Ardnamurchan

I've been away again. The Ardnamurchan peninsula is a little pointy bit of land in the south-western Highlands, just above Mull, and it's very wild. It's probably the best place in the UK for mammals and is damn good for eagles too. I went with Rob and Dianne in the hope of seeing Wildcats, but this didn't happen. We saw plenty of good stuff though. We arrived in sunshine but then had a few days of chilly gloom before the sun returned for our last two days. We stayed in a static caravan in Kilchoan, on the south-west coast, and much of the wildlife-watching was very local to there. I took about 4,000 photos, here are a few of them.

The western end of the peninsula is mostly open and very rugged grassy moor, grazed by tough-looking little sheep and lots of Red Deer.

Birds of the open wildness included plenty of Wheatears (Wheatear junior shown here), Yellowhammers and, of course, lots and lots (and lots) of Meadow Pipits.

Wandering along the (only) road through Kilchoan, I regularly encountered all of this lot. The local Buzzard was the most tolerant example of its species I've ever met, allowing close scrutiny with no apparent annoyance. Whitethroats sang from most of the stands of bracken, though only this dozy fledgling was easily photographable. Lesser Redpolls were always around and very busy, flying between the treetops and giving their very distinctive but completely tuneless song. The young Song Thrush was another totally fearless bird. And finally, a new species for the blog IIRC - a lovely Twite, one of several seen in fields around what passes for the village centre.

We had a day trip to Mull midweek, on a particularly grey day. From Mull itself we didn't see very much, though it was nice to wander around the famously pretty town of Tobermory. The ferry crossing produced a few seabirds, including Gannet and, most excitingly for me, lots of Manx Shearwaters.

The day after Mull, we took a boat trip on Loch Sunart, courtesy of Ardnamurchan Charters. A very interesting couple of hours this was, with our guide Andy and his charming black lab Tag. The loch is full of jellyfish, which were mesmerising to watch. When we looked up we could see Arctic (and Common) Terns fishing, and the occasional Common Seal swimming past, giving us a very dour look as it went. Then we reached the shore where the seals haul out to rest. A Harbour Porpoise showed briefly, and on the cliffs of Carna island several Shags were perched.

There's lots of coastline to choose from on the peninsula, as you'd expect - though the Black Guillemot was actually photographed from the Ardgour-Corran ferry on our way home. Common Gulls were everywhere, this moulting youngster was searching for insects over a field that was being mown in Kilchoan. The Common Sandpiper was by the rather aromatic little strip of fine gravel that's described as a 'sandy beach' on the 'welcome to Kilchoan' sign. We found the Raven family at Ardnamurchan point, near the lighthouse, while the Rock Pipits were on the beach just in front of our campsite (Rockits were also on every other beach and rocky shore we visited). At the genuinely sandy and very gorgeous beach at Sanna, we found a confiding flock of summer-plumaged Sanderlings, and the very distant White-tailed Eagle was also in this area.

Butterflies were generally thin on the ground, but there were good numbers of Dark Green Fritillaries about when the sun was out, including this one just by the caravan. As for dragonflies... well, they're just soooo 2012. But it was a real treat to find this chilled-out female Golden-ringed on a hillside off what passes for a main road across the peninsula.

The best moment of the trip for me came on the very last morning. We'd planned to leave the site at about 7am, in order to get home not-too-late in the evening. I got up at 5am to a clear dawn, and walked down to the shore in front of the campsite, where there is a rocky sort-of-beach by a tiny bay. Approaching the bay, I saw that something was swimming in it, and a look through the bins revealed the something to be an Otter. By advancing when it was underwater and keeping still when it surfaced, I got quite close to where it was fishing, and took a seat on a rock. After a while, to my delight it came ashore to eat a crab it had caught, right in front of me, lit up by the just-risen sun. An unforgettable encounter :)

Mini heatwave

A still, warm, sunny start and I decided I could bear it no longer and hobbled down the hill to Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve. I began what turned out to be a pretty short walk around the reserve with my macro lens on the camera, and so was unable to properly photograph the first bird I saw, a Marsh Tit at the (full for once) feeders in the wildlife garden. I loitered in the wildlife garden for a while, looking for insects, and enjoying the array of flowers, both wild and, well, garden.

This is Hedge Woundwort. I think. Someone posted a pic of something that looked just like it on a forum I visit and said it was Hedge Woundwort, and I vaguely remember finding some when out with Dianne about this time last year. Pretty flower, nettle-like leaves, popular with the bees.

And speaking of the bees, I think I've found my first Garden Bumblebee here. Two yellow stripes on the thorax and another at the base of the abdomen seems to check out. It was giving itself a thorough grooming on a nice broad leaf so I could get lots of shots.

The sightings book wasn't terribly inspiring. I whiled away a few moments in Grebe hide, where lots of juvenile Blue and Great Tits were coming to the feeders. Blackcaps, Garden Warblers and Chiffchaffs were in good voice, but hiding out of sight in the leafy treetops.

