Expedition 371, round Dalilea, on 27th May 2017

 

This was a most peculiar expedition: we started again with only Alexander and Mairi, there's a lot going on at weekends at the moment. I planned to go and see the waterfalls up on the hill above the Glenmoidart Track, but it didn't work out that way at all. When we reached the farm we were greeted by a very friendly collie who expressed a desire to accompany us to the hill, and we let him come. This turned out to be something of a mistake since he had his own ideas as to what constituted a healthy walk and it proved impossible to call him back, so we returned to the farm to leave him in disgrace while we went off in the different direction altogether.
It wasn't all bad, since we were able to meet up with the Macaulay family at the farm and pick up Ruaraidh for the second half of the outing.
This time we set off down the track towards the Green Isle Pier, my aim was to finally locate the corn kiln we had missed on two previous occasions.
Soon after we set off we came across the second rove beetle of the day, having already seen one on the track earlier. Using the resources of Google I reckon it was possibly Platydracus stertocarius, which is supposed to be widespread in the UK. Rove beetles are distinguished by two features: they have very small wing cases under which their wings are cleverly folded like the planes on aircraft carriers, their other feature is that, although they don't sting, they pretend they do and raise their tails like scorpions. The beetle we found did just that, but it wouldn't stay still long enough to get a photograph.
Moving on down the track we saw a good many greylag geese, some pairs on the shore and some in a flock out on the water. We didn't have a dog with us and the cows and calves carried on feeding as we went past.
When we reached the burn with the two big silver firs, the boys spent some time looking for fish. They saw a few small trout and they claimed to have seen an eel, although I wondered if it could have been a lamprey since they had been seen in other local burns.
We finally reached the big field and carried out a careful search of the places I was sure contained the corn kiln, but I was wrong again. It's very strange since we found that kiln without difficulty several times before. However we did see several odd groups of large stones, which might repay further examination later.
The weather forecast had been very poor. We were due for heavy rain after lunch and as we left the field we encountered a heavy shower, followed by that distinctive smell you get when it rains after a long dry spell. However, the rain stopped and we got back to the farm in the dry.
Just before we reached the farm, Alexander spotted an eagle high above us. It was being pestered by a smaller bird that I couldn't recognise, although it sounded like a gull. Later on I was told by Pete Dale that the eagles had attacked nesting common gulls near Langal, so maybe this was one of the defending parents. After we left Dalilea we saw two more eagles flying over the hill.
This was the day of the Ardsheallach Garden Open Day so we all went there, including the Macaulay family, but it was too busy for drawing pictures. I didn't get a photograph either so I have included an old photograph of a rove beetle taken near Cliff.


John Dye


















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