Wildlife in Stevenston

[Vivc113]

- spotted these blue flowers in someone's garden - does anyone know what these are??

[iain]

My knowledge of plants is poor, so I'm offering a guess when I say that these might be anemone blanda. What makes them tricky to id from this photo is that fact that in full sun they are daisy-like, but here they seem to be closed-up owing to the typically gloomy weather or shade.

Iain

[iain]

A male Siskin a few winters ago feeding in Alder trees at Ardeer Quarry. Flocks of up to 80 can be present at Ardeer Quarry Local Nature Reserve in winter. A few pairs breed in the Black Powder wood at the north of the Ardeer Peninsula.

[iain]

A Pine Beauty moth at Ardeer Quarry Local Nature Reserve last week. As the name suggests, the caterpillars of this species feed on pine needles. Like many species of pine-feeding moth, Pine Beauty is marked red and orange to camouflage it as it rests among young pine buds.

[Vivc113]

Yesterday I had the horror of meeting Hawthorn flies. Could not sit in peace. They were in my backpack and all.

[iain]

An Angelica plant growing on the Ardeer Peninsula last summer. Like most white umbellifers, it’s a magnet for insects. The bumblebee is probably a White-tailed or Buff-tailed Bumblebee (confusingly, male and worker Buff-tailed Bumblebees have white tails). The butterfly is a second generation Peacock - the second generation of late summer usually being significantly larger and more colourful than the first, spring generation.

[Meg]

This butterfly is absolutely beautiful. I've tried to plant shrubs that attract butterflies in my garden and must say we saw quite a few last summer, hopefully there'll be even more this year. Iain your photos are magnificent.

Meg

[iain]

Thanks, Meg. Ironically, Ayr has an unusual butterfly-related claim to fame: it’s the only place in Ayrshire where you find Holly Blue butterflies (it’s a small, pale blue butterfly that flits about in late April/May and then again in August in search of its food plants, Holly and Ivy). They’ve been seen in various gardens across the town. The isolated Ayr population most likely arrived as eggs attached to commercially sold Holly or Ivy plants sourced from a nursery in England (where it’s a common butterfly) and bought and planted by an Ayr resident.

Iain

[Meg]

I have both holly (male and female trees) and ivy in my garden, so I will be keeping a close eye this spring/summer. Just googled a couple of images so I have an idea how they look.

Meg

[John Donnelly]

Thanks, Meg. Ironically, Ayr has an unusual butterfly-related claim to fame: it’s the only place in Ayrshire where you find Holly Blue butterflies (it’s a small, pale blue butterfly that flits about in late April/May and then again in August in search of its food plants, Holly and Ivy). They’ve been seen in various gardens across the town. The isolated Ayr population most likely arrived as eggs attached to commercially sold Holly or Ivy plants sourced from a nursery in England (where it’s a common butterfly) and bought and planted by an Ayr resident.

Iain

When we lived in rural Sassenheim, before moving here to Delft, we had a really nice, big garden. We had a 'plague' of those blue butterfies every year. They are beautiful. Now we have a small, (tiny), city scrap of a garden, we get very few visitors. We really miss them.

JD.

[iain]

This Early Mining Bee was foraging on Hawthorn on the Ardeer Peninsula a couple of years ago. This is a common early summer species of solitary bee and is easily identified by its foxy red thorax, black abdomen and foxy red tip to the tale.

[Vivc113]

Hate to sound mad but what sort of food would they get from Hawthorne?