Braefoot birds

 Hard to photograph the passage birds in the morning but at lunchtime Monday 14th there was one Bar-tailed Godwit in the roost on the rocks and a female Wheatear on the harbour wall. It was kind enough to allow me a phone shot through binoculars, which wasn't easy!

Tansy bug Megalocoleus tanaceti at St.Monans

On a reasonably large patch of Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) at St.Monans, the specialist Tansy bug Megalocoleus tanaceti. You can see the relationship between bug and plant in their scientific binomials. Sadly I didn't have a net to sweep for Tansy specialist micromoths.

The plant:

The bug:

Staphylinus erythropterus, Charles Hill, Dalgety Bay

Amongst moss on an old building foundation at Charles Hill three of these Staphylinus erythropterus were running around

Northern Brown Argus, Monk's Cave, Dalgety Bay

After keeping my eye on the large area of Rock Rose around Monk's Cave at last today there was a Northern Brown Argus. Only saw one, but I didn't venture down the steeper slopes with my bike after that success. I went off hunting other inverts, which was also a huge success. Big lunchtime!

late spring, early autumn!

It's hard to tell what season it is right now. Migrating birds are already featuring heavily in the mix, about two months earlier than I would usually think about them. Late spring species are around the place while mushrooms, under the influence of recent rains, are merrily emerging and sporificating abundantly.

This is the rather plain but still charming Psathyrella condolleana, which was sprouting freely from a long fallen tree trunk.

Scattered black seta in the pileus mark candolleana

Mega passage of Siskins and Crossbills

Amazing morning of finch passage this morning with >400 Siskins and 71 Crossbills in 1.5 hours. You can see how these figures compare to averages across all years in the graphs below (vismig.org)

Dalgety Bay List - NBN update

I've taken  list of species from NBN which have been recorded in Dalgety Bay. Though the list was much smaller there were a considerable number of new species (and some I plainly forgot)

List update is here:

https://natureoffife.blogspot.com/p/dalgety-bay-list.html