Sunny day in the Campsies

Today was a beautiful, warm and sunny day. We decided to walk along a ridge overlooking the Carron Valley reservoir, where we had been skiing in the winter.

Eventually we reached this waterfall, which was surrounded by flowers.

There had recently been a rock fall which has filled in the pool below the highest fall.

The picture below was taken in May 2009, before the rock fall.

A closer view of the freshly fallen rocks.

Nearby we found a few Early Purple Orchids (Orchis mascula)...

...and plenty of Mossy Saxifrage (Saxifraga hypnoides)

The sun had brought out lots of butterflies, including this freshly emerged Green-veined White...

... and a pair of Orange-tips.

The male is above and the female below. The flower is Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis) which is the most common species of flower on which the Orange-tip lays its eggs.

Butterflies mud-puddling

Yesterday was warm and sunny - the perfect day for butterflies. We walked along a farm track, and at one point there was a large puddle. In several places at the edge of the puddle were groups of green-veined white butterflies "mud-puddling."

Groups of male butterflies may congregate in this way in order to gain nutrients which may be passed to the females during mating.

For further information, see

Mud-puddling - Wikipedia

Is male puddling behaviour of tropical butterflies targeted at sodium for nuptial gifts or activity? (Biological Journal of the Linnean Society)

We also saw a number of Painted Ladies. There was a huge influx of these butterflies from Africa in June, and the ones we are seeing now are the second generation.

Other butterflies we saw today were Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshell (below), Ringlet, Red Admiral and Meadow Brown.

In the last few days we have also seen some other insects which we were unable to identify. We aree very grateful to Ben Darvill, Jeanne Robinson and Les Larkman for help in identifying them.

At first I took this hoverfly to be a bee. Its black and white colouration was very striking. It is Volucella bombylans, which confused us because it is variable in colour.

The fly shown below is a male Bibio pomonae or "Heather fly." It is most noticeable when flying, as it dangles its hind legs in flight. It appears to be very common as we see it most days in large numbers.

The very short antennae and the red upper sections of the front and back legs should have made identification easy, but it wasn't in any of our insect books.

Labrador tea

Labrador Tea (Ledum) is widespread in Greenland where I have seen it (Ledum palustre) growing in great quantities, so I was intrigued when I heard that it also grows at a site in central Scotland.

Two years ago I was taken to visit this site, and I returned in May this year as part of a botanical project to monitor its spread. The species here is a different one - Ledum groenlandicum (or L. palustre ssp. groenlandicum) - which also grows in Greenland although I had not seen it there. The chief difference is that L. groenlandicum has broader leaves.

Also L. groenlandicum usually has 6-8 stamens while L. palustre has 10.

It is generally considered that it was introduced at this site, though this is difficult to verify and it has been present in the area for at least 150 years.

The plant is closely related to the Rhododendrons and is now frequently included in the genus Rhododendron rather than Ledum. The leaves are used to make tea in some parts of north America, though they contain toxins.

The site is rich in other interesting species, and one of the most abundant is Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos).

These tiny flowers grow on thread-like stems with narrow leaves, and often carpet the ground.

The berries form later in the year, and are disproportionately large compared to the size of the plant.

A rarer species found at the site is Bog Rosemary (Andromeda polifolia), and this year we found it in flower.

In addition, we saw large numbers of Green Hairstreak butterflies, though trying to take photos proved difficult.

Painted ladies

During the past few weeks there has been a huge influx of Painted ladies arriving in the UK. These butterflies migrate here from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco - a journey of around 1000 miles.

They were first seen in Britain in large numbers on 21st May, but the first time we saw any here in Scotland was 29th May. That evening we went for a walk along a country path near our home and saw at least half a dozen of these beautiful butterflies.

Since then we have seen fewer, and most have been flying past at such a speed that it was hard to be sure of the species, but this one conveniently perched on a bluebell flower.

Another was feeding on buttercup flowers close to the canal.

Usually we would expect to see only one or two of these butterflies all summer.

You are asked to submit any sightings to Butterfly Conservation at

http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/migrantwatch

where you can also find out more about them.

Skye flowers and butterfly

The Scotch Argus butterfly is quite common in many parts of Scotland, and was the butterfly we saw most on Skye.


Bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) is a common plant growing in the edges of lochs.

Bur Reeds (Sparganium sp.) also grow around the margins of lochs, and sometimes also in deeper water. This one is probably Least Bur Reed (Sparganum minimum).

We found Field Gentian (Gentianella campestris) in the shorter grass near the sea.

Also growing in the short grass were Heath Spotted Orchids (Dactylorhiza maculata ssp. ericetorum).

This Greater Sea-spurrey (Spergularia media)was growing just above the high tide line.

Silverweed (Potentilla anserina) grew along the top of the beach.

Goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea) is often a mountain plant, but we found it growing at all levels. Here, it was overlooking a stream.

Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris) is one of the most beautiful flowers, and one of my favourites.

A close-up view shows the sterile stamens branched into little semicircles of glandular hairs between each fertile stamen.

For more information on the flowers of Skye, see Skye Flora