Rosemarkie Field Trip - Saturday 11th of July 2015

We arrived at Rosemarkie to join Mark Wynn and Rob from Kiltarlity to search for our target species, Northern Brown Argus and Grayling.  The pathway, bordered by cliffs on one side and the rocky beach on the other was considerably overgrown and none of us had experienced such lush, waist high vegetation on this footpath in the past.

However, we managed to find several moths, four species of butterfly, picked up the sights and sounds of several small birds, saw a beautiful green lacewing with a banded green/black body and some rather interesting galls on a Blackthorn bush.

Mark picked a grassy bank with plenty of Rock-rose visible for our lunchtime break and before sitting down we saw several Six-spot Burnet moths amongst the undergrowth and a Northern Brown Argus appeared whilst we were eating, to be duly netted by Mark.

The return journey for me was via the beach in the beautiful sun, while the men walked further amongst the rocky outcrops before returning along the footpath and meeting Margaret and Andy from VC106 who gave help identifying some of our moths.

While reading through the P&J on our return home we found an article stating that Tiree had their first Six-spot Burnet sighting.

Butterflies seen;- Northern Brown Argus, 2 Meadow Brown, 24 Ringlet and a possible Grayling, but not confirmed.

Moths seen;- Speckled Yellow, Broken-barred Carpet, Silver-ground Carpet, Six-spot Burnet, Mottled Beauty, Shaded Broad-bar, Common Carpet, Clouded Border and one wing of a Female Ghost Moth.

Dot & Ron Ruston