The July  midweek recording walk began in the layby at the head of Loch Feochan and followed the initial stages of the Coffin Route that goes from Balinoe to Scammadale.  Our target square was NM8723 but we also wandered into NM8823, both squares with no existing botanical records.

From the layby which is always a good viewpoint to stop and look for birds there was a variety of species including Mute Swan, Canada Geese, Grey Heron, Oystercatcher and this female Common Eider in the picture below,    As we turned onto the footpath at Balinoe we had good views of two Spotted Flycatchers swooping out to snaffle prey from a vantage point on a fence, and another pair doing the same thing from a branch.

Our route took us up a farm track to a muddy cattle feeding area.  There were typical farmyard ruderals such as Corn Spurrey, Persicaria, Pale Persicaria, Pineapple Mayweed, Water-pepper and Marsh Cudweed.  An unexpected member of this assemblage was Heath Groundsel, below left.  The plants were hairier than is usual for this species, which is similar to ordinary Groundsel but has short recurved ray florets around the outside of the flowerhead.  It is a weed of bare ground but I'm used to seeing it on better drained, less fertilised soils.

The mushroom Panaeolus semiovatus, which we've had before, was common on the cattle dung.  The yellow-brown mushroom in the picture above is an Agrocybe species, but I can't get it any closer than that.

Following much discussion about the best route to take we ended up charging through head-high bracken hoping that before long we'd find ourselves on a path.  We finished up in a clearing with fine views over Loch Feochan, where we sat and had lunch while a scout climbed the hill to spy out a bracken-free escape route.

In places the bracken had "Little Black Puddings", the galls of Dasineura pteridis on the underside of the pinnules.  The Plume Moth resting on bracken is Platyptilia pallidactyla.  Thanks to Martin Honey for suggesting this and Colin Hart for confirming it.  Its larval food plants are Yarrow and Sneezewort which were both quite plentiful in the vicinity.

This caterpillar on a Meadow Foxtail stem is a result of the recent invasion of Silver Y moths.  Common Red Soldier Beetles were out in numbers.  This one is braving the spines to reach a Creeping Thistle flower where it will lie in wait for some flying insect.  It's easily identified by the dark tips to the wing-cases.  I'd be interested to hear if anyone spots any other kind of soldier beetle.  I'm sure there are several to be found in the area but they are under-recorded in Scotland.  Even the Common Red is said to be "Common throughout England and Wales although more local in the north and southern Scotland and with only a few records north of Ayr"  (www.thewcg.org.uk/Cantharidae/0027G.htm ) but we saw dozens of them.  Many other species are grudgingly admitted to occur as far north as Dumfries but no word of anything beyond.  This probably has more to do with the shortage of observers than the shortage of beetles, in sparsely-populated areas like Argyll.  Our recording walks aim to fill in some of these omissions.

Carl Farmer and Richard Wesley

Our field trip today took us to the solitude and beautiful landscape of the intriguingly titled "Black Lochs" near North Connel.  Leaving the A85 main road we followed a track towards Achaleven Farm and on past Cuil-uaine to the lochs.  They are renowned for their variety of dragonflies and damselflies, but we did not expect to see too much as the weather forecast was  poor.  Luckily it remained dry, and there was a lot of damselfly activity despite the lack of sunshine.

Most numerous were the Common Blues.  This is a pair in tandem.  The female is of the usual green form; occasionally they are blue like the males but they always have much more black than the males.

Female Emerald Damselflies were fairly numerous.  They are said to rest with their wings half-open.  In practice they seem to do this half the time and rest with wings closed (like other damselflies) half the time.  The pictures show both positions.

Blue-tailed Damselflies were also present; the one on the left is a female.  The only dragonflies seen were one or two Black Darters, like the female on the right.

As we sat by the loch side having lunch we were entertained by Swifts, House Martins and Sand Martins which are all attracted by the loch's rich insect pickings.  Frogs and toads were seen among the loch-edge vegetation.

