21 Jun 25 - Completing The British Breeding Damselfly Set

I was up early after a good night's sleep in the Focus Hotel in the Loch Garten area. This gave me time for a leisurely breakfast, while allowing some time for the Northern Damselflies to get moving. The first stop was this pool close to the Loch Garten Osprey centre.

The pool close to the Loch Garten Osprey centre

There were a few active Northern Damselflies when I arrived. But none were particularly close to the boardwalk that provides access to the pool.

Northern Damselfly: Male. Unlike the other blue Damselflies they hold their wings in this part-opened position when resting. The only other Damselfly species that occurs this far North is Common Blue Damselfly and the wing posture is a quick way to separate the two species

Northern Damselfly: Male. Note the distinctive black arrow-head markings on segment two. They always have black lines at the side of this marking, but the length of these markings can vary

Northern Damselfly: Male. Sometimes, the black lines at the sides on segment two can be broken

Northern Damselfly: Male doing some Damselfly gymnastics

Northern Damselfly: Preparing for the next generation

There were a few Large Red Damselflies, an Emerald Damselfly and good numbers of Four-spotted Chasers around the pool.

Large Red Damselfly: Nice and easy to identify as its smaller cousin, Small Red Damselfly doesn't occur in Scotland

Large Red Damselfly

Large Red Damselfly

Emerald Damselfly: Teneral. Currently, this is the only Emerald Damselfly species in Scotland, but Willow Emerald Damselfly might reach the border in the next few years

Four-spotted Chaser: An incredibly tatty individual

The next stop was a small pond next to the junction of the Tulloch Moor and Loch Garten roads. This is a good site for White-faced Darters and I wasn't disappointed.

White-faced Darter: Male

White-faced Darter: Male

White-faced Darter

By late morning, it was time to head for Oban. While I had been in Scotland, there was an appeal for a replacement surveyor on the ORCA survey from Oban to Colonsay, Coll and Tiree. Later that day, I had confirmation that I was part of the team. I had a good journey back to Spean Bridge before heading South for Oban. The highlight of the drive was passing Castle Stalker. It is another Scottish Castle that has been built on a small island. It dates from around 1450 on the site of an earlier fortified building.

Castle Stalker: The Castle is about twenty miles North of Oban

Castle Stalker: The castle has been fully renovated and there are regular tours for small groups around it. A proper visit might be fun if I'm in the Oban area again

After getting some food in Oban, I looked for somewhere to park the car for the night. I ended up finding a layby next to sea loch just North of Knipoch. This proved a good choose with a bonus hunting Osprey seen, while I was catching up with some notes in the carb. Soon afterwards, it started to rain. This was a good excuse to turn in early, as I was expected at the Oban ferry terminal at 06:15. To allow time for breakfast and to get to the terminal, the alarm was set for about 04:30. However, I received an even earlier text that morning from the ORCA Team Leader, Bill Anderson, saying the departure time had been pushed back. The schedule had been changed to only visit the Coll and Tiree, whilst skipping the final Oban to Colonsay return trip. The ship's crew had been involved in a search and rescue operation the previous day, after an empty kayak had been found at sea. There were fears that the kayaker was still in the water. Despite a lot of looking, the search teams failed to find anything. The search was called off when the irresponsible owner of the kayak popped up on social media to ask if anybody had found the kayak that he had lost. He didn't have the common sense to inform the coastguards in a timely fashion about the loss. I hope the coastguards read the kayaker the riot act for his stupidity.

Oban: It looked like a very overcast morning for the ORCA survey, after a night of heavy rain

I arrived with plenty of spare time at the Oban terminal to meet Bill, as well as, the other surveyors, Connie Remmix and Hannah Drummond. The survey route passes along the narrow Sound of Mull Channel between Mull and the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, before reaching the open sea. The first stop was Coll, where we quickly unloaded and loaded passengers, before heading onto Tiree. We stopped again at Coll on the way back to Oban. Had we included Colonsay, it would have been over fourteen hours on the ferry. With Colonsay removed, it was a more pleasant ten hours.

The CalMac Clansman

It was raining again as we returned into Oban: But it had been largely dry, once we reached the open sea before the Sound of Mull Channel

The weather forecast for the following few days was for more wet and windy weather on the Scottish West Coast. In light of the weather forecast and only being a couple of hours away from Glasgow, I decided it was time to start heading home. We off the ferry soon after seven in the evening and I set the sat nav for my usual layby in the Lakes. I finally reached Lakes around one in the morning and settled down for a final night in the Focus Hotel, before the rest of the drive South. It had been a good Scottish trip, with three excellent ORCA surveys and the chance to see three of the four Scottish speciality Dragonflies (albeit one is now downgraded to a subspecies). It was also good to see some more White-faced Darters: a species I had only seen once before the Scottish trip. I will be back for more ORCA surveys to the Western Isles and to hopefully see an Azure Hawker or two.

