Machair magic

I’ve seen quite a few spectacular colours in the UK this year, but a couple of weeks ago they were all blown away by the magic machair. The year's floral bonanza started in March with the white snow of blackthorn blossom covering hedgerows. It was more white in May with verges dressed in cow parsley and hawthorn took over in the hedgerows. Summer fields of red common poppies were next, followed by downland painted purple with pyramidal and common spotted orchids and knapweed. Then, a couple of weeks ago, as a grand finale before autumn’s colours take over, I was exposed to one of nature’s finest displays of colour. This was a sight I had never seen before. And here it is...

The legendary Balranald in full bloom with great yellow bumblebees loving that red clover (Mark Ward)

Machair Grassland is a rare coastal habitat of low-lying grassland and shell sand unique to the north-western fringe of Europe. Over 90 per cent of the world’s machair is in Scotland and Ireland. The Gaelic word "machair" means an extensive, low-lying fertile plain. Machair supports an incredible array of wildlife, including a large percentage of the UK's corncrakes, the highest densities of breeding waders in the UK, a large number of rare invertebrates and many rare wildflowers.

If I was a sheep, I'd be pretty happy with that view - and the sun came out soon after! (Balranald by Mark Ward)

I was on North Uist with some of my colleagues from RSPB Scotland: Jess Barrett from the Media and Communications Team, Jamie Boyle, Site Manager for Balranald and Vallay and Dan Tomes Reserves Manager for North Scotland. I was there to learn about the incredible work going on there, which includes working closely with local crofters to ensure the traditional, low intensity crofting methods intrinsically linked to machair is encouraged and maintained.

I was blown away by the amount of wildlife and the enthusiasm of everyone involved in living and working here - the passion of everyone I met on North Uist was infectious. What a place! In fact it was so good, as was the other place I visited, Islay that my blogs for the next few weeks are going to be about the trip.

Bee is for Balranald
Balranald is a place that I have longed to visit for a very long time. I have always fancied trying to catch the spectacular May passage of long-tailed ad pomarine skuas, but visiting in July gave me a chance to see the machair at its best and see one of the iconic species of the machair and another of my “most wanted”: the great yellow bumblebee. The Western Isles are one of its very few remaining strongholds.

Imagine this multiplied at a grand scale - red clover dominates in July and is fabulous for bees (Balranald by Mark Ward)

The day dawned grey and wet - very wet in fact. To be honest, it was raining cats and dogs and all thoughts of bumblebees were washed away. The local lads new the changeable weather though and promised that it would brighten up.

We took a walk around Aird an Runair Point (the skua spot!) where I could not take my eyes off the displays of red clover and corn marigold that stretched as far as the eye could see with dozens of other species mixed in. It was good to see the scarce Scot’s lovage on the rocks and some frog orchids in the dunes, as well as a flock of Arctic waders: Dunlin, Sanderling and Turnstone, singing corn buntings with their “jangling” song and Twite twittering around.

Scot's lovage - a "goodie" restricted to Scotland and growing here at Aird an Runair Point (Mark Ward)

As promised the grey gave way to pale grey then blue and suddenly it was warm. We headed back to a sheltered spot in the machair where it cast its magic spell on me again. Bumblebees suddenly appeared, quite a few of them including the gorgeously ginger moss carder bee, one of the new cryptic species of white-tailed bumblebee and yes, you’ve guessed it two or three big yellow ones! To see the great yellow bumblebee in such surroundings was truly special. Jamie had briefly heard a corncrake while we were in the dunes and by heading deeper into more wildflower-rich crofting land, we heard three, maybe four in a small area with the song of one ricocheting off a barn.

Later in the day, Jamie drove us out to another fantastic area of machair at Vallay where an impressive compass jellyfish was washed up. There were more special bees here and colours that just went on and on. I can't wait to come back and plans are already afoot for a holiday here. Maybe I'll see you there! There'll be much more on North Uist, and Islay, over the next few weeks so make sure you keep coming back on Mondays!

Plan your visit
I hope you’ll start making your plans to visit next spring and summer. Start by taking a look at the RSPB website entries for Balranald and check out the "Extend your stay" links at the bottom left of the page.