best part of the day: the sun always shines on tayvallich

3rd/4th/5th June

A while ago we planned to visit Mary's sister Caroline and family across in the West. They live in Tayvallich, beyond Lochgilphead. We planned for the first weekend in June and it wasn't a coincidence this would be a good weekend for Marsh Fritillaries, a rare and pretty butterfly we don't get on the East of Scotland. Happily it turned out to be the best weather of the year so far, making a very memorable weekend indeed.

The drive is usually the best part of 5hrs and involves toilet breaks and sandwich stops. So you kind of have to brace yourself. We have done this a few times now and know the likely trip ups and hazards so go prepared. Getting the route fresh in one's mind helps too and there were no nav errors this time. It all went relatively smoothly; setting off about 10ish got us there in plenty time to be relaxing in Caroline and Will's lovely garden by late afternoon.

C&W went to a party and left Mary and I to go for a walk. We had been invited to the party but declined, preferring the quiet of the trails around Carsaig a little bay on the other side of the landmass a mile away. We had a very pleasant time wandering aimlessly along coastal trails looking for snakes and butterflies.

the remnants of a peacock

across to the Paps of Jura

meadow pipit
(or similar)

stonechat

orange tips

sparrow

whitethroat

swallow

A while back I had seen a second hand moth trap advertised online. I had bought it but until now had never tried it out. I have been meaning to take it along to Warriston but always seemed like a hassle. We had put it in the boot of the car and set it up here. It was the first time I had put it together and was glad it see it worked - it has a light-sensor and sets the light off when it gets dark. I noticed the light go on about 10.15pm. When up in the night I had a look out the window and it seemed to be attracting moths.

In the morning we took it apart to see if there was much inside. I'll be honest I was hoping for some giant hawk moths and was a bit disappointed it seemed to be only small moths of the not-visually-exciting sort. However the closer you look the more beauty you see, and there were quite a few interesting species hidden in every corner of the eggbox-like packaging I'd put in to give them hiding spaces. Maybe 8 or 10 species and up to 5 or 6 of certain species. Quite a few! The moth trap worked.

I should have recorded and photographed them all in order as they came out the trap but it was a bit of a free-for-all and soon the garden was aflutter as various moths escaped and settled on nearby trees. I didn't even get round to looking up their names - although I recognised a few like the white ermines (above). Also there was a growing anticipation of what awaited at Taynish, the reserve just a mile away and home to marsh fritillaries.

Colin and Joan had been here a week ago (when Joan was bravely running at the notorious Jura Hill Race - something I have never felt inclined to do.) They had reported the marsh fritillaries were out and let me know where to look for them - near the bird hide at the shore. I also knew John and Gail Clark (online pals I hadn't met) were planning on coming here and had loosely arranged to meet them in Taynish at some point Saturday morning. We were fast running out of Saturday morning and I was keen to get going. The plan ended up I would run ahead to Taynish and Mary and Caroline would follow on at leisurely pace. Maybe we would all meet up. I saw John's range rover in the car park.

I saw the above dragonfly and took a (bad) photo. I noticed sometime afterwards that I hadn't seen any darters the whole weekend. My thoughts are now that that is a female keeled skimmer, but your guess is as good as mine. It was medium sized and similar to a darter.

I ran all the way to the field between the piggery and the bird hide. I realised 2 things almost immediately - there were plenty marsh fritillaries about and also John, Gail and Kaspar (the dog) were down the far end. At last I was able to relax. The day improved massively and I spent the next hour or 2 just dicking about chatting and taking photos of this really rare butterfly in glorious weather. Interesting butterfly, and very rare: there were not many about to start with nationally, and draining fields for agriculture has made things worse. Needless to say the fields they were in were a bit swampy, with deep cattle hoof prints in places.

marsh fritillary

John, Gail and Kaspar

so warm the cattle were in the shallows

Mary and Caroline

There had been a plan to regroup but I was so delayed by the butterflies and due to all the chatting, that Mary and Caroline found me near the bird hide, still chatting and taking photos. Caroline went for a quick dip in the water there, then the 2 of them set off back on a specific route up the East shore side where I'd catch up with them. I just had to get a few more photos! I'd been so busy exchanging life histories with John that I hadn't got every photo I felt I should. There were also small pearl-bordered fritillaries (another swamp dweller) and I hadn't got any of those. After another 10mins I felt I should catch up with M&C and set off at a run.

I spent 5mins chasing this clouded buff moth before I got a few photos.

that's a big one!
John is an equipment enthusiast.

