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Lovely colour. ❤

Another species of plant from Stevenston Beach, albeit less attractive than michaelm’s! Isle of Man Cabbage, subspecies monensis, is a specialist of dunes between Wales and SW Scotland. It’s endemic to Britain – it’s found at a few dozen site in Britain and nowhere else in the world. It likes unstable sand, and, because of this, is quite common in the dynamic dunes at Stevenston Beach Local Nature Reserve. It looks quite similar to some other plants down the beach, such as the much more abundant Sea Radish.

Is it related to the Buttercup?

SC

They do look very like buttercups; however, Isle of Man Cabbage belongs to a very different order of plants: the crucifers as opposed to the ranunculales.

Iain

A Poplar Hawk-moth caught at Ardeer Quarry Local Nature Reserve a few weeks ago. This is by far the most abundant Hawk-moth in Stevenston and, indeed, Scotland. It’s caterpillars feed on Poplars as well as Willows and Aspen. You can just see the red patch on the hindwing peaking out from behind the right forewing. When alarmed, it ‘flashes’ these red patches to startle the bird or other animal that might be attacking it. I’ve seen it do this a few times. It’s a striking display, and I can imagine it must be quite effective.

Iain - we were having a discussion recently about clegs - and someone called them horse flies. When I googled for a picture, they aren’t what I would call a cleg - they were striped whereas the clegs I remember were a bronzy type colour and were longer and maybe thinner. What am I getting confused with?

a bit off topic, but there was a fairly common comment in Stevenston, to thickish ankles as cleg bites.
I was just having a peehee me moment for no bugbites then I got the king of all..think a spider? it's been itching for days and yes, I'ma scratc her

Meg, I think the confusion has arisen from the fact that ‘Horseflies’ is the name given to the broad family of flies which includes clegs – i.e. clegs are one of 30 species of horsefly. So if one Google’s ‘horsefly’, then lots of things other than clegs will appear. Also, to make things more complicated, there are several species of cleg. So different people are using different names to refer to the same insect, and the same name is sometimes being used to refer to different insects! I’d guess this is the source of the confusion. The common cleg (some call it the common horsefly) does look bronzy in colour, owing in large part to it’s brown, patterned wings.

It’s been a ‘great’ year for clegs and other horseflies – the heat has apparently agreed with them.

Some ‘camera trap’ photos from the countryside above Stevenston. Camera traps, for those who don’t know, are stationery camera units (e.g. tied to a tree) which take a photo when they detect movement/heat. Mine isn’t the world’s best camera trap (or even Stevenston’s best camera trap, I’m sure!), but I was still pleased with some of the photos and it was great to get evidence of badgers (look closely at the middle of the frame in the last photo).

Roe Deer


Roe Deer


Roe Deer


Fox


Badger

Iain,

They're spectacular. Exactly where were they taken?
Or do you want to keep it secret to keep the eejits away?

JD.

Wonderful captures and such lush growth.

Really enjoyed seeing these, great pics!