Scotch Argus in Changue

Surveyed Kirstie’s Trail and Devil’s Trail at Changue for Scotch Argus. Intermittent periods of warm sunshine in the glen at Changue provided some immaculate looking Scotch Argus and it looks like emergence wasn’t particularly early here this year. Numbers could be in the hundreds in a week or two. The bridge accessing the Fairy Knowe trail is still closed so I didn’t try for Black Darter which can be common here. The pool near Kirstie’s Stone had up to three Common Hawkers plus another pair in copula nearby. One individual attempted to take a worn Meadow Brown. The Water of Gregg and Changue Burn held territorial Golden-ringed Dragonflies but the most interesting sighting was of one patrolling a wee burn less than 35cm across which runs along the footpath between High Changue and the car park. Or at least it ‘runs’ when we have a wet summer like 2007! Crossbills, Ravens and raptors were much in evidence, along with several broods of Long-tailed Tits and Goldcrests, a Jay at High Changue and Dipper and Grey Wagtail on the Water of Gregg. The wet summer seems to have provided favourable conditions for various fungi to fruit. Particularly striking was a colony of Sickener fungi under the edge of a spruce wood and a huge Fly Agaric cap, both along the Devil’s Trail.