term friend and recording colleague (see Diary 23 July 2007).


Some readers will be relieved to know that my visits to the bogs this week won't result in more "big" spider pictures, I did see some and I also noticed that many of the nursery webs are now empty so a few more of these remarkable spiders will be now roaming the bogs. The bogs are so wet that some of the stunted bog pines that grow there are looking a little stressed by having too much water and many of the sundews (right) are underwater and few seem to be flowering properly. However, those giant "sponges" of the bogs the sphagnums (red version left), will be going mad soaking up the water as they "grow" upwards, slowing the water run-off, and, very slowly, allowing the surface of the bog to grow upwards, adding in the longer-term, to the peat within the bog.





This week saw the local area hosting the World Orienteering Championships and our chalet guests this week, Liam, Claire, Frank and Nora, made the long trip from Cork in Ireland to take part. Also, the Grantown Show took place on Thursday though without, sadly, the usual livestock entries due to foot and mouth in the south, and Saturday saw the village running another successful Abernethy Highland Games. For the first time for nine years yours truly wasn't taking part having stood down from the committee after the 2006 event.

Towards the end of this month the website for Scottish Natural Heritage's Highland Naturalists' should be live, details of which are shown right http://www.highlandnaturalists.com/ sadly my picture doesn't really show you all the people involved but the website will have biographies and pictures once complete. Enjoy.

Oddity of the week has to be a family of crossbills up in the forest meaning the young birds have, latterly, been fed with seeds from the new, hard, green cones, a difficult job for the adults and amazing that at least four juvenile birds are still alive and starting to feed for themselves. The Loch Garten ospreys are still being seen, though not always at the nest, a bird was again displaying over the house so not a bad bird to add to the garden list.

And the shower? Not rain for once but an effort to see the Perseids last night failed miserably. The clouds coming and going didn't help but even so, few things were shooting across the sky even when I could see parts of it. Oh well, there is always next year, bed at 2.30 am is no good when you have work the following day!

That is it for another week, enjoy the read.

All the best

Stewart & Janet

Fresh veg from the garden the first for 2007

All photos © Stewart Taylor

A yellow thing appeared in the sky this week!

The butterflies loved it, the flowers opened up and followed it and a few people were seen lying on the ground almost naked seemingly also looking at it - we actually had several hours of 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 quieter 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.

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 lime 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

The 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!

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