Heat of the Moment

OK, I have to admit, I needed a lot of help decoding what this chart was showing, as it was well outside my area of expertise. For a start, what's the flashing yellow LED sign mean? And is 19 degrees the angle at which to best view the LED? Or is it the declination to the celestial equator? I am not even sure that this sort of info should be in the public domain, it could cause widespread panic and disorder.

Meanwhile, outside GraemeWorld, the rest of the populace were having a fabulous time, thank you very much.

The heat was certainly favouring us watching insects, especially as this shrub in the garden of our accommodation was teeming with them: bumblebees, butterflies, hoverflies, moths and a squillion other tiny flies.

Green Hairstreak butterfly

This was a hoverfly that was new to me. The folk at UK Hoverflies identified it as one of the Genus Didea (to get to species level I would need to check the colour of the halteres)

Continuing with the insect-y theme, the next day saw a trip to Uath Lochans, nestled in a woodland setting between the Rivers Spey and Feshie. We had briefly visited the site last year, and wanted to go back and explore more of the habitat. The place was alive with Large Red Damselflies, as well as numerous Four-spotted Chasers, Northern Emeralds, Common Blue Damselflies and a Golden-ringed Dragonfly.

Northern Emerald

Large Red Damselflies mating

Four-spotted Chaser

Golden-ringed Dragonfly

Not far from Uath Lochans, a pair of Ospreys were nesting on an island

Back towards Nethybridge, we managed to find a White-faced Darter, although it was very camera shy and wouldn't turn to face the lens.

The following day, we drove to Braemar to explore a couple of glens in the Mar Lodge estate. Both Glen Lui and Glen Quoich have dramatic waterfalls and gorges, their respective rivers flowing into the Dee. In Glen Lui we had all-to-brief views of a male Redstart, as well as a pair of Spotted Flycatchers.

Linn of Dee

Glen Quoich

Small Copper butterfly

Common Heath moth

Today is damp and drizzly, but with that peculiar vertical nature which always confounds folk who live in windier climes. Still, it's allowing me to catch up on my blogging 😃