17 Jun 25 - Exploring The Bridge Of Grudie

I had a look around the Bridge of Grudie area on the previous early evening. This site is a few miles South West of Beinn Eighe and next to Loch Maree, in the Central Highlands. Having driven past the Bridge of Grudie, I found this interesting-looking bog to the South West, which I decided to explore. However, I couldn't find any Dragonflies due to the overcast conditions. On a positive, the rain I had driven through since Glasgow had finally stopped.

One of the boggy pools I checked the previous evening (16 Jun 25)

Another view of the previous boggy pool (16 Jun 25)

Great Sundews (16 Jun 25)

This dead Dragonfly, which had fallen foul of the Great Sundew cluster, was the only Dragonfly I saw on the first evening.

This dead Dragonfly found out the hard way about Great Sundews (16 Jun 25)

It started off very overcast on the following morning in the Beinn Eighe area, but the forecast was for improving weather later in the morning.

The day started with uninspiring cloudy conditions over the adjacent Loch Maree

The low cloud wasn't helping

This was as sunny as it became: Looking over the river above the Bridge of Grudie

Another view of the Bridge of Grudie

I was hoping some sunshine would encourage a few Dragonflies to start flying at the Bridge of Grudie. This is a site for Azure Hawkers and Northern Emeralds. Neither species appear to be common here, compared to the nearby Beinn Eighe area. There were less trees to check and the area around the river was worth a look. If either species are flying around the trees, they should be easy to spot. Perhaps it was just too overcast. Initially, all I could find were the Large Heaths covered in the last Blog Post. After a fair bit of searching I bumped into this White-faced Darter and a Four-spotted Chaser. They were quite approachable due to the overcast conditions.

White-faced Darter: Female. The black abdomen with the obvious pale yellow markings and the black at the base of the wing confirm the identification, without having to see the white face

Four-spotted Chaser: This species has a large UK range as they are commonly found on my Dorset Heaths

Bog Asphodel: This was a common species in the boggy areas at the Bridge of Grudie

I had a quick look at the Beinn Eighe picnic centre car park, as well as, the visitor centre.

Views across Loch Maree from the Beinn Eighe picnic centre

I like this giant stone Pine Cone near the Beinn Eighe visitor's centre

I had to leave the Beinn Eighe area by lunchtime, as I had arranged to meet up with Jan Storie on Skye. Jan was the ORCA Team Leader on the Saga Caribbean Calypso cruise at the start of 2024. It was a good opportunity to get some more details from Jan about the two ORCA surveys that I had coming up, as I both were new routes for me. Jan knew both routes well, but she was heading South for her next Saga ORCA cruise on the following morning, so she wasn't available for either survey.

Jan and myself

Late afternoon saw me heading to the Portree Scottish YHA for the evening and to meet up with one of the ORCA surveyors, Uzume Michels.

5 Jun 18 - Northern Triathlon: Part Two

This Post covers the second part of my Northern Triathlon to try to see my first White-faced Darters at Foulshaw Moss. The first part of the Triathlon was seeing my first Mountain Ringlets at Irton Fell. When I was doing the final planning for the trip, I was considering whether it would be possible to combine the Mountain Ringlet trip with looking for White-faced Darters at Whixall Moss in Shropshire. However, one of the first responses I saw on google was for White-faced Darters at Foulshaw Moss in Cumbria. This blog confirmed they had been flying since late May. I had forgotten there were Cumbrian sites. A bit of further searching online confirmed the site details & the White-faced Darters at Foulshaw Moss were the result of a successful re-introduction to the reserve. I am happy to consider looking at successful re-introductions into documented recent native range. Therefore, combining Foulshaw Moss into the Triathlon looked to be the obvious option. Even better I would be driving right past the entrance road to Foulshaw Moss.

Foulshaw Moss: Foulshaw Moss is an excellent looking Cumbria Wildlife Trust reserve

Foulshaw Moss: The reserve covers a large area of lowland peat bog which is a rare English habitat

Foulshaw Moss: The peat bog is fairly extensive

Foulshaw Moss

Foulshaw Moss: This drier part of the peat bog had patches of Cotton Grass

Foulshaw Moss: There were also areas of trees that had become established on the peat bog

The reserve has several hundred metres of boardwalks which allows access to the Northern part of the reserve. The boardwalk passes past a number of excellent small & medium sized ponds amongst the trees, all of which were very busy with Dragonflies. This included several hundred Four-spotted Chasers, as well as, a few hundred Azure Damselflies.

