Thursday, June 18, 2020
On a clear sunny morning it sounded strange to hear the ferry's foghorn; but as we climbed above the town we could see the haar lying like cottonwool along the loch.
Our first golden-ringed dragonfly of the year was patrolling an open space next to woodland.
A smallish dragonfly on the wing remained too far off to identify, but landed at last on birch leaves. I aimed at the general area, and the resulting much-cropped pic shows a male northern emerald with diagnostic pincer-like claspers.
We looked high and low for the bee hawk-moth but were unsuccessful. There was compensation later in the sighting of a new insect, although I'm a bit flummoxed as to which of two species it is.
It's either a red-belted clearwing - or a large red-belted clearwing. The latter has red in its forewing, and is found as far north as Scotland. The former doesn't have red in its forewing and seems to be found only in England and Wales. But does this one have red in its wing? There's just a hint of red where the wing is attached to the body, but it is only a hint. I think I'll put this down as a probable large red-belted clearwing, and go looking for it again tomorrow. At this rate, I'll spend the rest of the summer chasing small creatures that I'm never likely to see again and go completely mad.
By the time we descended into the village again, the haar had almost gone.
// posted by Christine @ 9:52 AM 
