Red hamburger bean, Tiree

Elaine reckons this is a fossilised liquorice alsort, but it's actually a sea-bean from the land based plant Mucuna urens or Red hamburger bean, which grows in tropical Central and South America, from the West Indies to Panama and Brazil! It's basically the seed of the plant which floats around the oceans until it gets washed up hopefully somewhere suitable for it to germinate. It's crossed the Atlantic Ocean to allow me to find it on a beach on Tiree. A real message in a bottle!

In theory I could try to get this bean to germinate, but since it's a large tropical species which climbs like a vine through trees, it seems a pointless exercise. It won't survive in the garden and I don't want a large vine in the house (or the garden really). Some people polish them and make jewelry out of them, which is an option, but most likely it will find a place on my bookcase as a memento of the holiday.

Sea of the Hebrides - Barra to Tiree

A great crossing of the Sea of the Hebrides on our way from Castlebay on Barra to Scarinish on Tiree, with the highlights being a pod of at least 50 common dolphins and a brief sighting of a minke whale.

There were plenty of the usual seabirds to be seen, including good numbers of auks and shearwaters, but no storm petrels on this crossing.

Castlebay

The wren on the Outer Hebrides is considered a subspecies hebridensis.

Despite how it looks on this photo, we had to abandon camping for a couple of nights due to an approaching storm and we moved into a cabin to sit it out. This photo was taken in the aftermath of the storm.

A couple of white-tailed eagles flew over and a very pale 1st summer male hen harrier hunted the hillside. Black guillemots seemed to be nesting in the castle walls.

 

Around Scurrival

The north part of Barra is my favourite part of the island, with large sandy beaches behind which sit large tracts of machair full of flowers and interesting insects.

Scurrival campsite, Barra

Well, that was a struggle in gale force winds and at times torrential rain, but the tent is now up and wine night has begun, serenaded by the calls of Corncrake. Don't know what all of the fuss was about.

Sea of the Hebrides - Oban to Barra

Aboard the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry the Isle of Lewis for nearly five hours and with most of that time spent crossing the Sea of the Hebrides on our way to Barra, it provided the usual ideal opportunity for an impromptu sea watch.

The most numerous species where Manx shearwaters with an estimated 500 seen, spread over most of the journey once we had left the Sound of Mull. 

From about halfway out we started seeing storm petrels pattering across the water. In the end we saw about 40.

Amazing that these tiny birds which are barely the size of a starling can be completely at home out here.Other birds included gannets, arctic terns and plenty of auks with a handful of puffins.

Lime hawk-moth, Pennington Flash

I found a magnificent Lime hawk-moth on the footpath outside Horrocks hide this afternoon. They're not the largest of the hawk-moths but still very spectacular having a wingspan of around 5cm. I moved it to a less vulnerable position in a tree.

Still quiet on the bird front, but just a few signs of things beginning to move with a build up of common terns (5) and a common sandpiper has been around for a day or two. Still two Egyptian geese on the spit.

Grasshopper warbler, PenningtonFlash

A grasshopper warbler was reeling at the Slag lane end of the flash this morning, also a little egret in that area. A common sandpiper was flushed off the side of the ruck and there are still two each of common tern and Egyptian goose.

Leaf cutters at work

Looks like we have leaf cutter bees nesting in the roof of our garage. I watched them coming and going, carrying bits of leaves which they have cut from various plants, especially roses. I'm told that these are most likely Willoughby's leaf cutter bee. 

Leaf cutters are solitary bees, which means that they don't build communal nests like bumble bees, each female makes it's own nest which might contain 20 larval cells. Each cell is provided with nectar and pollen for the larvae to feed on when they emerge. The fact that there were several bees entering the nest site today is probably just an indication of a good place to nest, rather than the bees working together.

Also with them, a sharp-tailed bee which is a cuckoo on leaf cutters, in other words it lets them do all of the work then lays it's eggs on or in the leaf cutters larval cells. When the larvae emerge they kill the host larvae and eat it's food supply.

