Our hugely popular autumn Wildlife Watch starts this Friday, with readers asked to record flora and fauna. Expert Anne Marie Smout looks back at a successful summer ‘watch’.
THE three spindle ermine caterpillars hanging on a thread may appear small but they are significant – and represent The Scotsman Wildlife Watch’s first “first”.
The caterpillars were seen in June at St Andrews Botanic Gardens, the first record of the species in Fife.
Other moths and their caterpillars spotted in the summer round of the quarterly nature survey included an elephant hawk-moth (Glasgow), humming-bird hawk-moth (Lothian) and a vapourer moth caterpillar (Fife).
Being June, almost every submission mentions the pleasure of watching baby birds and baby animals, and it has been a real privilege to read about how much people enjoyed taking part, whether watching the wildlife in their back garden or in the countryside.
One reader from Broxburn said: “Please keep on with this survey. I just love the birds and all wildlife.”
Some of the photographs sent in were amazing, such as those of bottle-nosed dolphins leaping clear out of the water at Chanonry Point, or the three pine martens eating peanuts in a garden at Plockton (pine martens were also reported from Sheriffmuir and Dunblane).
A reader watched – and photographed – a stoat killing two rabbits within 20 minutes just outside her front door
The accompanying stories were no less extraordinary, such as the woman who watched a stoat kill two rabbits within 20 minutes at her front door – and even managed to take some photos of the action.
Perhaps the most extraordinary tale, however, concerned a pair of kestrels and their five chicks at Castle Douglas. The brood was in a nest box in a tree within the observers’ garden.
While the chicks were still quite small, the female bird unfortunately got badly injured and had to be put down by the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
A family of kestrels was helped by a woman in Castle Douglas
Feeding five hungry chicks is hard for a single parent bird, and the loss of the female would have spelt disaster for the nestlings, had it not been for the valiant lady of the house.
Using a ladder, she climbed up to the box three times a day for weeks to feed the chicks rump steak, thus supplementing the voles and so on brought in by the male.
This generous commitment resulted in all chicks fledging successfully and, over the weekend of the survey, all five were busy bathing, finding insects and preening.
Elsewhere, a reader in Edinburgh had a jay in his garden that had learnt to cling on to the bird feeder sideways; ospreys were noted at Lochearnhead; a peregrine was photographed with a kill on Larkhall golf course; and a juvenile goshawk was spotted in Dunbar. In all, 84 bird species were recorded, with blackbirds top of the list.
Grey and red squirrels vied for top place of animal sightings, and foxes are still abundant in Glasgow. A total of 21 species of mammals, including sea mammals, were observed, plus two species of fish (brown trout and eel).
It is interesting to note that since Wildlife Watch started back in December 2006, readers have become more adventurous and prepared to submit sightings of less popular taxonomic groups, including this time jellyfish. The description indicates it was a large stranding of the common moon jellyfish at Gullane.
Jellyfish are the staple diet of the huge leatherback turtles, which are increasingly seen around the coast of Scotland.
The Marine Conservation Society has recently launched a survey asking for reports, hoping that information about the distribution of jellyfish will help to chart the movements of marine turtles, and ultimately contribute to the conservation of these endangered reptiles. To contribute to this survey, visit
www.mcsuk.org.
More people are also reporting bumblebees, which is good because these attractive insects need all the friends they can get.
A woman at Roslin, Lothian, tells how she has planted a range of heathers so that the bees have something to feed on in her garden throughout the flying season. She has been rewarded by attracting several unusual bumblebees, including in June a male forest cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus sylvestris).
In addition, six other kinds of bumblebees were recorded from the Borders, Lothians, Fife and Ayrshire: buff-tailed, common carder, early, garden, red-tailed and white-tailed.
Sadly, no-one reported any dragonflies, except in a very general fashion. The easterly winds and wet and cold weather were not good for insects, at least in the east.
A long list of flowering plants was submitted by one reader, who had spent the day hillwalking in Perthshire.
In total, 158 different species were recorded. All submissions have now been forwarded to the appropriate centres. On behalf of Biological Recording in Scotland, thank you for taking part.
• Anne-Marie Smout is the editor at Biological Recording in Scotland, the charity to which The Scotsman’s Wildlife Watch records are passed.