I headed towards Willow hide, pausing to photograph this lovely Pyramidal Orchid on the way. It was on the grassy patch that has in the past had Bee Orchids - none of those today, just the one Pyramidal and two Common Spotteds.

I headed for Long Lake, still with the macro lens in place. More birdsong, including Reed Warblers, and what I am pretty sure was the peevish 'jjjrrrr' of Whitethroat/s near Willow hide. I headed for the little meadow at the far end of Long Lake, skirted around an angler's bivvy, and began to photograph damselflies.

Common Blues were the most numerous species - a male and 'drab form' female shown here. I did see one or two Azures but it's nearly the end of their season. Blue-taileds were also around, and a few Red-eyeds were arguing over the lily pads.

A lone Meadow Brown took off as I walked around to the refugia in the far corner (nothing under them). The furthest viewpoint over the lake produced a single, brief sighting of a male Downy Emerald, today's only dragon.

I looked in at Willow hide on the way back, and saw that the resident swan pair had two (at least) small cygnets. The water level here is low but not low enough that any wader-tempting shoreline mud is on display. Mind you, this hot spell looks set to last a little while, so maybe there'll be some Green Sandpiper action soon.

There was nothing doing from Carter hide. I went back alongside West Lake, and on the way disturbed a Canada Goose pair with four half-grown goslings, which had been resting on the shore. The parents hissed crossly and the whole family plopped into the water, but the goslings decided they were safe enough there and began to vigorously attack the weeping sedges that overhung the water at the lake's edge. When I took one more step, though, they lost their nerve and the family arranged itself into a line, parents front and rear and goslings in the middle, and swam out away from the shore.

I carried on, watching the Swifts going over and wondering if I could be bothered to try to photograph them. Then I noticed a biggish bird on the path ahead - a Jay, which unusually let me get quite close before making a fly for it.

Back at the start of the trail, I decided against walking down to Tyler hide and beyond - my toe was protesting a lot by this point. I had another look around the wildlife garden before I left but saw nothing new. I'll finish this uncharacteristically brief post with a picture of some elderflowers.

Charming bumblers

I've been pretty much out of action the last couple of weeks, due to breaking my toe at aikido and finding walking suddenly became really quite uncomfortable. Actually, it's fine when I'm barefoot, which means (ironically enough) that I can still do aikido perfectly happily, but pressure from footwear (even socks) is painful. My wildlife fix has come courtesy of Susan's garden - I spent last week at her house in Pembury, looking after her cat, while she was swanning around Devon seeing Dippers and all sorts. It was a mostly dry week with some sunshine.

No shortage of House Sparrows around here. Mums, dads and kids came to the feeders all day every day. The pic of the male having a dust bath was, unfortunately, taken through the window.

A bit more of the local birdlife. The most fledgling Blue Tits I saw on the fatballs at any one time was six, so that's an encouraging sign of a good breeding season. Nice to see a baby Dunnock too. The Green Woodpecker was the biggest treat though. Photo taken from an upstairs window, so as not to scare him off.

The real interest for me this week though was bees. I'd noticed on visiting Susan's house a couple of weeks before that there were some Tree Bumblebees visiting the flowers, and I was keen to photograph them, plus the various other species that were around.

Here's a Tree Bumblebee. Very distinctive - ginger thorax, black body, white bottom. This was probably the most numerous species visiting the flowers...

 ... though this beauty, the Early Bumblebee, would be a close second. The light ginger bum on this species is its most distinctive feature, especially as some lack the yellow band at the top of the abdomen and so are mostly black.

An example of a mostly black Early. The flowers are phlox by the way (thanks Galatas on the RSPB forum for identifying them).

This is the same individual as the previous pic, not a great angle for ID but apart from that it's my favourite shot of the week - these bees have such great faces.

A couple of Buff-tailed Bumbles. I think. There were not that many of these around, and I have to hold my hands up and admit that I'm not too sure how to tell Buff-tailed from White-tailed, as both have white 'tails' (it's only the queen Buff-tailed who has a buff behind, workers are white of bottom).

And finally, the Honey-bee. I use the singular because I saw literally one, this one, all week, which is a little troubling. I'll make a point of looking out for them elsewhere from now on, once my pesky foot is better.

ETA - you know what, I think this might actually be a Leafcutter Bee (Megachile centuncularis). Any thoughts out there?

New book

Hi folks, just a quickie to let you know my new book Dragonflight (about my two-year mission to get to know the British Odonata) is out. Amazon link here. And here's a couple of photos, which have already appeared in my blog but I thought I'd better do something to liven up this post... From the top - Four-spotted Chaser, Common Clubtail, Banded Demoiselles, Variable Damselfly, Beautiful Demoiselle, Migrant Hawker.