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.

Eigg for a day

At the weekend we decided on the spur of the moment to pay a quick visit to the Isle of Eigg as we hadn't been there for some time.

This is Eigg seen from the mainland just south of Mallaig. At the left (south) end you can see the Sgurr.

On the way we stopped at Arisaig to look for shells. Recent storms seemed to have removed or shattered most of the shells, but just above the beach I found some Wild Carrot (Daucus carota ssp. carota) flowers. There has recently been some discussion in an email forum about this, and what reason there could be for its commonly having one purple central flower in each head.

Among the plants at Arisaig, rather less than half seemed to have this.

The fruiting heads are also rather strange, with the branches of the head curving in on themselves as the spiny fruits develop.

In Mallaig it was a sunny morning and I noticed that my shadow on the water had rays coming out from it. For more information about this effect, see

Color and light in nature by David K. Lynch and William Charles Livingston

Strange optical effects in water - explained on YouTube
Water Aureole imaged by Andrew Kirk

Also in Mallaig harbour I met this rather friendly seal...

...and soon after leaving Mallaig on the boat for Eigg, I caught my first glimpse of a Basking Shark.

As one arrives at Eigg, the pitchstone ridge of the Sgurr, seen end-on, looks very dramatic.

We only had a few hours ashore so, while Fred went on a tour of the new electric system, I went to the beach to look for shells.

Unfortunately there was more seaweed than there were shells, but at least the weather stayed dry.

There are many more pictures of Eigg on our website.

Flowery hills

It's getting towards the end of the flower season now. Most of the orchids are well past their best, as are some of the alpines, but there are some flowers that are at their best later in the season.

Last weekend I managed to visit two promising sites. One was Cnoc Coinnich, which boasts a spectacular view from the summit down the Clyde Estuary if you are lucky enough to get a good day. Last Saturday it was covered in damp mist when we set out, but this had all dispersed by the time we reached the summit.

High up on the hill we found Alpine Saw-wort (Saussurea alpina) which I had never seen in flower before.

The following day I went to Inverlochlarig in search of other late flowerers.

One of the most surprising find was Musk (Mimulus moschatus), which is a rather local garden escape.

On the side of the hill to the west of the track there were a number of huge boulders with trees growing in cracks. They appeared to have rolled down from the crags above, but I wondered how this one managed to have ended up vertical rather than lying on its side. No doubt the crack, already enlarged by the tree, will eventually cause it to fall apart.

The picture below was pure luck. I never even noticed the bee until after I had taken the picture of a white Marsh Thistle against the dark background of the hill beyond.

We followed the river back down the glen, with views of the hill Stob Binnein (often called Stobinian) to the north.