Four-spotted Chaser: This one shows the top of its-white facial pattern

Four Spotted Chaser

Four-spotted Chaser: The pools within the woodland had plenty of these atmospheric perches for the Dragonflies

Four-spotted Chaser: The numbers of Four-spotted Chasers on the reserve was the highest I've seen

Four-spotted Chaser

Four-spotted Chaser: Showing its white face which was why more than one person present misidentified the commoner Four-spotted Chasers as White-faced Darters

Blue-tailed Damselfly: This was the only one I saw

Azure Damselfly: I saw at least a couple of hundred

Azure Damselfly: There were good numbers egg laying

Round-leaved Sundew

Round-leaved Sundew: This Large Red Damselfly's luck has run out

After an hour of looking, I hadn't seen any White-faced Darters. All I knew was that they had been photographed somewhere on the boardwalk. Knowing that they are only on a limited number of pools at Whixall Moss that they like, I assumed that I still needed to keep walking along the boardwalk to find the correct micro habitat. After several hundred metres the boardwalk emerged from the flooded forest across more open peat bog. There were a couple of viewpoints, one of which was raised, from which it was possible to see the distant trees in the bog where there was a pair of nesting Ospreys. This was the main highlight for the reserve. However, I was looking for something with six legs, not six legs spread over three baby Ospreys. I did have brief look though a volunteer's telescope, but the nest was distant & the female was sitting low in the nest. The volunteer didn't know a lot about the White-faced Darters, but he did say that they had been seen around his lower viewpoint. This was reinforced by some locals who arrived & were also looking for the White-faced Darters. The lady promptly walked off the boardwalk to look at the pool beyond. She was quickly stopped by the volunteer as the Wildlife Trust quite rightly do not want people walking around off the boardwalk. It's quite amazing that some people just don't know how to behave on a nature reserve. But this did at least confirm the place I should be looking. I did see a probable White-faced Darter soon after quite a way out onto the bog, but quickly lost it & it didn't reappear.

Large Heath: I saw at least 8 here, but they were all active in the sunshine. This was the only photo I managed to get when one briefly landed

I thought I would have a quick look at the raised viewpoint to see it that looked promising for White-faced Darters as it was only 50 metres away. This was surrounded by another pond, but didn't have the Cotton Grass that the lower viewpoint pond had. A White-faced Darter was claimed by another visitor, but when I checked it, it was a Four-spotted Chaser. Four-spotted Chasers have an off-whitish front to the face, which can be confusing when you initially see one flying towards you. However, checking the rest of the markings on the abdomen & wings, then there is no confusion between Four-spotted Chasers & White-faced Darters. Four-spotted Chasers are also a different shape with a distinctive wide, flat abdomen, rather than the narrow, rounded abdomen of White-faced Darters. So it was time to head back to the Cotton Grass pond by the lower viewpoint. Fortunately, another guy had now appeared who also knew his local Dragonflies. He said he had seen several White-faced Darters flying around & occasionally landing on the distant pond. He borrowed another guy's telescope & after a couple of minutes, pointed out one that was perched up. A bit too far for a photo, but it was clearly a male White-faced Darter when it was my turn to take a look through the scope. All that was needed now was a bit of patience. About 15 minutes later, I picked up a White-faced Darter that flew over the boardwalk. It was  close to where we were standing, but didn't stop for a photo. Ten minutes later, another male White-faced Darter appeared & this time it landed on the boardwalk allowing some photos. It hung around the boardwalk & eventually became a bit more approachable. Finally, it settled on some natural vegetation for a better looking photo. It was now late afternoon & I needed to head off for the final part of my Northern Triathlon.

White-faced Darter: Male. My penultimate breeding English Dragonfly Tick. I just need to see Southern Emerald, as well as, the four Scottish speciality Dragonflies

White-faced Darter: Male. The white face is very distinctive when seen properly

White-faced Darter: Male. Males are the only black & red Darter. Bright yellow replaces the red in females with additional yellow at the base of the abdomen

White-faced Darter: Male. The nearest they get to Dorset is Whixall Moss in Shropshire

White-faced Darter: Male. Finally a natural background photo

Artificial Osprey nest: Almost the nearest I got to actually seeing the Osprey's was this artificial Osprey nest close to the car park (although I also saw the nest in use). The reserve has cameras on the real nest so visitors can see the latest action. I walked past the visitors hut, in my hurry to looked for the Dragonflies. I intended to stop on the way back. However, it was all shut up when I reached the car park at 17:00