23rd June 2009

A complete contrast to yesterday! Sunny and very warm indeed. The itinerary today called for checks of potential Great Yellow Bumblebee sites along the north Sutherland coast between Bettyhill and Melvich. Although still early for peak numbers of queens, it was going to be useful to see what flowers were available. A quick look at Farr Glebe, a well-known site for Great Yellow Bumblebee showed that the Greater Knapweed was already flowering – a valuable food plant. A queen Moss Carder Bee was feeding at Bird's-foot Trefoil here – this UK BAP Priority Species is very similar to Common Carder Bee but on the UK mainland probably has its stronghold in Highland. A few Small Heath butterflies and Chimney Sweeper moths flying in the bright sunshine. Next stop were the dunes and clifftop fields at Strathy East, which were alive with Common Blue butterflies and a number of day-flying moths, such as Wood Tiger, Silver Y and the stunning Six-spot Burnet. Little Terns were chattering overhead, and another queen Moss Carder Bee was carefully examined. Some good spring flowers here, including plenty of Bush Vetch and a field with much Yellow Rattle. A couple farm visits and short stops at Portskerra and Melvich produced a few more bees, and also a lively cliff nest of Kestrels. There had been some great numbers of orchids at Strathy, and at Portskerra I added Small White Orchid and a Lesser Butterfly Orchid just flowering. The latter, like Great Yellow Bumblebee, is listed for further action on the Species Action Framework in Scotland. N.B. On closer inspection this is clearly a Greater Butterfly Orchid, as the two pollinia are not held parallel. I should know this one as we were catching moths last year to see which ones were pollinating the Greater Butterfly Orchids around Stirling - a tremendous night-secented flower though!

On the way back, a stop at Armadale again indicated plenty of forage for bumblebees, which gives encouragement that there may be opportunities for the Great Yellow Bumblebee. Curiously, there are no records east of Bettyhill before Scrabster in Caithness, some 40km along the coast.