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| Marsh Fritillary on Marsh Thistle |
INHT has been undertaking surveys on SPA (Special Protection
Areas) sites on the Rhinns for the CANN peatland restoration project recording
breeding birds and the populations of Marsh Fritillary butterflies for the past
couple of years. This has provided extra
revenue for the charity and a chance to directly undertake recording of species
for our database. This fine weather
(when the wind in not blowing a hoolly!), warm and sunny, has had the
butterflies out and it is so nice to see the Marsh Fritillary, one of Islay's prettiest butterflies. The adults are only on the wing for about 4-6
weeks so there is only a short time to see them and for them to have the right
conditions to breed and set forth the next generation which spends the rest of
the year as caterpillars.
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| Marsh Fritillary and Small Heath |
Our peat bogs are wondrous places, colourful and with little
gems for an observer to appreciate and photograph. Specialised plants and birds making the most
of insects and the limited nutrients the bog can provide. When you get down low they are really forests
in miniature, the Ling Heather and Bog Cotton are the trees and the sphagnum
mosses the herb rich layer.
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| Round-leaved Sundew with trapped fly |
Sphagnums provide a rich tapestry of colour, and though the
species list for flowering plants is not vast is made up for in variety and
colour. Many were only just reaching the
point of flowering, Bog Asphodel and Sundews budding and almost out. The Bog Cotton is being gradually teased from
the bud and floating or streaking in the wind to find a new position to set
down roots. Butterwort and the sundews
(Round leaved and Long leaved) await unsuspecting midges or even a larger fly
to get stuck to their sticky and dew tipped leaves, which gradually digest the
insect absorbing the nitrogen released a nutrient not available in the peat
where there is no contact with the soil and rock substrate.
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| Dubh Loch with Bog Bean |
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| Bog Bean |
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| Water Lily |
The jewels in the bog are the little Dubh Lochs, often set
at the top of the rises and providing permanent water for Bog Bean and water
lilies, and midges, that are food for dragonflies (Four-spotted chasers,
Golden-ringed Dragonflies and damselflies), Dunlin and other waders like
Redshank and Lapwing which have moved off the dry farmland in search of soft
water logged ground for insects.
The rest of the bog is scattered with pink Heath Spotted
orchid and every couple of hundred metres Skylark ascend to the sky singing
their little hearts out a joy to the ear.
Traversing the terrain is hard going for a biped and
wings would be so much easier but the little gems are worth the effort and the
workout keeps the body in trim, I scoff at the app on my phone which has
tracked my passage and tells me I have exerted merely a couple of hundred
calories for the days exhaustion!
