Caol Ila Black Guillemots

While doing dissertation work on the coast just north of Caol Ila, Tom went past the seawall between the distillery and the sound of Jura. On the wall there were around half a dozen black guillemots or tysties that were incredibly relaxed, even waddling up to the camera less than a meter away. 

Along the coast from Caol Ila there are also several abandoned fishermen's huts/boat sheds full of old fishing gear left to the elements...

Marsh helleborines at Waitby Greenriggs reserve

More photos of these stunning orchids - I just love them!

Waitby Greenriggs revisited

After visiting Smardale we went to Waitby; the fly orchids are still out - just, the fragrants in full bloom and the twayblades going over - the marsh helleborines are just coming into peak condition.

Views, fly orchid, fragrant orchid and twayblade.

Marsh helleborine

Large skippers and common blues.

Rhuvaal and Bolsa.

Some of the best photos and experiences from Tom's expedition to the north of Islay...

Grass of Parnassus, whin chat , female teal fiening distress as a distraction on a upland lochen, young wheater, male siskin in a mixed flock of chaffinches.

Black guillimot and young gulls, both sheltering on an igneous dyke. 

Red deer and the main population of feral goats. 

Burnet moth, common blue, dark green fritillary, large heath, northern eggar and an unusual carrion beetle. 

Sundews ...round-leaved and oblong-leaved and a possible great sundew...

Golden eagle being mobbed by gulls...the camp eagle 

Spectacular views of the north coast....

Some of the stromatolites Tom was studying...Click for more info

Felted fleece....

A good friend of mine kindly introduced me to these - they look like sheep skins but have no skin; they are just shorn fleece attached to prefelt by the usual felting technique. Lots of room for experimentation using different fleeces and I am wondering about variations on a theme ...using dyed fleece and felt pebbles with couching and ....time to get designing!

Here I outline the basic method  - with thanks to my friend! I think the cats may have a new bed!

Lie the bits of fleece down - close together in the desired pattern - with the ends uppermost .

Flip the fleece and lay the prefelt on top. 

Wet the fleece thoroughly, add detergent or soap and lay the net on before rubbing ...

Roll back and forth, turning as usual.....then rinse and repeat. 

The fibres will all be showing - easier if it's a dark fleece. 

Spin the fleece after washing or leave to dry....

Brush carefully to separate the fleece ends - a dog brush is ideal ...

Different fleeces give different effects! 

Smardale revisited

Our last visit was 24th June Click here for butterflies etc and here for the flowers, so it was interesting to see how things have changed in the last fortnight. The greater butterfly orchids are on their last legs and the St John's wort and meadow sweet are really dominating. Plenty of northern brown argus on the wing whenever the sun was out together with: common blue, ringlet, meadow brown, small heath and painted ladies. The melancholy thistle are in different states - the patch on the right as you enter the reserve are at their best while those at the far end of the reserve are past their best. Remarkably there were still some bird's-eye primrose out and a cowslip! The water crowfoot is still in flower and the monkey flower has really blossomed in the river over the past 14 days.

Northern brown argus ........

A pair of northern brown argus.

Views ..........

Top: broad-leaved helleborine; fragrant orchid and twayblade
Below: common spotted orchids and fragrants. 

Common blue....above and below ...

Melancholy thistle and red admiral. 

Small heath; ringlet; burnet moth and speckled woods.

Bloody crane's-bill, bird's-eye primrose, water crowfoot and monkey flower and seed heads.

Killenallan Dunes Orchids.

In between recording stromatolites Tom and Steve took time out to look for orchids in the dunes at Killinallan - damp, but splendid! 

Dune slack; looking towards Gortantoid.

Top: early marsh orchid, common spotted, pyramidal and frog, bottom: frog, possible pugsley's marsh orchids. 

Pyramidal variants.

Marsh helleborines...

Frog orchid in abundance

The range of frog orchid colour variants...

Common centaury, grass of parnassus and a very late cock chafer...

A snipe at the Gruinart hide...