Islands and wildlife

The last few days of Alan's holiday with us featured a run of island trips. Megan took him to Graemsay when she was wildlife guiding there, then we all went to Flotta for a day and, after that, spent the next one over in Hoy.

The forecast for the Flotta trip was grim, but the rain held off until lunchtime, so we were able to see plenty of wildlife before we were soaked on the return journey. Fortunately, the community cafe was open, so we could have a hot brew and a little respite from the showers.

The day belonged to Common Blue butterflies. They were everywhere, fluttering along verges and nectaring on Bird's-foot Trefoil. As the rain approached, they began to congregate in sheltered places, in ones, twos, threes, fours and fives. Megan found a few newly-emerged Six-spotted Burnet moths, and then whilst waiting for the ferry home, a Common Marbled Carpet, which had taken cover in a bike shelter.

Northern Eggar caterpillar

A female Blue-tailed Damselfly

Three Common Blues

Four Common Blues

Common Marbled Carpet

The following day, we headed for Hoy, and although we failed to find any Golden-ringed Dragonflies, whilst looking for them we found a very fresh Garden Tiger moth which was yet to open its wings.

Searching for more Odonata, I spotted a shieldbug. Later recourse to field guides and online recording sites suggested that this was a nymph of the Spiked Shieldbug and that the species had not previously been recorded in Orkney. I submitted the details of the sighting to iRecord and had the ID confirmed.

Other nice finds, included a Straw Dot moth (a first for me), an emerging Common Hawker (spotted by Alan), a Stocky Mason Wasp busy building a clay pot for its offspring (spotted by Megan) and an adult Common Hawker hunting and catching a Red-thighed St Mark's Fly (I think we all shouted and pointed at the dragonfly as it flew towards us).

After Alan had headed south, the next few days had a more definite dragonfly focus. We went to the pool on Brinkies Brae and found a mass emergence of Black Darters in progress. We must have counted over 50 empty larval cases (exuviae) and lots of dragons that were taking their first flights.

Then we were invited to look around an area of moorland that has undergone peatland restoration, where peat cuttings has been contoured and bare gullies through the peat have been blocked and dammed to improve water retention, prevent rapid run-off, prevent the peat from eroding away and sequester more carbon.

Pleasingly, we were able to find Black Darters emerging from what two years ago had been a 1.5m deep gully. Now restored and full of water, here were more empty larval cases, showing that shortly after rewetting, dragonflies had laid eggs in the pool, and the resulting larvae had grown to full size and were now adult insects themselves.

We're back at work now, for a rest.