February on the Isle of Skye

13 February 2019 Bad weather has slowed things down, but the list is still creeping up slowly (now at around 160 species). There are still plenty of bryophytes to find, but today I turned over a few rocks on the beach and was rewarded with a couple of new records, including this nice Sea-slater.

Ligia oceanica (Sea-Slater)

14 February 2019 I haven't spent much time in the woods at Skinadin yet, but walking along the edge yesterday I was rewarded with a new lichen:

Graphis scripta

Graphis scripta

22 February 2019 Put my new portable moth trap out at Skinadin last night. Unfortunately, the wind got up this morning and blew it over (either that or it was a marauding fox/pine marten). Luckily, there was no damager done and I even found a moth still clinging to one of the egg boxes that were strewn about the site!

Dotted Border

24 February 2019 If I am to reach my target of 500 species I shall need to record things like leaf miners that I have largely ignored in the past. Here are a couple of common ones:
Chromatomyia primulae	Photomyza ilicis

25 February 2019 The weather is very mild at the moment (12-13C), so I was expecting a decent catch in the moth trap this morning. I didn't get large numbers, but six species is good for this time of year. They were Dotted Border, Chestnut, Red Sword-grass, Mottled Grey, Pale Brindled Beauty and Common Quaker.
Mottled Grey	Red Sword-grass