Polmaily Field Trip - Saturday 27th of May 2017

On a hot, sunny morning ten of us met at the car park at the start of the Polmaily forest road, including the leader, Mark Wynn and new members Pat and Tony.

 

Butterflies were seen from the start; an Orange Tip was seen at the car park and then Speckled Wood in good numbers through the shadier parts at the start. The occasional Green-veined White was also seen.

 

We stopped at the area where the trackside vegetation had been cleared for Dingy Skipper and saw one or two individuals, although not as many as on previous visits.  We then continued along the track towards our lunch venue, seeing more Speckled Woods and Orange Tips, as well as a Red Admiral.

 

A highlight of the walk was seeing a high-flying Eagle just as we were reaching our lunch point.  It was later confirmed as a juvenile White-tailed Eagle – the first for me.

 

Mark had chosen a very pleasant position for lunch on this walk, by a waterfall on the Allt a’ Phull burn.  A few moths were seen and captured here among the Aspen trees, could it be worth a light trap?

 

Returning by the same route, a similar selection of butterflies were seen again.  Another highlight was the capture of a Mother Shipton moth in an adjacent field by David Barbour.

 

In addition to the butterflies mentioned above, a good variety of moths were seen and potted, Speckled Yellow, Common Heath, Small Purple-bar, Brown Silver-line, Common White Wave, Peacock Moth, Barred Umber, Mother Shipton and a variety of micros.  Unfortunately, our second target species, Pearl-bordered Fritillary, was not seen.

 

Rob Chapman