Had one of those OK moments, when I wonder what on earth am I doing? – At that moment on Monday morning, I was standing dripping with sweat, with water lapping around and into the top of my wellies, and being feasted on by a large variety of biting insects!
As to what was I doing – I was standing in the middle of Lurgie Loch. Only in general terms Lurgie Loch is no longer a loch, having long since lost any open water, and had been filled with vegetation and is now covered with scrub. Only because of this years very wet summer, the site was also covered with water of varying depths, hence the water in the wellies, and as the sun was shining for once, the high levels of humidity and so the sweat.
You really do know that the place is wet, when even the slugs take to the trees! This formed one of the days more odd ball sights of the day, as I kept finding those very large black slugs, part way up the trunks of the trees, grazing on the various patches of lichen that were growing on the trunks. They also made a slightly yucky hazard as well, for if you weren’t careful, and disturbed the trees too much, they would drop off and land on your head!!
Lurgie Loch – 13 August 2012 (Copyright Carol Jones)
Lurgie Loch is another one of those amazing valley fens. This one has a lagg of Willows, with the centre covered with Birch of varying ages, and in one small drier area some one had planted Scots Pine at one stage. These though now, semi mature, are not currently spreading as the site is still rather wet. Underneath the ground flora varies from Sedges in the wetter areas to carpets of Purple Moor-grass in the drier areas, that until recently had formed more open glades and would make good flight areas for Scotch Argus. Too wet this summer though, for anything other than biting insects to flourish.
lostnaturalist 