I ran like fury up the shore side thinking I'd catch the girls at the next turn. It is a really pretty path that sweeps and turns along the rocky coast. No sign of them so by the time I got to the dragonfly pond I decided they must have got so far ahead they were on their way home. I might as well take some photos of the dragonflies and damselflies.

three-spotted chaser

great place for odonata

four-spotted chaser

large red damselfly

azure damselfly

azures

I wandered through the village and back to the house where M&C were nowhere to be found. They came in 15mins later. We worked out I must have overtaken them early on when they went first one way then realised they had said they would go the shore road. Will also appeared from having been working. I asked him about Beautiful Demoiselles which the Clarks had seen 10 miles North. He said there were some locally and I couldn't believe he hadn't mentioned it till now. He would show me when the others went for a swim down to Carsaig. To say I was excited was an understatement. Beers and towels were packed and we set off. About halfway to Carsaig (less than a mile) there is a small stream. We knocked on the door of the house as it is sort of their back garden area. There was nobody home so we went further upstream and climbed over a fence and across the stream. Will did this deftly wearing moth eaten crocs. I struggled to repeat his dance across green stepping stones, concerned I didn't have a back-up camera. He pointed me in the right direction and left to go for his swim at Carsaig. I had less than an hour to find the dragonflies.

I had seen them once before - when Nick and I ran across Spain. Coming to a lush green riverside spot we saw them dancing far below. I'd got some photos but they were quite distant. They have a look of being too tropical for Scotland. In fact they look too outlandish for planet earth. More like a sci-fi alien beast than an earth bound insect. The females look very similar to banded demoiselles and the males have entirely dark wings - not just the central band that gives them their name.

Meanwhile I was clattering through the jungle in search of anything alien looking. I hadn't got to the area Will had spoken of when I saw a male sitting on a leaf. RESULT!

I took a few photos and moved downstream. I couldn't find anything further but knew at least I had confirmed they were present - if I'd only seen a female it would be harder to know if they were Beautifuls or Bandeds. At the polytunnels I ran out of stream and went back upstream bouncing from boulder to boulder. I saw something out the corner of my eye and went over closer to inspect it. It was a crane fly, no doubt a long distant cousin of these insects.

I have been enjoying taking photos of crane flies, I think I mentioned this. I don't much care for the insects tickling necks as they whir past, (or noisily visiting one's tent after midnight) but I am drawn to the architectural paradox of these unlikely flying machines; all wings and beady eyes. I crossed the stream again and once I finished taking mr crane fly's photo I looked to my left and saw a female beautiful demoiselle just sat on a leaf posing perfectly in the dappled light. I nearly shat myself. I beg your pardon, I felt my heart beat harder in excitement. It really is like finding a £200 note in the woods. Okay there's no such thing but similarly your brain tells you this thing right here shouldn't exist. Maybe in the jungles of Borneo, or Madagascar. But in Scotland? Meanwhile I am lining up the shot and zooming in. I take 10, 20 shots careful to reposition my feet which are slowly moving streamwards on a unstable slope of mud, grit and grass.

hallelujah!

Once I have taken dozens of shots from close ups to wide angles I start breathing again. Looking around I see a male landing a couple of feet away, again in bright sunlight. I feel blessed, super-lucky! and take hundreds more photos. The male is slightly more lively than the female and moves about on his leaf and then takes off, flies round for a bit and then lands again. I cannot believe my luck. I have a feeling if I'd been here earlier they might have been flying around like crazy. It is after 5 o'clock and they are probably both done for the day. (Will reckoned it would be a good time to look for them.) And happy to sit still while a frantic sweating human gets to within a metre of them quietly shouting YES under his breath, and taking WAY too many photos.

I have noticed with Bandies that when they land they wait a second then regroup their wings in an open-and-close movement. I try to get photos of this clap but it is so quick it is not easy. With the male having entirely dark wings it shows off the translucency of his wings better.

Also I noticed both males I photographed were missing a leg. Different legs so not the same males. I saw a third male but only as a fly past. Might have been one of the first 2.

gotcha!

5 legged - missing front left
First male spotted missing left middle

this is where the magic happened
both insects sat on the leaves at the left of this photo

a juvenile robin

crossing the stream
How did Will manage wearing ancient crocs?

I was all done in about 40 minutes. It was such perfect lighting and proximity I didn't wait to see if they moved somewhere "better" but knew I had the best possible shots and maybe even a few open wing shots. I extricated myself from the stream (not easy), walked back down the road and along to the small jetty and across to where Will and Caroline had finished their swim. I know we're supposed to hate the rhoddies for being invasive and all that but they give the place a beautiful colour. The sun reflecting off the water is almost too powerful. We sit around on rocks sipping beer. I can't contain my thrilling encounter with the demoiselles. I am blethering on about how it was just crazy wonderful and am running out of superlatives. I say it was the best day of my life, and although I am kind of joking I can't think of another so full of absolute delight. Marsh Fritillaries and Beautiful Demoiselles under blue skies! Terrifico!

Will (nearly in crocs), Caroline (Noola the dog) and Mary

great end to a FAB day!

noola

locals on SUPs

dinner out the back
plenty to drink as well!

