6th: On burn side cliffs to east of Ensay Burn mouth a Nomad Bee which looks like Early Nomad Bee but it flew before I could get more angles.
And at the sea cliffs to west of Ensay Burn mouth another nomad bee which could be Panzer’s or Fork-jawed Nomad Bee. Without a view of the tip of the mandible it is I think impossible to specify.
A new hoverfly for Mull in front of Treshnish Old Schoolhouse although it can only be narrowed down to the genus. It is an Epistrophe and probably E. nitidicollis.
Also in the same area, Chrysotoxum arcuatum, a species that I have only recorded 3 times, once in early September 2015 and twice last year (late June and early September).
5th: Tree Pipit, Cuckoo and Whitethroat at Loch Frisa, Sedge Warbler heard at Derevaig reedbeds (all first of year for me).
4th: Peregrine at Haunn and I heard that a Haunn guest saw one on about the 28th or 29th of last month.
2nd: 1 immature Peregrine over the Common Gull colony at Treshnish lochan. It was interesting how the gulls responded compared to a White-tailed Eagle which passed over 5 minutes before. With the eagle there was the usual noise and a couple of gulls chasing it off but with the Peregrine as well as the usual alarm calls, over 10 birds flew in perfect close formation to the north in front of the falcon with another group following it.
At Treshnish wood waterfall, at least 2 Fabricius’ Nomad Bees, at least 2 female Clarke’s Mining Bees (an another possible male), a mining bee, some furrow bees including one which is I at first thought was probably White-footed Furrow Bee, one of the 4 small metallic blue-green species but now after looking more carefully, think the head shape is not round enough. I waited 3 hours at the nest hole entrance of the latter to get shots of the whole body but it was busy burrowing with periods of rest hidden at the entrance. It never did emerge although I missed it when I moved position and caught it (or a second) entering briefly. White-footed Furrow Bee is primitively eusocial. The other similar species are Turquoise Furrow Bee, Green Furrow Bee (which is also primitively eusocial with the workers appearing in the early summer) and Smeathman’s Furrow Bee. The latter two are rare in Scotland and so far restricted to the south with 3 and 4-5 records consecutively.
I have one accepted White-footed Furrow Bee and 2 accepted Turquoise Furrow Bees from last year.
Comparing it with the head shape in Falk, I think it is probably Turquoise Furrow Bee.
I am seeing Bee Fly on every mildly sunny day.
Also 1 Cheilosia albipila accepted by an expert at Treshnish wood waterfall. This is one of the new species for Treshnish as one was accepted recently but from last year.
1st: 1 Dipper at top Ensay Burn bridge waterfall. Not much in the way of bees there but many female Clarke’s Mining Bees on the willow along the burn between the that waterfall and the first bridge as well as a Norwegian Wasp and a Green Hair-streak and Wilson’s Filmy-fern.
1 Bee Fly at the north end of the Ensay hairpin bends and a Green Tiger Beetle at Ensay car-park.
2 furrow bees by the east gate to Black Park and at least 1 female Clarke’s Bee entering the nearby nest bank and what I think is my first Heath Bumblebee of the year. 1 female Orange-tailed Mining Bee at the Black Park quarry and also a fermale Clarke’s Mining Bee entering a nest broow there and another entering a nest burrow at a new site in small waterfall on a runnel up from near the west gate of Black Park at the site where last year there was a Keeled Skimmer. 1 furrow bee to east of Treshnish wood Nissen hut and a queen Common Wasp.
