Jack and Tim's wildlife holiday

Jack and Tim, two young visitors to Islay recently thrilled us with their passion and enthusiasm for wildlife - craneflies and all! They traversed through bog and midges, seeking out some of the island's finest gems including the rarely encountered Narrow bordered bee hawkmoth, hundreds of Marsh fritillaries, hunting Hen harriers, and even the Osprey!

"Just when we thought it couldn't get any better we found 2 Narrow Bordered Bee Hawkmoths feeding on the flowers and Jack had another flyby!"



Whooper swan at Gruinart- only a handful stay over the summer.



Thank you both for sharing your stories and photos, and see you the next time.





Baby Stonechat



Marsh fritillary - It's encouraging to hear of this rare species finally on the wing after slow caterpillar growth this year.



Narrow bordered bee hawkmoth

Lorna



Whooper Dooper Super Trooper

I was playing violin in the living room yesterday morning, as usual staring out of the window to the sea. You can imagine my surprise when I noticed the Mute swans had been joined by a Whooper swan, one of my favourite birds! I wonder if it has hidden undercover, spending all summer here? Another was spotted by Ian the same morning.  

Lorna

Whooper Swans (Cygnus cygnus)

This group of Whoopers dropped onto Loch Indaal last weekend for a short while during the course of their migration north from their winter feeding grounds, probably in Ireland.

Whooper Swans (Cygnus cygnus)

There have not been many wild swans passing through as yet this year but there are currently six Whoopers showing rather well on Ardnave Loch - consorting with a brood of Mute cygnets who seemed to find them rather more interesting than their boring old parents.  I guess that's the story of the animal kingdom generally...