First Excursion into The Zone

It was absolutely lovely today, there was no way I was going to stay stuck indoors whilst my 5MR invertebrate survey beckoned. I looked at the map and decided today was the day I would finally clap eyes on Loch Mòr, just a couple of miles to the south of me. My route would take me through three monads shared between two adjacent tetrads, so I was hopeful of picking up something to record along the way.

Very 'rough n ready' map of my route from roadside to lochside

And what it looked like in real life. That's the Uists on the horizon

I headed up the trail across the moor, carefully stepping around the black ice that had formed as the meltwater had frozen once more. Made for some spectacular looking patterns in the frozen over puddles though!

These reminded me of contour lines on a map

That's the village of Idrigill squatting beneath Creag Liath, a good site for Golden Eagles

I wasn't hustling along too quickly, though I certainly wasn't dawdling either, but I soon found myself sweating beneath my four layers. Pity I'd forgotten to bring my hat, it was uncomfortably chilly around the ol' ears! Satisfied that my sweating was due to a lack of fitness rather than an imminent heart attack, I pushed onwards. The path steadily climbed upwards, never steep but always upwards, and soon I was in the second tetrad with nothing of invertebrate interest seen so far. A Golden Plover called, the first animal I'd encountered other than a few sheep and a bunch of cattle. Then a Wren called, wow - my excitement levels were soaring by now! Finally I rounded a bend and found myself out of the cold north wind - and saw flies! Winter gnats were bouncing up and down in the air above a tiny stream. I quickly netted a male and a female, a glance through the handlens confirmed them as Trichocera, probably regelationis due to what looked like a very weak cloud over a certain cross-vein. Anyway, whatever they were I was fairly confident they would be 'new' for the square. Which was NG4061 in tetrad NG46A, just in case anybody had a burning need to know. 

Happy that my walk had now proven useful, as well as invigorating, I continued uphill before cresting a rise and finding myself looking down onto Loch Mòr itself. It was bigger than I was expecting (mòr translates as "great" - as in size - so I don't know why I was surprised)

I expect divers nest on this, it's stocked with trout

I wandered down to the nearest edge and had a quick squint about for signs of life. I half-hoped there would be stoneflies basking on rocks, certainly some are active at this time of the year. I spied a wooden post, a favoured sunbathing stonefly habitat if ever there was!

Note the mooring ring, this is within a few metres of the water's edge

Sadly, there was bugger all on it, though I bet it's heaving with stoneflies a little later into the season. The shallow water here was very clear, a jumble of large stones easily visible on the muddy bed

Good stonefly nymph habbo that!

There was lots of what I suspect was Quillwort washed up a little further around the shoreline. I should have taken some to examine once back indoors, but I had nothing to put them in and didn't fancy wet insides to my rucksack. One for another time, when I'm better prepared. 

Ice bound!

I'm definitely going to be coming back here again throughout the season. It's a lovely spot and, apart from the occasional fly fisherman, I should have the place entirely to myself. I do like this open moorland terrain, it has a sense of freedom to it that I enjoy. Plus there are lots of little streams and crags to explore, there could be almost anything out there just waiting to be discovered. Like this

The tyres are intact - a sure sign there are no trolls in the area (go watch Trollhunter...)

I had a bit of a wander, but the wind was pretty cold in my uncovered ears so I soon beat a retreat back along the track I'd already walked along, finding blessed shelter in the valleys. Looking northwards I had a smile to myself. I could see the summit of Beinn Edra jutting out above the hills beside me. Another few months and I'll be heading up that in search of some very special plants. 

I'm so looking forward to summiting that!

Heading back down towards the road, the temperature had raised just enough that I found more winter gnats dancing in the first tetrad, so not the complete blank I'd feared it would be for NG3961. Again they looked to be Trichocera regelationis, but would undoubtedly prove 'new' to the square. I potted a male and a female to check indoors.  

Looking down towards the settlement of Earlish, which means "place of strife"

I'm not sure what strife occurred there to have earned Earlish its name, possibly it's something to do with the Viking invasions? Uig, which is where I live, is the Viking word for "bay". So I guess Uig Bay is a bit of a nonsensical name when you think about it. I wonder how many of the Skyefolk would have taken their families and livestock up to Loch Mòr in an attempt to flee the invaders, and how successful they would have been had they tried. Hopefully I won't find myself in any strife when I wander in and around Earlish this season as part of my quest to add biological records throughout the entirety of my 5MR. 

Number of people encountered during this outing: zero

I forgot to say, the winter gnats were all Trichocera regelationis, a common species across much of Britain.  I had a look at the NBN map to see if it had been recorded from this part of Skye before. Oh..!