ORCHID EXTRAVAGANZA HOLIDAY 12TH-15TH JUNE

Frog Orchid

A phenomenal Day 1 of this holiday began with my two customers seeing a pod of Bottle-nosed Dolphins from the ferry. The drive to Ballyhaugh as usual provided great views of Brown Hares and Highland Darters, as well as Heath Spotted Orchid, Early Marsh Orchid coccinea, Lesser Butterfly Orchid and both Common and Pale Butterwort. After checking into the accomodation we headed for Hogh Bay where we began looking at some of the machair wildflowers before having a picnic lunch. I found at least eight basking Sharks offshore, followed by two huge splashes which turned out to be a breaching Minke Whale. A couple of flyover Bonxies rounded off an amazing lunch-break. Totronald was next and more orchids were added to the day list (Pyramidal, Frog, Hebridean Spotted, Common Spotted, Heath Fragrant and Marsh Fragrant).

Common Lizard

Brief views of Corncrake followed and then superb views of a couple of Common Lizards basking in the afternoon sun. We saw Northern Marsh orchid, Merlin and Cuckoo near Acha on the way back to Arinagour for dinner at Island Cafe, and a newly fledged Grey Heron walking up the middle of the road.

juv Grey Heron

After dinner we had Red-throated Diver, Grasshopper Warbler, good views of Corncrake in flight, lots more Brown Hares and two more species of orchid (Early Purple and Common Twayblade) taking the total to 12 species for the day.  

We had three extra guests on Day 2 so we began with more Corncrakes and orchids after getting good views of Red-throated Diver. We also saw Moss Carder & Red-shanked Carder Bumblebees and had great views of Twite. A Basking Shark was off Cliad and then we had a pod of 120+ Common Dolphins off Arinagour. They were quite distant at first but soon moved close inshore as they rounded up a school of mackerel in a feeding frenzy.

Spotted Rock-rose petal

Next stop was Sorisdale where again a plethora of orchids were seen along with Spotted Rock-rose Tuberaria guttata at its only Scottish site. Found by myself in 2004, there are now 59 flowering plants at this site. Loads of Arctic Terns as well as a Red-throated Diver and several Common Seals were offshore. A female Hen Harrier was at Arnabost but the calling Corncrakes there eluded us. After lunch we headed back to the west end of the island where we drove along the beach to Crossapol. Three summer-plumaged Great Northern Divers were the highlights. The walk to Port-na-Luing brought us Great Yellow Bumblebee, Snow Geese with goslings and a probable female Ferruginous Duck. More Common Seals were offshore and three very late Whimbrel flew by calling

Pale Butterwort

Early Marsh x Common Spotted hybrid

Early Marsh Orchid spp incarnata

Lesser Butterfly Orchid and Pale Butterwort got Day 3 to a start. At Totronald and Lonban we again had brief views of Corncrake and great views of Twite as well as the nominate race of Early Marsh Orchid (significantly less common here than the bright red coccinea). We headed to Feall where we had lunch overlooking the white beach with malachite sea. At least four Basking Sharks were offshore and we observed nesting Shags and Fulmars as well as finding the dimintive Rue-leaved Saxifrage and Fairy Flax amongst Kidney Vetch and Wild Carrot.

Great Skua

The afternoon was spent in the uplands, where we found two Bonxie territories, had superb views of male Hen Harrier and two species of sundew as well as loads of Blaeberry and Water Lobelia. Large Red and Common Blue Damselflies were numerous as were Small Heath Butterflies.


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