Still catching up on my travels...
I booked the Chase the Wild Goose hostel in Banavie, a mile or so north of Fort William, as it was the only place at a reasonable price anywhere near Allt Mhuic. I will admit to being a little nervous of driving the distance up from Manchester but in the event I need not have worried. A stop every couple of hours to refuel on coffee and I was fine. It rained for the whole journey, which was a bit dismal, but it produced a spectacular waterfall at Ballachulish, Glencoe.
Paul hadn’t slept the night before, having flown back from Ireland and landed at 1am, so he dozed for much of the journey.
We reached the hostel just after 5pm and checked in. There wasn’t a great deal to do so we went to the less expensive of the two nearby pubs for a bite to eat. And then it was an early night.
Next morning we set out for Allt Mhuic which was reputed to be a real hotspot for the Chequered Skipper. On the way we diverted to Glen Loy as Bugboy’s intelligence told us there was another good place there. We drove up the forest track to where the streams crossed it and parked up. We walked slowly along the track searching for the butterflies. The first insect I saw turned out to be a Swift moth.
I took some photos of luxurious moss and stands of foxgloves, and a soldier beetle on a fern.
We did not find any chequered skippers so we decided to continue on to Allt Mhuic.
A little further along the road there was a more official-looking turn-off to Glen Loy, so we drove up and parked just before a bridge over a burn. The sun was beginning to show, Paul noticed the presence of Clouded Border moths
and remembered they shared a similar habitat to the chequered skippers, and sure enough found most of the chequered skippers for me before I 'got my eye in'. I was astonished to learn that they were all as individual as a fingerprint - not that I could tell the difference. They were warming up on top of the ferns and were very well camouflaged.
Across the bridge there were several different kinds of orchids, among them a white Heath Spotted orchid
and a Small White orchid, which I had never seen before.
I found a colony of Chimney Sweeper moths. They flew low in the vegetation and did not settle for long on anything, making it difficult to get a focus on them. Eventually I managed a couple of half decent shots.
Paul meanwhile had seen some Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries so I went along the lane and whilst searching for them found a silver ground carpet
and a Common Blue which was nectaring on buttercups. Further along the road a SPBF made its appearance and we followed it until it tried to hide in the grass, where we managed a shot of it.
After munching our lunchtime sandwiches we set off to find Allt Mhuic, but had not gone far when I realised there was something amiss with the car. We had a flat rear tyre. The road was narrow but I pulled into a biggish passing place and we turfed everything out of the boot to get at the spare wheel. However, try as we might we could not loosen the wheel nuts. Just then a gardener’s van came by (how lucky was that?) and I flagged him down. He got the nuts undone with sheer brute strength and we learnt about the magic nut and where to find the socket…
Having helped us change the wheel, this angel guided us to a garage in Fort William where I was able to buy a new tyre. We had a while to wait and the garage didn’t need the car, so we drove back up to Glen Loy and spent another happy hour finding CSs
and I tracked a Small Heath,
a Common Heath moth,
a Brown Silverline
and a Clouded Buff.
Time was up and we trailed back into Fort William to collect the wheel. The garage boys put it on for me and we set off – finally – to Allt Mhuic. It was 5pm.
On arrival we met a group of butterfly hunters who were just leaving – they had seen only three all day. Paul told them about Glen Loy. We walked along the track and almost immediately he spotted a CS but they were very few and far between and my only capture was of a Common Heath moth
and a slow worm, which was a pleasant surprise.
Back at the car park we saw a pipit which may have been a Tripit or it could have been a Mipit.