Islay Natural History Trust: Beautiful Demoiselle and Star of Bethlehem

It's not often you see two rare things in a day, or in the space of ten minutes even, but such was our luck on Sunday when Lorna and I walked a way I'd never walked before. No, it wasn't in the middle of nowhere, far from it; it was simply the track linking the 'high' road to the 'Glen' road via Mulindry Farm. Looking for caterpillars we went up to a sort of tractor park bit and Lorna called out excitedly, "Mum, is that a Beautiful Demoiselle?" not only was she right, but it was a male and it was perched obligingly on a caterpillarless nettle (nettles being the reason for our detour in the first place!). Wow! Was I excited! I've seen them on Islay before, but never to photograph. I'm surprised I stood still long enough to get the photo.

Then we walked a few more yards and a Swallow flew out of an old ruin which drew our attention to a patch of woodland near the farm. We investigated and straight away I saw a flower I'd not knowingly seen before, the beautiful Star of Bethlehem, an escape which has probably grown there as a result of garden compost having being dumped there at some stage.

Later, a Marsh Fritillary walked onto Lorna's hand, looking rather weary. So it was a very productive couple of hours.
Becky