A Spring Weekend on Skye

With other reasons to be on Skye, I took opportunities for a couple of modest excursions, one at Aird of Sleat and one along the north bank of Loch Sligachan from Peinnachorrain on Braes.

Spring seems to have come early on Skye this year at least at sea level. Not too surprising given the mild winter and recent warm days.

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The north side of Loch Sligachan had hazel with Glue Fungus (Hymenochaete corrugata) gluing sticks at odd angles to a Hazel::

There was a great deal of Cotoneaster simonsii (Himalayan Cotoneaster):

The shore had several Horse Mussel shells and above the shore were many whelks, clearly a favoured food of local birds.  Both of these need further work to determine exactly.

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Egg Rings

Out on the shore recently there have been lots of small yellow tori on the kelp. George Brown tells me that they are the egg circles of the beautiful snail Lacuna vincta (Banded Chink Shell) and sent me this image of parents and eggs (plus one Gibbula cineraria (Grey Top Shell)).

Lacuna vincta – adults and eggs               Photo: G. Brown

Talk on Thursday in Portree

In place of the previously advertised talk SWT Skye Region Group presents:

My Local Kelp Forest – Part 2

OK. Here come the crabs:

Green Shore Crab

Edible Crab

Velvet Crab

Spider Crab

Swimming Crab awaiting identification

My Local Kelp Forest – Part 1

Inspired by Wednesday’s excursion, on Thursday at low water I wandered out the door onto the beach and down to the exposed kelp forest here on Raasay.

I found five different crabs and five different echinoderms. Here are the echinoderms:

Bloody Henry Starfish

Common Starfish

Spiny Starfish

Common Brittlestar

Edible Sea Urchin

The Seashore at the Equinoctal Tide

A little early for the equinox we are seeing the extreme equinoctal tides. James took a group to see what we could find at low water today at Ardnish. Here are a few of the things we saw:

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) growing in maerl bed

Marbled Swimming Crab (Liocarcinus marmoreus)

Gadoid fish

Rosy Feather-star

Common Starfish

Peacock Worm

Seashore Trip

The joint SWT/SLEF/Highland Seashore Project trip to Lampay north of Dunvegan took place on Saturday.  It was a good low tide following the previous night’s full moon and we found lots of interesting species at low water including Hairy Crab and Risso’s Crab:

Risso’s Crab   (Xantho pilipes)

It was a pity more folks didn’t turn out.

Loch na Beiste

It is probably as well to have gone here too early in the year for too many wee beasties:

Loch na Beiste

There are quite a lot of plants in flower now:

Bird Cherry on the Shore

Blaeberry

and many that are not, including this very darkly pigmented Angelica sylvestris (Wild Angelica):

Black Angelica

I had a close encounter with a roe deer; there were seals in the bay and on the wracks at low water large numbers of this sea squirt:

Sea Squirt

Later: George Brown of the Highland Seashore Project tentatively identifies this as Dendrodoa grossularia.

This is the only area of Skye where Wood Ants are known and I found a fine nest:

Scottish Wood Ant Nest

This is the Scottish Wood Ant (Formica aquilonia), at least that is my belief until I get it checked….

Seashore Safari

James Merryweather led a seashore safari north of Dunvegan on Thursday that was timed foe low water at the Spring Tide.  We found lots of exciting things from Squat Lobsters to Bootlace Worms, from Edible Sea-urchins to a Shanny and from a so-far unidentified starfish to pepper dulse.

I made use of the day for a bit of plant recording too and now have yet another tetrad showing Sparganium erectum (Branched Bur-reed)