We’ve had reports of some UFOs on the reserve at the Mull over the past couple of weeks – people have popped into the visitor centre with puzzled expressions on their faces. Their cameras contained photographs of nondescript small brownish birds, what on earth could they be?
The answer is that several of the young wheatear, stonechat and pipit families are fledging right now. So the birds hanging around looking awkward and gormless are the young waiting for their parents to bring back a meal of juicy insects. Identifying these birds is made much easier if you can wait at a discreet distance for the adult to return.
Young wheatear, copyright Sue Wolfe
Luckily the warm weather has brought forth a good supply of insects, including the weird looking St Mark’s fly, with its long dangling legs. This fly supposedly hatches around St Mark’s Day (25 April) but then we all know how late everything is this season.
We’ve also started to see one of our star beetles – the rose chafer beetle. A gorgeous pink and green iridescent beetle which has been waiting for the warm sunny weather and the flowers of the heath that it likes to feast upon.
Speaking of flowers, the Mull is worth a visit just for the rich variety of plants that are in flower at this time of the year. There are too many to mention them all here but a few that have caught the eye of Hedda, our current fab residential volunteer are the northern marsh orchid, sheep’s bit scabious, wild thyme and heath bedstraw.
Children from Belmont primary school were lucky enough to spot two basking sharks from the Foghorn viewpoint when they visited the Wednesday before last. We’ve also had several sightings of harbour porpoises which bodes well for the National Whale and Dolphin week (27 July – 4 August) when we will be holding two sea watching events. More information on this soon.
On and around the cliffs the seabird numbers are looking healthier and we will continue to monitor their progress. Hedda and I counted 11 puffins from Lagvag which was good to see.
Don’t forget that our twice-weekly guided walks around the reserve continue throughout the season - details here and we will soon be heading over to New England Bay to lead beachcomber walks on Wednesdays, starting in July.