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TWIC recording excursion to Dunglass and Bilsdean, 19th July 2009
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A record number of recorders met under the railway bridge at Dunglass for
the July recording excursion, which was to Dunglass and Bilsdean in the extreme
south-east of our area, next to the Berwickshire border. In spite of a poor
weather forecast, it was mainly sunny, and latterly quite warm, although there
was a stiff breeze on the coast. We started by going down Dunglass Dean in the
morning, then had lunch on the beach (Fig. 1), and returned up Bilsdean (Fig. 2)
in the afternoon. The first interesting find was an aggregation of the large
slug Arion cf. rufus on the concrete of one of the road bridges
(Fig. 3); the slugs had settled in damp corners of the structure, all facing
head up, and came in all colours, from quite pale to nearly black. Further
down the valley there was a good population of the hairy little Silky Snail,
Ashfordia granulata, apparently a new record for this area. Leaf litter
here yielded good numbers of the minute Herald Snails, Carychium spp.,
also new to the area.
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One hope was that Dunglass and Bilsdean, being close to the Berwickshire
border, might be a route by which various species spreading north might first
reach the Lothians. Unfortunately we didn’t see a lot of butterflies, and
those were mainly Green-veined Whites, but it was nice to spot a Small
Tortoiseshell, which have been so scarce this year. There were some moths too:
a Smoky Wainscot (Fig. 4), a Large Yellow Underwing and the Magpie Moth. Another
good sighting was a fair number of 7-spot Ladybirds, more than some people
had seen during the whole of the year hitherto.
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The botanists had a good time as well, and found several interesting plants,
including Hemp Agrimony, Eupatorium cannabinum, Agrimony, Agrimonia
eupatoria, and Rough Hawkbit, Leontodon hispidus. Wood Speedwell,
Veronica montana, and Hairy Brome, Bromopsis ramosa, were also
present. The deep damp wooded valleys were also rich in fine specimens of
Hart’s Tongue Fern, Phyllitis scolopendrium. Altogether a rewarding
day out, which added considerably to our knowledge of the fauna and flora
of this distant corner of East Lothian.
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