Morvern Wildlife Diary. Week ending September 7th.
The rest of August was very grey and at times very wet. September though, so far, has been quite settled. September has always been a favourite month, there is something about it that you don’t feel during any other month. When the weather’s fine, it is very calm, quiet, peaceful, and still, as though all of nature is taking a breath, and reflecting on the busy Summer that has just passed. Spring is a wonderful season, but I find it hard not to get caught up in that busy rush of activity and before you know it we’re into Summer. Autumn is a much calmer quieter time which I like.
With the lack of sunshine in late August it was not possible to get my last butterfly walk of the monitoring season done until September 3rd. By then there was just a few scotch argus left, and several new and fresh third generation speckled woods. Although not seen on the transect I have seen a few migrant butterflies, but still only a few. Splendid red admirals, and not looking so good after their flight north painted ladies. Why do these butterflies bother pushing ever northwards through Britain all the way from north Africa and southern Europe? Painted ladies aren’t able to make it through our Winters, and only a few red admirals manage to, so by the time they get this far north in the Autumn that’s it for them. What was the point? I’ll try and find out. Also only a few small tortoiseshells and a few peacocks. That’s two years running where the poor Summer weather has hit the peacock population here in the northwest. Looking at the figures from this years butterfly monitoring, every species has had a poor year, except pearl-bordered fritillaries, that were on the wing during our amazingly sunny May, and Scotch argus. The numbers were well down for all the rest.
I’ve not looked at the figures for dragonflies and damselflies yet, but I don’t think that they have had a great year either. Still on the wing are common darters, and common hawkers.
I was away up the hills on one of those calm September mornings, walking to above a wood and loch, which was perfectly still, in it was mirrored a lovely blue and billowy white cloud sky, and, as though swimming and playing among the clouds, were two otters. They were easy to spot in the smooth as glass water, even from high above. That’s the second time I’ve seen two otters on this fresh water loch this year, a loch that I’ve not seen them on before, although I had seen signs of them around its shore. They swam to the shore and disappeared. Enjoyed close views of a kestrel in the sunshine, a great little bird of prey. Still a few pipits on the hill, and a brief golden eagle, but otherwise the hills were quiet, bird wise. Plenty of deer, including that group of about forty stags that are still hanging out together. One or two young stags have decided to attach themselves to groups of hinds, hopeful of getting in their first, chancers…they’ve no chance, when the hinds are ready the big boys will move in. Another hill day and a new Morvern hill for me, and what a great little hill, little hills are often far better than the bigger ones. What views! To the north west, the isles of Skye, Rhum, Eigg, Canna, the Uists and Coll. East was a whole horizon of mainland peaks, including the Mamores and Glen Coe hills among many many more. Far to the south, Ben Lomond, and the Isle of Arran. And looking south west, all of Morverns hills, with Mull beyond. Once again, I thought about how truly wild and unfrequented Morverns hills are. Saw a small raptor, just a fleeting glimpse, flying low to the ground, was it a merlin? It’s a good time to see them. Also a flock of twelve ravens, great hill birds. No eagles though, which was a surprise. But then on another day I was hardly five minutes from the car when I saw four golden eagles. They were quite low down. Firstly there were three, circling low above a small hill, and I thought that they were an adult pair at the edge of their range, and a young bird. But they were all adults. Two, a pair, flew back up into their territory, the other single bird, flew back into its territory in the opposite direction. Shortly another adult appeared where I had seen the three, it was a different individual because this bird had a full and prominent crop. It followed the flight path of the other single adult. So, two pairs, meeting up at the boundary to their ranges. Perhaps there is a dead deer or sheep somewhere, attracting the birds to the edges of their territories and to quite low ground for golden eagles.
I’ve not spent any time this past couple of weeks along the coast, or visited the estuary, but I have seen from the village several porpoises.
I have had, at last, some prolonged views of those sparrowhawks that have been in and around the garden. I think now that the birds I was seeing in early August were hunting adults. But recent sightings have been of a very fine young female. She has a plucking post at the edge of the meadow at the bottom of the garden. On it are the remains of a collared dove, and I saw and watched her once actually feeding on smaller bird prey there, I think it was possibly a meadow pipit. I’ll need to go and have a look at the feathers. On another occasion she was finishing off another small bird on a nearby fence post. So she’s doing OK. She has a bountiful food supply at the moment, with several different bird species going about the gardens and fields and meadows in large Autumn flocks, such as meadow pipit, mixed finch flocks including chaffinch, goldfinch, greenfinch, yellowhammer and linnet, which are feeding on the seeds of flowers such as knapweed and thistle. But soon these local and on the move birds will head south. Other birds will move in to replace them, but they may not stay long, preferring to continue further south for the Winter. So she’s still got a tough time ahead, but she is off to a good start. After one feed she then proceeded to fly at an adult raven, that couldn’t be bothered with her. I have watched young sparrowhawks, and young peregrines, flying with young ravens and hooded crows, spending quite some time in the air together, one and all seeing who’s who and seeing what each are capable of, all learning their own and each others flying skills for adult life, great to watch.
On cool grey days it appears that all the swallows have gone, but they haven’t, most have, but there are still several about. I watched two youngsters perched together on telegraph wires, they look so , well, just young, and vulnerable, preening wings and feathers that will carry them all those many hundreds, thousands, of miles, eventually all being well to back here again next April. Good luck.
It’s really nice to wake up to birdsong again after several weeks without it, as robins proclaim their Winter territories. But only robins sing in the Autumn. Saw a big flock of mistle thrushes, on the move. It won’t be long before Winter thrushes from Scandinavia reach our shores and this side of the country, bringing with them the Winter. And any day now we will have geese flying south.
I‘m hopeful that the rest of this lovely month remains settled and that it stays that way right through the Autumn. I’m looking forward to the coming weeks of this magical season.
