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



Sunny Loch Gruinart

I'm sure you'll agree the weather hasn't known what to do with itself this past week! It was delightful to wake up to the sun shining yesterday, which meant Mark and I's proposed cycle there and back to the RSPB Loch Gruinart reserve had the thumbs up. Even if it had rained, our spirits couldn't have been dampened. We saw a wide range of wonderful wildlife, with some highlights being young pied wagtails and shoveler (so cute), 7 spot ladybird, and rook (I know..) Here's a handful of the photos that Mark took. It was hard narrowing it down to the final six!

This small tortoiseshell landed after the planned fox glove shot was set up - lucky us!

Willow warbler - a photo tick for Mark

Both there and back, this spotted flycatcher and chaffinch were perched on the fence by the track to the new hide.

Seven spot ladybird, of which I counted 10.

This is my first rook this summer, so I was quite excited!

Cycling back, I spotted this baby hedgehog by the side of the road. I looked back when a tractor passed once we'd set off again. I think it was ok.

Bird Species List 

buzzard, hen harrier, grey heron, twite, spotted flycatcher, blackbird, great tit, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, linnet, lesser redpoll, pied wagtail, robin, wren, lapwing, starling, raven, rook, song thrush, house sparrow, corncrake (heard) common gull, woodpigeon, rockdove, black headed gull, shoveler, mallard, moorhen, swallow, house martin, sand martin, whitethroat, sedge warbler, snipe, willow warbler, dunnock, meadow pipit, skylark, shelduck, oystercatcher, mute swan, herring gull, pheasant

Lorna

Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus)

Nice shot of a Brown hare from Bob Davison

Hare Preservation Trust

Young Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus). Nostrils are the key to ID

Thanks to Bob Davison for this picture of a young grey seal (above).  One of the best ways to tell a young Grey seal from a Common seal (Phoca vitulina) is to look at its nostrils.  The Greys have nostrils that are kind of parallel, whereas those of the common are much more V-shaped and almost meet at the bottom (below).

However, that's all very well if you have an obliging seal that does not mind having its nasal appendages examined in some detail.  This is not always that easy to do.  As usual with these little identification issues, it is always easy to tell a common seal from a grey seal when you are in the pub, but it is not always quite so easy when you are in the field...  Full adults are less of a problem - the greys are much bigger for a start....  Well, usually....

Seals can of course 'seal' their nostrils while underwater.  They can also sleep while holding themselves vertically in the water with their heads above the surface - but only for around 90 seconds at a time...

Me and my garden: How Jennifer Owen became an unlikely champion of British wildlife

'Independent' Article

A few birds from Sunday morning

 
 


Sunday morning was glorious and we set out for a walk along the coast from Port Charlotte in full sun, with little fluffy clouds and no wind.  The Blackbird and the Robin were catching a few rays while it lasted, which was sadly not all that long.  By the time we caught up with the Stonechat and the cloud of Redwings up above the old manse it had deteriorated substantially, the sky was indigo and the wind was sending the first white horses out across the the loch

INHT Talks

Our talks are an important part of what we do here at the INHT - attracting both locals and visitors alike to the Field Centre in Port Charlotte to hear presentations by visiting and local naturalists - all of whome give up their time free of charge.  We try to hold them once a month, but because we have to fit in with the schedules of our visiting speakers this is a flexible format.

Many thanks to Armin Grewe for sending us this rather dramatic picture of Danny Arnold from the Teme Valley Wildlife Group delivering his talk entitled 'So You Think Moths Are Brown And Boring?' at the Centre last month.

Arran Wildlife Festival to take a break

The Arran Wildlife Festival - which has been running for the past five years, is to take a break in 2011.  Their newsletter says...

"With the end of funding, over the last two months Arran Natural History Society, in partnership with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Scottish Natural Heritage, National Trust for Scotlandand Forestry Commission Scotland has considered various options for the future. This partnership has tried to determine what is both manageable and sustainable within available resources, people as well as finance, and came to the decision at their meeting last week that throughout this year its efforts will be put into developing a variety of projects, including developing a website, running walks and producing publications. These will be based around the aims and principles of the festival and the Arran Natural History Society. The energies of the volunteers will be absorbed in these priorities and therefore the decision has been taken that this partnership will not be organising an Arran Wildlife Festival in 2011."



http://www.arranwildlife.co.uk/index.html

Wildlife Photography Competition - Vanessa Fuery

Many thanks to Vanessa for this picture of a Buzzard out hunting near Black Rock.