Leaf cutter bees do not sting and are valuable pollinators in the the garden so they should be left well alone to get on with their lives. It's well worth a few cut leaves to have these wonderful insects in the garden.

The following is taken from the RHS website:

"Leaf-cutting bees are fascinating pollinators and a valuable part of garden wildlife, the leaf sections taken during the collection of nest material does not usually affect the vigour of plants. They should not be 'controlled'".

The Welsh woodlands in June

I was driving back from a job near Abergwesyn today and stopped off at a couple of likely looking oak woodlands in the hope of getting my annual fix of singing Welsh woodland birds. I wasn't disappointed, with wood warbler, pied flycatcher, redstart and spotted flycatchers all putting in an appearance and showing well. Overhead there were at least seven red kites.

Nottingham catchfly, Great Orme

As always I had a thoroughly enjoyable day on the Great Orme, cumulating in finding about eight plants of Nottingham catchfly on a path just above Alex Munro Way and opposite the Grand Hotel. I thought that this was a first for me, but it turns out only in the UK. I have seen the plant previously in the Alps and the Pyrenees. A fascinating plant, and thanks to Zac for helping me find it.

Rose-coloured starling, Nant-y-coed

This morning I had a job near Holywell with a very early start and a very early finish and so with the lure of an adult rose-coloured starling in a garden in Llandudno Junction I took advantage of the opportunity and headed west.

The bird has been elusive at best over the past few days and wasn't on show when I arrived at Nant-y-coed. There were a couple of birders walking around the estate trying to track down the starling flocks, but I wasn't convinced that this was the right approach. 

There's a common misconception amongst many birders that rosy starlings move around with starling flocks, but in my experience they don't. Yes they may be present at feeders when common starlings are also feeding, but usually they don't move with the flocks. I've found that rosy starlings actually tend to stay close to the areas where they feed and that's why they can be so elusive. They feed on feeders often out of view in a back garden, and when the starling flock moves off, the rosy starling stays in the garden, often hidden in the foliage of a tree or bush until it gets hungry again. Only rarely do they move to other feeders or sit up high up on aerials.

After I'd been in the street for an hour a car pulled up and the occupant got out and said "You've no chance". After a little prompting he explained "the bird feeds in my garden or my neighbours and very rarely leaves. It just sits hidden in the fir tree at the back until it's ready to feed again. You can come in if you like."

I walked down his driveway until I had a nice view of his small lawn. He put some food down about 3m from me and 10 minutes later the bird appeared in the fir tree and after a further 10 minutes flew onto the lawn and began feeding. A really nice close view. I don't think I'd have seen it if I'd not been invited in, certainly mine was the only mention of the bird on BirdGuides today.

Spicing up my tea

I thought I'd found some free herbs at Pennington Flash today, the leaves look very like parsley or coriander.

Unfortunately not, it's actually Hemlock Water Dropwort, the most poisinous indigenous plant in the UK, which would really spoil my day if I ate it!

Note the bracts under the umbel, a major identification feature.

Eagland Hill

This wonderful, hunting barn owl was at Eagland Hill on the Fylde today.

Summer visitors at the flash

It's that time of year again at Pennington Flash, for at least the past five years a pair of Egyptian geese have spent the summer on the flash. Last year they brought a juvenile with them, but today they arrived alone. Also today, 2 barnacle geese, 3 common terns, willow tit & garden warbler.

It's easy to dismiss the barnacle geese since they are clearly feral, but they are only the second record I have of the species at the flash, unlike Eccleston Mere where I saw them regularly and where they peaked at 65 birds on 29/09/2011.

A weekend in North Wales

We had a family get together this weekend, staying at Godrer Coed, a cottage near Glan Conwy. On Thursday we spent the day on the Great Orme which was full of flowers including a few of my favourites such as bloody cranesbill and the two species of rockrose.