Common Green Grasshoppers were leaping about and outwitting everyone's catching skills, but the one on the left was spotted resting on a bracken frond, and the RH one landed on a coat lining, and liked it so much there it allowed a close approach.  The two are different colour variants, one having green sides and the other brown.  Most grasshopper species vary a lot in colour, but the Common Green can be recognised (out of the 4 Argyll species) by the shape of the pronotum and its lack of a broad pale hind margin.  This is an indicator species of unimproved grassland and is common in the west of Scotland where a lot of such habitat survives.

Another insect that tried to join our party was this Forest Bug, which was noticed on a rucksack when we stopped to eat.  It was reluctant to leave and would happily have accompanied us back to Connel.

As we approached Kilvaree we were treated to a nice selection of interesting birds. Firstly a male Wheatear appeared on a rock close by and then a family of Whinchat were heard chatting and calling between the bracken and a post and wire fence. Accompanying them was a juvenile Pied Wagtail on the wire and further along  a group of Twite were feeding on the ground,  looking like small mice as they extracted loose seeds from the track.

The black spiny caterpillar determinedly crossing the track will soon be a Peacock butterfly.  It has left the nettle web where it grew up and is looking for somewhere to pupate.  The second generation of Small Tortoiseshells are already on the wing and looking very fresh and bright.  We found some of their abandoned webs on a clump of nettles, together with one small caterpillar that had been left behind, probably parasitised.  We also found several abandoned Painted Lady webs on Creeping Thistle, so we should get a second generation of those soon.

Many Green-veined Whites and Meadow Browns were seen, and a probable Dark Green Fritillary. Trailing St John's Wort was a pleasing find here and there along the track.  Other interesting plants found were Great Willowherb in waste ground at Connel, Slender Sedge along the loch edges, and Whorled Caraway in great abundance in the Kilvaree area.  The Ink-cap fungi on the right were growing on the site of a former manure heap.

Carl Farmer and Richard Wesley

We had good weather once again and a record turnout of sixteen for our midweek
recording walk to Eilean Buidhe.  I've put some pictures in the album and there are
already some great ones in there by others who were on the walk - more to come,
I hope.

The island was very flowery with lots of Thyme, Yellow Iris, Catsear, Thrift,
Ragged Robin, Bell Heather and many other colourful plants. Heath Spotted
Orchid was plentiful, and Common Spotted, Northern Marsh and Northern Fragrant
Orchids were also seen. The latter (Gymnadenia borealis) used to be regarded as
a subspecies of "Fragrant Orchid" but has been made a full species following DNA
analysis. Most Fragrant Orchids found in Argyll will be this species. The
other two new species of Fragrant Orchid are unlikely in Argyll but not
impossible. Any Fragrant Orchid with the lowest petal clearly broader than
long, or with the two side flaps more than 5 mm long and only 1 mm wide, should
be investigated carefully.

The island is notable for the amount of Juniper, a species of conservation
concern. Both male and female bushes were present, the latter with plenty of
fruit. Two galls associated with Juniper were found. The fungal gall
Gymnosporangium cornutum has alternate generations on Juniper and Rowan, and the
Rowan saplings on the island were very heavily infected by it, to a much greater
degree than I've seen on Rowan elsewhere. This is doubtless because they were
growing in or near Juniper from which the fungal spores can spread to them in
large quantities. As the Juniper itself didn't seem to be much harmed by the
fungus, you could almost say that the fungus is beneficial to it by preventing
Rowan from taking over. The other gall was that of the gall-midge Oligotrophus
juniperinus.

Rosy took these excellent photos below of a  juvenile Wheatear confirming breeding at

Puilladobhrain and a Meadow Pipit.  Out at sea there was a raft or should I say crèche of

about thirty juvenile Greylag Geese without their parents. On the mainland we saw Stonechat

and heard Sedge Warbler, along with a Rock Pipit along the water's edge.

Butterflies observed on the island were Painted Lady, Meadow Brown and Common Blue,
while Small Copper was seen on the Seil mainland nearby.

A blue damselfly was also seen on the island, awaiting examination of photos.

There will be a complete species list provided shortly, which as normal is stored in the files

section on the SNHG Yahoo Group.  If anyone has any further records from the

trip that we might not have heard about, please let us know.

Carl and Richard