27/07/2023
- Sharp-flowered Rush (not a species we see very often but a large stand in a roadside field stood out a mile!)
- Buoy Barnacles (a few more specimens of this ocean wanderer washed up on one of our beaches)
26/07/2023
- White-tailed Eagle (an adult male)
- Bonxie
- Corncrake (x2 males still calling)
- Sea Radish (a rarity in the foredunes)
24/07/2023
- Yellow Pimpernel (a new species for us on Coll and probably its only extant location on the island)
21/07/2023
- Common Twayblade (several mighty spikes in the machair)
20/07/2023
- Barn Owl (several recent reports though we’ve not managed to catch up with the bird)
- Scalloped Oak moth (an unusual daytime sighting in our garden)
- Gypsywort (only known to us from one modern location, we were delighted to have been directed to several new patches on a beach near Arinagour)
- Goldenrod (it was nice to find several of these close to the Gypsywort site)
17/07/2023
- Red-throated Diver
- Arctic Skua
- Twite
- Taphrina alni (a fungal gall on Alder)
- Bitter Vetch (in flower)
12/07/2023
- Grayling butterflies (now appearing in good numbers)
- By-the-wind Sailors (still regularly showing up on local beaches)
09/07/2023
- Bonxie
- Otter (a mother and kit)
- Dark Green Fritillaries (a few still on the wing)
- Hummingbird Hawk-moth (on Buddleia in Oban)
08/07/2023
- Red-throated Diver (x2)
- Arctic Skua (x2)
- Bonxie (x2)
- Arctic Tern (seem to have had a good year)
- Little Tern (x2)
- Long-eared Owl (our first sighting of this scarce local breeder)
- Barred Yellow moth
- Snout moth
- Herb Robert (a new station for this scarce Hebridean plant)
07/07/2023
- Red-throated Diver (x3 – a family group on a local loch)
- Hen Harrier (male)
- Corncrake (a calling male among Bracken halfway up a hill!)
- Woodpigeon
- Twite
- Grayling butterfly (my first of the year)
- Grass Rivulet moth (in the machair)
- Silpha tyrolensis (a distinctive carrion beetle that is a speciality of the Coll machair)
- By-the-wind Sailor (several specimens of this weird colonial hydrozoan washed up on our local beach)
06/07/2023
- Shelduck (x4)
- Whimbrel (the first returning passage migrant of the autumn)
- Twite (a family group)
- Another Emperor Moth caterpillar (never seen one here before, and then you find one two days running in completely different places!)
- Carabus granulatus (a stunning bronze ground beetle)
- Bladderwort sp (not a common find on Coll)
- Pale Butterwort (always a nice wee thing to spot)
- Distant Sedge and Knotted Pearlwort (both in flower on the saltmarsh)
05/07/2023
- Hen Harrier (x2 ring-tailed birds)
- Corncrake
- Woodpigeon
- Cuckoo (one of several juveniles seen during the month)
- Sedge Warbler (recently fledged young)
- Greenfinch
- Emperor Moth caterpillar (a corking beast – satin green with black and white bristles – new for us!)
- Staphylinus erythropterus (a rove beetle)
- Tachina grossa (the Giant Tachinid Fly)
- Heath Fragrant Orchid
04/07/2023
- Canada Goose (x12)
- Shelduck (x3)
- Storm Petrel (from boat half a mile offshore)
- Harbour Porpoise
- Minke Whale (lunge-feeding)
- Otter
03/07/2023
- Red-throated Diver (flying over with fish in bill)
- Arctic Skua (x9)
- Bonxie (x1)
- Black-headed Gull (always a good record out here)
- Common Dolphins (x4-5 off Arinagour)
- Buoy Barnacles (rare ocean wanderers washed up on Wee Torastan beach)