Scotland Road Trip Day Eight

Sadly our journey south began today. We left the Highlands and stopped off for lunch and a city walk in Edinburgh before heading south for our overnight at Blyth. Blyth is a stark contrast to the wild Highlands and is actually a pretty grim place but we found some good fish and chips at Coastline restaurant at South Beach and the beach is okay. We ended up here because it was one of the few affordable places to stay over night last minute.

The moth traps were unfortunately dissappointing at Invernahavon on the last night as the wind was really strong. Final lep tally for the trip was 87 species HERE with no new last night lifers. There were actually quite a few confusing moths too (see photos). 

One of the most interesting aspects about the moths this week was the incredible diversity of several of the commoner species. Check out the variation on these July Highflyers HERE and the Dotted Clays HERE. The Lesser Yellow Underwings were also remarkably variable HERE.  Also the Dark Marbled Carpets were really variable HERE. 

I managed to get a lot of my target moth species but didn't get the mountain carpets because of a lack of access to high altitude due to the wildfires. I also didn't get Exile. So a few major misses but a good excuse to try more mountain areas for moths. Also a lot of Scotland's best moths like Kentish Glory and the special underwings are not flying this time of year so definitely thinking of some more trips.

Targeting moths is the most suitable semi-serious natural history exploring when on family holiday as it's something that works passively over many hours at night and just involves processing them before everyone else is even awake and a quick set up when everyone has gone to bed. Trying to target some of the Caledonian bird and mammal species with a young family is more of less impossible and I've seen everything here before anyway. 

Tomorrow we head to the Peak District on our slow journey back south for another overnight. 

Neglected Rustic- quite a few of these although I'm not entirely sure this one isn't a Square-spot Rustic lookalike. Here's a link to one I'm more confident of HERE. 

Twin-spot Carpet. Male (above) and female (below)

The apps say this is Dark Brocade but not sure if it's that or a Common Rustic agg

Rufous Minor is a likely Marbled minor agg candidate in the area and this one fits the bill but presumably requires critical examination to confirm

Ground-moss Grey, Eudonia truncicolella- the most numerous 'scop'. 

The apps say this is Garden Dart but not sure if its a melanic Turnip- it had a pale hindwing

Another shot of the incredible Invernahavon valley this morning

Edinburgh Castle 

View from our hotel window, The Commissioners Quay Inn in Blyth. It's a sea view but quite a stark one