April on the Isle of Skye

5 April 2019 My longest session (around 5 hours) at Skinadin yet and the most fruitful. It was sunny, with a high of around 13C, and this brought out a few bumblebees and my first hover of the year. On one of my outings last month, I discovered a little pond, so I went back to explore that today. I found several interesting creatures and took home a charophyte specimen that proved to be Chara globularis.
Cheilosia grossa	Palmate Newt
Hesperocorixa castanea	Electrogena lateralis
Nemastoma bimaculatum	Semibalanus balanoides

8 April 2019 One or two insects are starting to appear at last. There have been White-tailed Bumblebees around for a few days and today I saw my first butterflies of the year - Peacocks.
Bombus lucorum	Scathophaga stercoraria

9 April 2019 Another sunny day and a lot more insects around. New for the year were Red Admiral, Bombus pratorum, Bombus pascuorum and five new species of hoverfly.
Bombus pascuorum	Syrphus torvus
Platycheirus albimanus	Parasyrphus punctulatus
Meliscaeva auricollis	Meliscaeva cinctella

12 April 2019 The fine weather continues, with no end in sight. Here's a selection of invertebrates from the last few days.
Red Admiral	Bibio lanigerus (March Fly)
Megabunus diadema (a harvestman)	Angle Shades caterpillar
Crepidodera fulvicornis (a leaf beetle)	Lochmaea suturalis (Heather Beetle)

13 April 2019 Three new species today: Shelduck (a pair), Episyrphus balteatus (a hoverfly) and Dolichovespula norwegica (a wasp).

20 April 2019 Large numbers of Willow Warblers have arrived in the last few days and I've also seen a Blackcap singing at Skinadin. I've had one or two problems with the moth trap, but I did manage one new species this morning: the Early Thorn. This afternoon I went down to the beach (it was a low tide) and found a couple of new things:
Echinus esculentus	Cerianthus lloydii

21 April 2019 It rained most of the night, but I had a good catch in the moth trap, with six new species, bringing the total for the year so far to 26. One or two other things in the trap as well, including a Black Sexton Beetle.
V-pug	Double-striped Pug
Pine Beauty	Herald
Grey Pine Carpet	Red-green Carpet
Nicrophorus humator

22 April 2019 Warm and sunny, though quite windy. Found this Orange-tip close to the car park at Skinadin and then climbed the hill to my small pond where I got a good view of the Great Diving Beetle that I saw very briefly a few weeks ago. There are apparently six very similar species, so I'm going to need a photograph. I stopped by a little burn on the way down the hill and spotted a few Water Crickets.

Orange-tip

Velia caprai (Water Cricket)

23 April 2019 The warm weather continues. Back to the pond today in the hope of seeing the diving beetle again. I didn't see the adult, but I did see its offspring (feeding on tadpoles!). I also discovered that the pond had been colonised by newts overnight (difficult to estimate numbers, but I'd say about 20). Saw quite a few butterflies later in the day - more Orange-tips and the first Green-veined Whites.
Great Diving Beetle	Great Diving Beetle
Great Diving Beetle	Great Diving Beetle

26 April 2019 Just a short outing today, but quite fruitful. Two new ferns, a moth and a beetle.
Least Black Arches	Carabus glabratus