3rd July.
We headed north west towards Beinn Eighe and Loch Maree via the Findhorn Valley via a couple of fruitless stops for Dipper on the way and in the valley itself. The weather at Findhorn was at times overcast but Red Kite, Goshawk and Golden Eagle were seen. Six Dark Green Fritillaries, single Small Pearl-boarded Fritillaries and up to fifteen Common Blue were seen, but very few Dragonflies.
Carr Bridge - no Dipper
Oystercatcher in the Findhorn Valley
Common Blue
Dark Green Fritillary
4th July
First day in the Loch Maree area, and a period of overcast weather for the next 5-7 days alas. We started off at the Kinlochewe visitor centre trails and mainly only had flight views of Hawkers with two Common and a single Azure Hawker, that hit me on the head and then sat on my forehead for a period. Golden Ringed Dragonfly and usual Large Red Damselflies were seen, along with several Large Heaths, and six Scottish Crossbills.
Common Hawker
Azure Hawker
Large Heath
Afterwards we did the Coille na Gas-Leitir woodland trail, but at the end found you really only need to do the trail in reverse as the bog (which was quite dry on our visit) is at the end, or near the start if you do the trail backwards! The walk only produced an active Azure Hawker and another Golden Ringed Dragonfly.
By the roadside on the way to Slatterdale is an small inlet of the main Loch, shown as Ob Grom on the OS map which was not overly active due to the overcast conditions with juts a single Four-spotted Chaser, Common (Highland) Darter and Blue-tailed Damselfly seen.
Sundews
At the end of the day in a periods of brightness at Slatterdale three Common Hawkers were active in the car park field and a single Azure Hawker was on the loch side path.
Common Hawker
5th July
A walk across the bog area at Bridge of Gurdie in dull weather produced nothing other than a single Four-spotted Chaser.
A repeat visit to Kinlochewe visitor centre paths finding a Northern Emerald, Azure and three Common Hawkers.
Common Hawker
A late afternoon visit back to Slatterdale produced a single Common Hawker in the car park clearing and along the lochside path seven Azure Hawkers were on cut logs or trunks. In addition a single Common (highland) Darter and Golden Ringed Dragonfly were also present.
Azure Hawkers
Common (Highland) Darter
6th July.
The morning took us north up to Gruinard Bay with the bay having a number of Divers present, four Red-throated, three Black-throated and thirteen Shags. Gruinard Island had a White-tailed Eagle on the beach looking relative small over a couple of miles away.
Red-throated Diver
Black-throated Divers
Gruinard Island, used for Anthrax experiments in WW2, and thefore
out of bounds for a long number of years post war.
There are several sites for Odonata along this route, the gardens at Inverewe and the wood at Laide, as well as some ponds at start of Flowerdale Glen, Gairloch. But, the weather was not great and we headed back to Loch Maree area in the afternoon to have a final Hawker run.
The paths from the Kinlochewe visitor centre again produced single Azure and Common Hawkers and two Northern Emeralds.
Northern Emerald
Azure Hawkers
The previous day a local checking out the Odonata give me directions to Tansley Bog avoiding taking the Mountain trail and dropping back down. Sadly it was rather overcast and cool and only managed singles of Northern Emerald, Common Hawker and Golden Ringed Dragonfly, and no White-faced Darters.
Northern Emerald
This was our last day in the area.
The main areas for Azure Hakwer at Beinn Eighe/Loch Maree are at the i) Kinlochewe visitor centre along the path to Kinlochewe village where they settle later in the day on the gravel path or tree trunks. Northern Emeralds can be sen along here as well. The best area is past the Donkey trail to where the path almost comes out on the roadside, and ii) at Slatterdale along the path heading north along the loch side where they in the afternoon come to rest on the numerous cut or fallen tree stumps.
Tansley Bog is reached by travelling from Kinlcohewe towards Coille na Gas-Leitir, and about half a mile before the car park there is a gated entrance to a boat dock on the right, and just before this on the left a track into the forest which leads up to Tansley Bog that can be walked.
There is information relating to other Dragonfly sites away from Speyside can be found at:
Highland Dragonflies
7th July
We headed south stopping off in Speyside to pick up a couple of birds we had missed, finally finding a Dipper on the Spey at the old Boat of Garten bridge and a pair of Osprey at Loch Insh.
Ospey
8th July
We stayed overnight near Foulshaw Moss, visiting it in the morning, again under an overcast sky and butterflies we low in numbers and Dragonflies not far behind, with lots of Azure Damselflies low on ground cover and a few other common species, but no White-faced Darters were present though there was single Black-tailed Skimmer, two Black Darters and four Emerald Damselflies.
Black-tailed Skimmer
Emerald Damselfly
Black Darter
Afterwards a visit was made to Arnside Knott for High Brown Fritillary, but again the forecast conditions made the visit a pretty hopeful one, that only brought out a single Dark green Fritillary and a single Northern Brown Argus, along with just a odd couple of commoner species, before heading south and home.
Dark Green Fritillary
Northern Brown Argus
