Eric & Lesley's Wildlife Blog

New Life

31/7/2017

As a hay fever sufferer high summer is probably my least favourite season. It is, however, the time for studying insect life since, in our fairly northern climes they are at the most abundant. Dragonflies are a passion. The previous post was an outing to the west of Scotland where the richness of species is highest but this post was taken closer to home.

Darters and Hawkers can still be found emerging - they will continue into autumn. This one pictured is a freshly emerged Common Darter which is able to fly weakly. On that day it was fairly cool allowing a close approach for a more interesting picture with the Foxglove playing a part in the backdrop.

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A Puzzling Name

14/7/2017

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When the gentleman naturalists of the 19th century began to explore and record Scotland's fauna they provided English names for the species they found. No less than three moths have Rannoch in the name, Rannoch Sprawler, Rannoch Brindled Beauty and this species opposite the Rannoch Looper. The reason for the popularity of Rannoch is, at first puzzling since they all occur in Strathspey, probably in greater numbers. However the answer is, in historical terms, plain to see. These naturalists explored Scotland using the new train system and they would have disembarked and Rannoch station to set off and record so these species were first known from that area.
We photographed this species close to Loch Ness last week whilst searching for Dragonflies

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New Life

A Puzzling Name

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