As part of my module studies I visited the Isle of Arran for a week long fieldtrip. The purpose was to gain to hands on practical experience of ecology that had been missed due to the covid pandemic.
This was an amazing experience and certainly feels like a once in a life time thing. As a mature student with 2 small children, it is not often I will have the opportunity to be away from my children for a whole week!
The week consisted of hiking, sandbank zonation, river ecology, coats ecology and hydrosere succession and zonation.
Birds spotted – but not all photographed! I need to invest in a camera
Ones that nearly made me cry to actually see!
Golden Eagle – Aquila chrysaetos
Peregrine Falon – Falco peregrinus
Cuckoo – Cuculidae
Hooded Crow – Corvus cornix
Everyone else
Herring gull – Larus argentatus
Great black-backed gull – Larus marinus
Lesser black-backed gull – Larus fuscus
Shag – Phalacrocorax aristotelis
Cormorant – Phalacrocoracidae Chaffinch – Fringilla coelebs
Plants identified
Tufted Vetch – Vicia cracca
Part of the pea family, this plant has rounded opposite leaves, with tendrils at the end. The standard, wing and keel petals are all purple. The calyx is downy and has a double ‘c’ shape to the opening on the petals.
Tormentil – Potentilla erecta
A member of the rose family, this plant has 4 yellow petals with visible green sepals between the petals. The basal leaves each have 3 leaflets which are deeply divided and sharply toothed.
Lesser Celandine – Ficaria verna
A member of the buttercup family, this flower has 8 yellow petals in an actinomorphic symmetry. The sepals are light green and curl up under the petals. There are no hairs along the stem. The leaves are heart shaped.
Wood-sorrel – Oxalis acetosella
A member of the wood-sorrel family. This plant has a delicate solitary white petalled flower standing on a long thin stem. The 5 white petals have lilac/ purple veins and a small yellow patch at the base near the stamens, which are also yellow and visible. The leaves are heart-shaped with 3 leaves attached at the tip together and drooping downwards.
Thrift – Armeria maritima
A beautiful member of the sea lavender family. The head of the plant is a dome of pink flowers, each small with 5 small pink petals. There are many flowers in each head. Under the flower head is a brown sheath that draped along the stem for a short distance. The stems are green and terminate in a grass like patch.
There were many more, but I am still learning and sometimes cannot identify everything I see!
Like this cute little guy, I think it is a type of Speedwell, but I do not know
The Beach at Irvine was amazing! The water is super clear and clean and the open beach seemed endless
Getting the ferry was exciting, as I have never been on a ferry before. It was a short and smooth hours journey from Ardrossen to Brodick
The views from the North Walk are breath taking … similar to the walk itself!
The estuary was stunning, it is so strange to have so many different landscapes in such a small space.
I hope I can go back one day, and this time take a good camera!
Some extra photos!
