Speyside

Balancing out the perfect dragonfly weather at Chartley Moss earlier in the year, the weather today in Speyside was complete crap for dragonflies - cool, showery and windy. As a result I didn't see a great deal at the various pools around Abernethy Forest which are known to be good for the two species I particularly wanted to see - Northern Emerald and Northern Damselfly. At the first pool I checked I did find a male Northern Damsel cowering in the grass - I managed to coax it onto my finger, but it flew off before I could get a photo. The only other Odonata species on the pool were an ovipositing female Common Hawker and a pair of Large Red Damsels. All the other pools were far too exposed to the wind, and no further dragons or damsels were seen. No birds of note either apart from a Crossbill sp heard flying over at Loch Garten.

The forecast for tomorrow is similarly poor, so we've decided to give Beinn Eighe (a 100+ mile detour) a miss and just have a look for dolphins off North Kessock instead.