Nature Notes from Skye
(and occasionally other places)

Mon 25 Jul 2005 Digg

A Swallow perches on a dead branch, and an Emerald Damselfly on a dead rush, at the edge of Loch Seunta.  This loch has a superb range of waterside vegetation, but is completely devoid of aquatic plant life.  I don't know if this is due to pollution of some kind.  The other lochs nearby have plenty of water plants.

The fungus gall Melampsora caprearum on Grey Willow.  Yesterday we had its relative Melampsora epitea which is not a gall-causer.  The leaf to the right of the infected one has a mite gall which I think is Aculus laevis.  The second picture shows a Primrose leaf with spots of the rust Puccinia primulae.  These are from the wooded hill on the west side of Loch Seunta.

Two more galls.  The leaf-roll of the sawfly Blennocampa phyllocolpa on Rosa sherardii, and the swellings made by the gall-midge Dasineura urticae on Nettle.

All photos and other content copyright © Carl Farmer