Findhorn Hinterland

A shieldbug extravaganza, part 2

Findhorn Hinterland: 11 September 2020 10 Comments

Teneral adult parent bugs (*Elasmucha grisea*), with one still emerging or moulting from its final instar exuvia on the left, on a leaf of a silver birch (*Betula pendula*) in the Findhorn Hinterland area.

After my two visits to the birch trees with an abundance of shieldbugs on them that I wrote about in Part 1 of this blog I went across to the west coast of Scotland for a few days, so it was over a week later before I returned to have another look for them. I didn’t know whether they would still be there, or if they would have all metamorphosed into adults and dispersed already, so I approached the trees without any great expectations of what I would find.

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A shieldbug extravaganza, part 1

Findhorn Hinterland: 28 August 2020 10 Comments

Final instar nymphs of parent bugs (*Elasmucha grisea*) on the leaf of a silver birch (*Betula pendula*) on the Findhorn Hinterland.

On 1st August 2020 I was making my monthly round of the Findhorn Hinterland area to check the series of 6 pitfall traps we’ve installed for an ongoing survey of spiders there. To reach the first couple of trap sites I had to pass a prominent cluster of three large, multi-trunked silver birch trees (Betula pendula) that have grown closely together, and I often stop to have a look at them, to see if there is anything of interest on their leaves.

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Life on a spear thistle

Findhorn Hinterland: 7 August 2020 4 Comments

Spear thistle (*Cirsium vulgare*) in flower in the Findhorn Hinterland area in the middle of July.

For just over two years now I’ve been a trustee of the Findhorn Hinterland Trust, a local charity that manages about 35 hectares of land surrounding the Findhorn Community, where I live. The site includes sand dunes and dune heath rich in lichens, dune scrub consisting mostly of gorse, species-rich grassland and an old pine plantation that is gradually being restored to native woodland.

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