JULY 2024 – SIGHTINGS

30/07/2024

Northern Colletes (a day mapping nesting assemblages of this national rarity with Sally Morris from Buglife. Very exciting to find them all across the machair!)
Bordered Grey moth (only the second record on Coll for this nationally notable species)
Heather Fly (a new species for us)
Belted Beauty moth (a well-grown caterpillar of this machair speciality)
Many-lobed Dandelion (we found some fresh vegetative growth today of this very rare early-season dandelion)
Field Madder (a local rarity at a new location)
Bitter Vetch (always nice to find)

23/07/2024

Canada Geese (occasional family groups being seen across the island now – they’ll be leaving soon)
Field Gentian (a delightful late summer flower that’s having a particularly good year here on Coll)
Frog Orchid and Twayblade (in a new location)
Lesser Hawkbit (an uncommon plant in Scotland plant which we find only occasionally in the machair. Here it was flowering abundantly)
Allseed and Chaffweed (a pair of nationally scarce species which are frequently seen together here)

18/07/2024

17/07/2024

Greater Tussock-sedge and Lesser Tussock-sedge (our productive week continues with two more Coll rarities in the bag!)

16/07/2024

Hen Harrier (male and female seen today)
Grayling butterfly (our first of the year)
Dark Green Fritillary (still around in good numbers)
Common Hawker dragonfly (our first of the year)
A long walk in the eastern moors revealed several young trees: Scots Pine, Downy Birch and Grey Willow
Bog Hair-grass (At long last!! A nationally scarce species for which Coll is a stronghold but which we’ve never been able to nail down before. This was our target species for today’s walk.)
Pipewort (a more dependable Coll speciality)

15/07/2024

Red-throated Diver
Hen Harrier (female)
Sparrowhawk (female)
Arctic Terns and Common Terns (both appear to be having a good year breeding on rocky skerries offshore)
Red Admiral (our first for the year of this long-range migrant species)

14/07/2024

Greenshank (an early returning migrant)
Emperor moth caterpillar
Prickly Saltwort (hundreds of plants at its only known station on Coll)
Sea Beet (another Coll rarity)
Goldenrod
Elytrigia x laxa (it’s a bit obscure but it is a new grass for Coll – the hybrid of Common Couch and Sand Couch. Not previously recorded on the island.)
Teasel (another first for Coll – a scarce plant on the west coast))
plenty of Heath Spotted and Lesser Butterfly Orchids still in flower

Moths 23 individuals of 15 species in the moth trap as follows:

08/07/2024

Sparrowhawk
Corncrake (a few calling males still around)
Sericomyia silentis (a northern and western species not previously recorded in Coll)
Common Valerian (only 3 locations for this lovely wetland species in Coll – rediscovered today at its original station)
Northern Marsh Orchid
Frog Orchid
Common Twayblade (a bank of maybe a hundred – the only regular location for this orchid in Coll)
Northern Colletes (two more colonies of this rare solitary mining bee found in the machair)

07/07/2024

White-tailed Eagle (a screaming Herring Gull drew us into the garden to observe an adult eagle low overhead)

06/07/2024

Shelduck (a pair on the wild sea with 6 ducklings)
Eider (a regular female snoozing on rocks in Loch Eatharna)
Twite (a family group)
Orchidaceae (12 different species of orchid found across the island in recent weeks)

05/07/2024

Snow Geese (the regular flock of five feral birds still around)
Black-throated Diver (a smart juv bird in Baigh Feall – not a species we see here very often)
Hen Harrier (female hunting – it’s good to see plenty of females out and about at the moment)
Sparrowhawk
Arctic Skua (5 separate individuals)
Great Skua (still in short supply around Coll this summer)
Fulmar (several nesting pairs)
Belted Beauty moth (a cracking find of a well-developed caterpillar of this machair speciality)
Black Snail Beetle (Phosphuga atrata)
Brown Chafer (Serica brunnea)
Northern Colletes (two colonies of this rare solitary mining bee found in the machair)
Parsley-piert (not an exciting plant – a common weed on the main land – but a first for Coll!)

02/07/2024

Hen Harrier (a chunky female hunting over the Corncrake fields – gulp!)
Corncrakes (3 separate individuals seen in flight)
Snipe (still a few ‘sawing’ and flying over breeding grounds)
Great Skua (2 individuals seen)
Arctic Skua (2 individuals seen)
Woodpigeon (a single bird over fields at Acha)
Grass Rivulet (a day-flying moth on the machair)
Tenthredo sp (a handsome sawfly sunning itself on an Oxeye Daisy flower)
Common Twayblades (dozens of flowering stems in the machair – our only regular site for this striking orchid)
Frog Orchid (a good number now flowering in the machair)
Northern Marsh Orchid (a few in the machair – including hybrids with Early Marsh)