1st and 2nd July 2021
We arrived in Spean Bridge early evening and after a pleasant dinner we put the moth trap out in a local wood. It was a cool, clear evening so unsurprisingly a modest catch awaited us early in the morning. Amongst commoner species we did have another beautiful Saxon, a couple of Satin Lutestrings and another Pretty Pinion. After breakfast it was a short journey to our first site of the day, the excellent reserve at Allt Mhuic on the shores of Loch Arkaig. Again the weather was bright and sunny and day flying moths and butterflies were evident in numbers. We were too late in the year to see Chequered Skipper but Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries were common. The beautifully pied Argent and Sable moth passed by periodically and in the wet grass, Silver Hook's flitted from stem to stem. Colonies of handsome black Chimney Sweepers were very active, never allowing a close approach contrasting with Golden-ringed Dragonflies that patrolled the heather alighting often and being quite tame. We were specifically looking for the Northern Emerald dragonfly that had eluded us the previous day and eventually a candidate flew in and landed between Robert and I. We both had a side on view and Robert managed a few record shots before we tried to move to a better position to nail the id. Unfortunately it flew before we could be sure it wasn't a Downy, but we did have Roberts pics which we would review against the lit later. We didn't see another candidate perched so we eventually had to leave this lovely little reserve and move onwards to our next site on Ardnamurchan.
We arrived at a the site mid afternoon and set off on a 2 mile coastal walk to reach a headland where we hoped to see our next quarry. A Golden Eagle was overhead as we scrambled along the back of a stunning beach before reaching the only site in the UK for the New Forest Burnet. The location of this single colony is kept secret to avoid disturbance and we were very careful not to encroach on the precious habitat that is fenced off to avoid overgrazing by the omnipresent sheep. Again our luck was in as we found 5 very freshly emerged individuals of this uber-rare burnet. Flushed with our success we returned to the car and moved on to our digs for the evening, once again deploying the trap in a grassy woodland clearing. Back at the digs, we got the books out and checked Roberts shots of the dragonfly we had encountered earlier in the day. Our doubts were soon forgotten when it became apparent it was indeed a male Northern Emerald. A well deserved beer was in order!
The morning broke sunny and warm and it was another early start at the trap. A decent catch of common species contained a couple of goodies for southern moth-ers in Northern Spinach and a Welsh Wave. Today were were going over to the Isle of Mull and by mid-morning we were on the ferry for the short crossing to Tobermory. Unfortunately due to Covid restrictions we had to stay in the car which scuppered and hopes of spotting and birds or cetaceans on the way. Once disembarked we headed for a site in the North of the island to search for our next target - the Slender Scotch Burnet which can only be found on Mull in the UK. It was a pleasant walk out to a few rocky coastal outcrops where we began our search. It took a while and we were getting a little worried but eventually we manged to find a handful of quite worn individuals. It was apparent that while yesterdays New Forests were at the beginning of their flight season, todays Slender Scotches were definitely close to the end of theirs. We were obviously quite lucky with our timing as a day or two either way may have resulted in failure with one of these species. We walked back to the car and set off on a surprisingly circuitous journey to our next and final site for the final target the Transparent Burnet. We parked by a fenced off section of Machir which was a blaze of wildflowers and within minutes and little effort we were watching several Transparent Burnets patrolling this lovely habitat.
So that was it, we left mid afternoon and started the long journey back south overnighting near Stirling. What a trip we had had. We had seen all of the rare Scottish Burnets, dragonflies and target orchids in a single trip. We had trapped a fine array of moths and had visited some outstanding sites in this beguiling country. Roll on next summer - we'll definitely be going back!
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