Now August is here I thought I’d update on our busy July here on Eigg. Our Summer events programme is now in full swing and we welcomed two new volunteers for the month – Holly and Sally. The start of the month saw us joining up with the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust volunteers to carry out some path clearance and invasive plant removal.  Wildlife surveying continued and the cracking sunshine we had resulted in more butterfly species being recorded on the butterfly transect than usual, including Painted Lady.  We have had some fantastic results from the moth trapping too – our last session caught 122 moths!  We eventually got through them to find approximately 40 species in total with some lovely moths such as Pebble Prominent, Sallow Kitten, Garden Tiger, Burnished Brass and Drinker.

The events programme has had some fun over the last four weeks.  Our Bug Hunting event down at Galmisdale found a variety of spiders, beetles, worms and woodlouse.  Another Dragonfly Hunt at the Giant’s Footstep found the dragonflies and damselflies are still emerging in their numbers with lots of Blue-tailed Damselfly and female Black Darter’s flying about on the day.  SWT Volunteers Holly and Sally planned lots of fun activities for our Seashore exploration at Shell Beach, looking at the various shells that can be found, seeing what lives in the rock pools, creating shell pendants and painting collected shells.  Fun was had by everyone, even when it started raining!  Today we had a second Nature Art session and had lots of fun creating with sand clay, taking bark rubbings, painting pebbles, leaf printing and making dragonflies and butterflies.

Our next event is on Sunday 6th August where we are taking part in Hen Harrier Day to raise awareness of Hen Harriers and the threats they face throughout the UK. Our full event programme for August is as follows:

• 6th August Hen Harrier Day 1-3.30pm at the Old Shop Museum
• 10th August River Minibeast 1-3pm at Galmisdale Bay Stepping Stones
• 18th August River Kicksampling 1-3pm at Galmisdale Bay Stepping Stones
• 27th August Bat walk 8-9:30pm at Cleadale
• Guided Walks continue every Wednesday meeting at the Old Shop Museum 11am.

For more information please email isleofeiggranger@scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk.

August has welcomed three new volunteers – Kirsty, Tereza and Rebecca, and we have already started the month with some cracking sightings of basking shark, so hopefully more to come!  If you see anything exciting on Eigg please email me.

Gillian, Seasonal Isle of Eigg Ranger