30/06/2024
- Woodpigeon (I know, I know! But they’re still pretty uncommon out here. Maybe 6-8 pairs have bred on Coll this year – the same number as Hen Harriers!)
29/06/2024
- Bog Orchid (12 of these tiny rarities in three small clusters in a Bottle Sedge bog. A first for us on Coll – or anywhere else for that matter!)
- Heath Fragrant Orchid (having a good year on Coll – plenty about)
- Pipewort (lots of small flowering plants on muddy banks of loch – another Coll speciality)
- Lesser Marshwort (growing abundantly among the Pipewort)
25/06/2024
- Red-throated Diver
- Hen Harrier (male and female hunting)
- Hobby (a stunning male hunting from its perch on a power line pole. A very rare Hebridean visitor.)
- Black-headed Gull (x2 but no juvs)
- Great Skua
- Arctic Skua (x5 breeding behaviour evident. Will don our helmets and head out in hopes of confirming breeding.)
- Anania fuscalis (a day-flying Crambid moth in the machair)
- Northern Colletes (nationally rare solitary bee feeding at Pyramidal Orchid flowers in the machair)
- Spiny Mason Wasp (new for Coll if our id is correct!)
- The Miller (in the moth trap with 15 other species)
- Adderstongue Fern (x2 spikes in maritime heath)
- Silver Hairgrass (very locally abundant in the western machair)
- Noctilucent clouds (a rare phenomenon high in the atmosphere overnight – amazing photos!)
24/06/2024
- Swift (cruising around Arinagour this afternoon – our second of the year)
22/06/2024
- Red-throated Diver (a pair on a loch and a single fly-over bird)
- Hen Harrier (separate male and female hunting)
- Pomarine Skua (flying low over the village late evening)
- Great Skua (x2)
- Arctic Skua (x4)
- Short-eared Owl (hunting late evening)
- Large Heath butterfly
- Magpie moth (mass emergence on the moorlands today)
- Dark Green Fritillary
- Creeping Soft Grass (in abundance under Bracken – only once have we seen a single specimen of this essentially woodland species previously on Coll)
19-21/06/2024
A few days botanising on Tiree:
- Oyster-plant
- Purple Milk-vetch
- Sea Holly
- Moonwort
- Shrubby Sea-blite
- Northern Dead-nettle
…all the above are absent or very rare on Coll!!
17/06/2024
- White-tailed Eagle
- Frog Orchid
- Lesser Butterfly Orchid
- Heath Fragrant Orchid
15/06/2024
- Great Northern Diver (x4)
- Sanderling (x7)
- Great Skua
- Black-headed Gull (x5)
- Minke Whale (x2 from the Oban Ferry)
14/06/2024
- Great Skua
- Black-headed Gull
13/06/2024
- Snow Goose (x5 – our feral flock in the usual area. No evidence of breeding this year.)
- Hen Harrier (x2 separate males)
- Dunlin (x5 arctica race birds)
- Great Northern Diver
- Arctic Skua
- Great Skua
- Swift (a late over-shooting migrant bird – less than annual on Coll)
12/06/2024
Moth trap:
- Drinker
- Elephant Hawkmoth
- Poplar Hawkmoth
- Clouded-bordered Brindle
- Heart and Dart
- Silver Ground Carpet
- Dusky Brocade
- Knotgrass
Elsewhere:
- Black-throated Diver (x2 reported – a great summer record)
- Curlew (a pair including one singing bird)
- Sparrowhawk
- Black Guillemot
- Large Heath
- Small Heath
- Marsh Fritillaries (reported – appear to be having a good year on Coll)
11/06/2024
- Shelduck (a pair on the big sea with 11 tiny ducklings!)
- Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly
- Black Darter dragonfly (female)
- Blue-tailed Damselfly
- Common Blue Damselfly
- Large Red Damselfly
- Black Clock Beetle (a black ground beetle with red legs)
- Heath Fragrant Orchid
- Frog Orchid
- Square-stalked St John’s-wort
10/06/2024
- Hen Harrier (x3 separate males)
- White-tailed Eagle (adult being escorted by Ravens)
- Corncrake (x3 separate individuals seen)
- Brown Hare (x7 chilling together in the machair)
- Anania fuscalis (a day-flying Crambid moth in the machair)
- Pyramidal Orchid
- Sea Bindweed
09/06/2024
- Common Dolphin (x5 between Coll and Lunga)
- The Spiny Mason Wasp (Odynerus spinipes on Lunga)
08/06/2024
- Sanderling (x100 mostly summer-plumaged birds)
- Dunlin (x10)
- Long-finned Pilot Whale (dead on beach)
- Mass stranding of Oyster Thief seaweeds
06/06/2024
- Great Grey/Lesser Grey Shrike (reported late today – no sign in morning)
04/06/2024
- Corncrake (a quiet morning but the action picked up in the afternoon when a bird crossed the road in front of the van!)
- Plenty of Early and hybrid Early x Northern Marsh orchids in the machair dune slacks
- Heath Violet (a new location for Coll in machair dune slacks – only the second we have found here)
- Diplolepis spinosissimae (a wasp gall on Burnet Rose – our first on Coll)
03/06/2024
- Arctic Skua (x2)
- Great Skua (x1 scarce this year but at list this individual is regular now)
- Hen Harrier (x2 separate males)
- Silver Hook moth (only the second record for Coll)
02/06/2024
- Sanderlings (x5 breeding plumage birds)
- Dunlin (x2 breeding plumage birds)
- Early Marsh Orchids (in a new location for us)
- Pyramidal Orchid (first flowering spike of the year)