Wednesday 11 July 2007

Butterflies and Bees

This weekend, the local Scottish Wildlife Trust member's centre is having an outing to Cullaloe with the title 'Butterflies and Bees'. It's on Saturday 14th July at 2pm and anyone is welcome.
There are several butterfly species found on the reserve ranging from the ever-common Meadow Brown to the bright orange Fritillaries. I'm going to be going along on Saturday for the first bit (before i have to go to work) but will definitely be a learning experience for me. It's always nice to see what other people think of the reserve and it's a chance for me to learn more about the butterflies and insects on the reserve from those with a bit more knowledge than myself. You can be sure i'll be giving a full report on the day!
To potentially tempt you, here's a photo of a bee taken at the reserve this afternoon.

I haven't had much chance to visit the reserve in the past week. The weather has been horribly changeable again, so I've been avoiding it to an extent. The feeders are still in regular use, and I've finally seen something on the larger seed feeder! Admittedly, it was a lone female chaffinch. It's good to get an indication of what's there, though. The woodpeckers are nearly a constant addition to the peanut feeders these days and it's looking like we're gonna need to fill them more than once a week!
New additions in the past week have been the Tawny Owl (read the previous entry) and Grey wagtails, which were seen on the weir from the loch.
Notable species this week were the return of the Ruddy Duck today and also today, the Sparrowhawk being chased off and mobbed by a group of swallows. There's always plenty to see on the reserve and it would be impossible to describe it all!

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