First of all, apologies for the fact that it’s been a month since I last updated the blog. As always, a rather hectic life isn’t giving me as much time as I’d like to concentrate on these things.
I recently spent a week on Mull, where I had a few objectives in terms of Butterflies and Moths. Specifically, I wanted to put the moth trap out regularly and I wanted to find Slender Scotch Burnet and Transparent Burnet moths.
Now, I left for Mull on the 3rd July, a little concerned, as there had been reports of almost drought conditions on the island. I knew that some places were having to turn away guests due to a lack of water. Luckily, the place I was staying at was ok for water. Sadly, the drought was to be broken…
When I arrived on Mull on Saturday evening, it was dry, but a little bit overcast. When I woke up on Sunday morning, however, it was a totally different story – torrential rain and gale force winds! I think it’s safe to say that there would be no butterflies out that day! I spent that day hiding in the caravan, hoping for the weather to break.
Monday was forecast for showers, some heavy – but with strong winds throughout the day. I pretty much gave up on hunting for butterflies and moths that day, too. I did, however manage to get a couple of walks in, so the day wasn’t a total waste.
To cut a long story short, the weather was more or less awful throughout the week on Mull. There was rain on every single day of my visit. It’s safe to say that I never got the chance to hunt for the specialist moths for Mull.
However, it wasn’t a complete loss. I did manage to put the moth trap out on the Tuesday night. Ok, so the egg boxes I’d left outside the trap were more or less ruined when I got up on Wednesday morning, but the result was worth it. My first ever Garden Tiger moths… well, the first I’d caught in my own trap! Absolutely gorgeous moths, one of which is shown below (I caught 2)
Typically, I’ve lost my list of species caught… I know there was White Ermine, Buff Ermine, True Lovers Knot and a few others.
The weather cleared up on the Friday afternoon, and turned out quite sunny. We decided to go for a walk – specifically the shore walk at Ardmore (as given by Walk Highlands). I’m glad we did, too, as I managed to see two species new to me. Grayling and Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary.
We started the walk at approx 4pm, and although the walk should only take about 2 hours, it took us over 3 hours, due to stopping and getting photos. I’m pretty chuffed with the Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary taken below:
This Dark Green Fritillary was also pretty good.
Other species seen on that one trip were Speckled Wood, Ringlet, Meadow Brown and Small Heath. That one walk more or less saved my week from being a disaster! Not bad for the very last day we were there!
Now that I’m back in Fife, I’ll be reporting on things closer to home again – Look out for an update in the next day or two regarding the Large Heath butterfly!
Hi Grahame
Pity about the weather for your week on Mull. Glad you finally saw a few butterflies. I’ve only ever seen the Speckled Wood in England. Nice pics of the fritillaries !
I look forward to seeing your update on the Large Heath Butterfy, a species i’ve yet to see and photograph.
I’ve been spending plenty of time at Birnie/Gaddon loch lately.
Plenty Butterflies and moths around ! I don’t think there has ever been a moth recording night done there before so it would be good to try and arrange one in the future. There is a wide variety of flowers , shrubs and trees there and i think we would get a good amount of moths.
Barry
I suspect there will have been some moth trapping done along there before, but maybe not on an official basis – there probably wasn’t an event involved. It would definitely be a good place to have an event, though… might be worth mentioning to the ranger responsible for the site.
Re Speckled Wood. It’s funny… over on the west coast, it’s one of the most common species of butterflies. They’re everywhere, but over here there’s none. It’s a shame, really.. they’re a gorgeous wee butterfly!