The plan had been to stay until about Monday or Tuesday. However the plan changed slightly due to a slight glitch. Mary uses an alarm clock that lights up a wake-you-up-gently sunlight impersonation lamp. As well as a bird-song generating dawn chorus. In the kerfuffle of leaving she had forgotten to unplug this early morning smart bomb. Our neighbours would now be treated to an hour of early morning birdsong and maybe wonder how come Iona Street was housing so many feathered friends. This was not the problem. The problem was Mary's mind considering her Made-in-China appliance lighting up with sun-like temperatures and staying lit all day, reaching a similar heat to that of the centre of the sun. And then maybe bursting into flames and reducing the flat to a pile of charcoal for our return. She had already googled the time bomb to see if she could discern whether the sun-like elements were harmless heatless LEDs or not. They were not. They were traditional glow hot-as-fuck bulbs and the flat was probably smouldering this minute. This minute was in the middle of the night, when the 2am worry phantoms won't let you sleep. I have to admit I spent the next 45 minutes not sleeping, trying to find fault with Mary's anxiety angels.

My conclusion, having eventually slept on it, was that it was far more risky trying to drive home (5hrs) and back (another 5hrs) than the chance of a health and safety nightmare alarm clock causing a conflagration. The real dangers of long drives, especially when tired, massively outweighed the imaginary real dangers of alarming clocks. As a compromise we left Sunday afternoon. Normally I'd be quite annoyed to have to cut short time in paradise to return to fucktown Leith. Especially as I didn't have work till Wednesday. However I felt I'd had such an epic day on Saturday I doubted life could get any better and wasn't too gutted about quitting while ahead. And I could process all those photos once I got home.

Sunday followed a similar pattern. I was keen to return to Taynish to get some photos of SPBFs. Somehow I failed to get any the day before - too much chatting? And there wasn't as many as there were Marsh Fritillaries. They are so rare and the SPBFs are relatively commonplace. However the latter are so much more orange. Confession time: I wasn't actually THAT taken with the Marsh Fritillaries until I met them.

I knew they appeared in Taynish and given we have relatively easy-to-organise accommodation locally I hadn't rushed to see them until now. There is something about the colours - like a cheap sweety wrapper, rather than a classy fritillary. Not hugely, but there is something a bit uninspired about their upperwing colours that doesn't do it for me aesthetically. Did that change after meeting them? A small bit yes. I like their underwing and I also like that there were loads of them flying about. I believe this year was a good year and they were in abundance. They did not fly high or far and so were fairly easy to follow. And though they have the bad habits of the SPBFs of staying low and diving into the undergrowth, there were enough about to get one or 2 sat atop flowers posing for photos. And one or 2 were happy to sit on a hand. In conclusion I quite like them. But not up there with say Dark Green Frits or Pearl-bordereds. Except in rarity. There is only really this area in Argyll and Mull that you'll find them in Scotland.

So next day I was more in the market for small pearl-bordereds and had a couple of hours to spend looking for them. I met a gent on the run in who said he'd been taking videos of Marsh Frits at the picnic table by the shore. I took a wee detour and had a look (below) but it was very swampy and I couldn't see any butterflies. He had a big muddy foot and I nearly got a similar one. Nice spot for a picnic though!

picnic table by the shore

there were orange tips and whites
but given the choices I largely ignored them

how could I say these chaps aren't beautifully designed?
well okay, I quite like them.

on cuckoo flower

ragged robin

another hateful silver Y moth! 😁

on spotted marsh orchid (?)

I spent all my time budget down that same field and never saw one small pearl-bordered. Don't know where they'd all gone today. Oh well - plenty back in the Lothians and on the East side. Running back I realised I didn't even have time to climb up the Eagle Trail, that lump below on the left which gives lovely views down Loch Sween. And sometimes there are dragonflies up there too. Last trip a keeled skimmer. Just another few yards along and a rustle in the bushes up right of the path revealed a deer which stood on the high bank and stared down at me while I took photos. It was probably interested to see if having run at close to top speed I could hold my breath for very long (trying to take photos) without exploding. Answer, not long!

There is a drainage ditch to the right of the trail that is full of water and odonata.
We have seen golden ringed here before, later in the year.

a juvenile robin again

I couldn't leave without another scoot past the dragonfly pond. It was busy but being earlier in the day and very sunny, nothing much was stopping to have its photo taken. Plenty of four-spotted chasers. On the road back to Tayvallich I saw 2 golden ringed dragonflies, the longest of the UK dragonflies. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos. Despite a lot of effort. When I got back to home there was just time for a quick spot of lunch then we jumped in the car and drove a few miles to a favourite swimming spot on the other side of Taynish. We had taken wet suits but didn't use them. I opted for a rash vest over swimming shorts, but wearing neoprene socks and sandals as the bottom is covered in spikey urchins. It was the first time in ages (this year) I had been in cold water and after a reluctance to get in (over the shorts, yikes!) found it absolutely fine for about 20mins of swimming and messing about.

some video clips

the hill over there is the Eagle Trail hill I think.

lots of underwater life

Noola enjoys a swim too

doggy paddle

urchins and brittle stars

some photos Mary took
the unlikely looking offspring of a full fat milk tray man and a belisha beacon

Did you know those beacons were named after Leslie Hore-Belisha, minister for transport back in 1934. Unfortunate name. I used to go out with a girl with a similar name but not the last part. Just Lesley. Haha!