Tuesday, June 30, 2026
A few bits and pieces to see June out.....a visit to the pool near Achnahaird brought more water lobelia plants than last year, with some flowers out and more to come.
A walk up the quarry road brought a new wildflower for me - sea plantain (Plantago maritima).....
......while back down near the car park, a beautifully dark, velvety butterfly sparring with a common blue seemed to be a ringlet - which would be a first for me in Ullapool. Not sure though - could be a chimney sweeper moth (one was recorded in Assynt the following day).
Back home on the same day, I was inspecting the spiraea and bell-flowers in the garden for bees when something large flew up and zoomed off - a hummingbird hawkmoth! It shot off over the wall and was never seen again. As for the herring gulls whose nest we can see from the back window - I eventually spotted a chick there, but what happened to it I don't know. A week or so later (much too soon for that chick to have fledged) I was in the garden when I heard the familiar angry rat-a-tat call, and a gull swooped at me - but no chicks could be seen on our or neighbouring roofs. Then one of the gulls appeared to be sitting on the nest again for a while. Not sure what's going on - I think the chick I saw must be dead.
// posted by Christine @ 1:33 PM 
