This Saturday the Bog Squad worked on beautiful Blairbeich Bog SSSI situated in Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. Our day began with cutting dense Rhododendron in the woodland peripheral to the Bog. We also had two Large Heath survey teams who found and counted 88 Large Heath butterflies in total - a brilliant outcome, considering that Large Heath are a first recording for Blairbeich Bog!
During the day we found other interesting things too, among them many day-flying moths, such as the Purple Bar, Spinach, Northern Eggar, Common White Wave and Clouded Buff. There were also caterpillars of the Beautiful Yellow Underwing and Green Hairstreak, not to mention the beautiful Bog Asphodels and Sundews that were out flowering in abundance.
Once we cleared a substantial patch of Rhododendron we moved out to the open bog and cleared an area of smaller pine trees.
All in all it was a great day out, with much work done, many Butterflies & Moths identified and recorded and all this in good company. A Big thank you to everyone involved, not only for their hard work, but also for their Lepidoptera knowledge and enthusiasm.