Having really enjoyed the last 2 years being part of RSPB Dove Stone, it's fantastic to now be able to call Loch Gruinart 'home' for the next few months as I embark on my residential volunteering adventure - and having been here three weeks (already?!?) it seems like it's been a series of 'firsts'. Hearing my first Corncrake, seeing my first lamb born, watching my first Great Northern Diver (and preening at that, in beautiful summer plumage) - even my first tick bite was an experience! Thank you Joan for removing it - luckily it was only on my face!!
And today has proved no exception, with my first walk along the beautiful Moorland Trail giving me my first sight of the stunning Green Hairstreak butterfly - I was even able to get a decent photo of it!
Not only is this a beautiful butterfly, it's an interesting one too. During a quiet moment in the Visitors' Centre here I did a bit of reading up - turns out that this little chap is pretty territorial, and has a favourite perch from which he looks out for passing females. And its black-and-white striped antennae have, in one book, been likened to Belisha Beacons - I wonder if the ends flash too?
But most interesting I think is its association with ants which affords it some protection when it's in the pupal stage (which is especially important for this one as it's the only UK hairstreak which hibernates as a pupa, all others hibernating as eggs). And most mind-blowingly, like other Lycaenids, the pupa can make a creaking or cracking sound that's attractive to the ants, and when it's disturbed even we can hear them!
That'll be me now, crawling around trying to hear a Green Hairstreak pupa! Watch this space....
Mandy Hodkinson, Long-term Residential Volunteer, RSPB Loch Gruinart and The Oa