A week of rubbish phone pictures and bad dancing

Its a bit of a mixed bag this week. First of all, the weather's been all over the shop. On top of that, the water's still super clear too; not much for the fish to eat, so no reason for the birds or marine mammals to be around. A bit annoying, seeing at its the annual marine megafauna course... at least the manxies have returned to the upper Clyde Sea at last.

Thankfully, the sun is out, and after the rain at the start of the week the plants are doing much better. There are a few orchids left, the rest having long gone over. The rest stand out as flashes of purple amongst the cream of meadowsweet, orange crocosmia, and yellow birds-foot trefoil.

Common Spotted Orchid

Six Spotted Burnet

There are more insects around as well. There were scores of meadow brown butterflies, four or five small tortoiseshells, and the odd common blue around Farland Point on the way home this afternoon. I stopped midway home to spend a good 20 minutes chasing the six spot burnet moth above. Six spots are common in coastal areas, particularly in Scotland and feast mainly on birds-foot trefoil. Due to their smashing colours people often note them as butterflies...

The return of the sun has also brought out the lizards at last. This little man was found crossing the car park at the marine station before I captured him to show to the students. He was happy enough to sit and bask on anyone in the sun, flattening his body to absorb as much heat as possible.

Common Lizard

Other than that, its been quiet. The students are keeping me occupied with a mix of pub quizzes, practicals and karaoke. When that's done, all I want to do is sleep!