It has been an interesting year for wildlife spotting, from tiny ladybirds to ugly flowers. Here are some highlights local to East Kilbride:

Chimney Sweep Moth

This moth is unusual as it flies during the day. I initially thought it was a butterfly. However, on closer examination, the antennae were not shaped like clubs, as you would expect with butterflies. I have often seen them in other places, but this was the first time I had seen one in Calderwood amongst pignut.

Bird’s Nest Orchid

I was walking through dense woodland and nearly stepped on one of a cluster of about twelve plants. These plants lack the green pigment Chlorophyll, which is why they are brown in color, making them perfectly camouflaged against the beech leaves that I happened to be walking through at the time of my discovery. Their name comes from the tangle of a root-like system that is said to resemble a bird’s nest. They get their nutrition from being a parasite on other plants, such as trees.

Speckled Wood Butterfly

This butterfly flies along sunny woodland rides. Its range has been expanding north. I saw this butterfly for the first time in the woods around Dumfries, but I have heard that there have been sightings locally. I saw a report of a sighting in K-woodlands near Hairmyres, which is fantastic. So next year, the aim is to try and spot it locally.

Figwort

The plant I found was probably the common figwort, and just like the Bird’s Nest Orchid, it is also quite ugly. It was extremely tall and had a distinctively square stem.
This year was the first time I had seen it on the main nature trail heading north in the Calderglen Gorge Woodland near the Black Linn Waterfall.

Kidney Spot Ladybird

A tiny ladybird that had it not been for another visitor to Cathkin Marsh, I would have walked by and never would have known it was there. This ladybird is only about 4-5mm in length, with two distinct red spots, one on each wing case. If you look carefully, there is a distinctive rim around the wing cases. If I remember correctly, it, along with several others, was on Willow (Salix spp).

Broad-Leaved Helleborine

This flower is not the prettiest of orchids, but for me, this was the first year that I had spotted it in East Kilbride along path edges. It flowers from July to September and likes disturbed places, particularly around the Glasgow area, and because of this, it has become known as the Glasgow Orchid.

Dipper

This incredible little bird can hunt underwater, and a day by the Rotten Calder River is not complete without seeing a Dipper. In previous years, I was worried that numbers were dwindling. They probably still are, but at least this year, I had more sightings than I have in previous years, and I also saw had sightings below Newhousemill Bridge and even below Castle Falls. So that is hopeful.

Nuthatch

It was once the case that this bird was resident mainly in England, but in recent years it has spread north. I saw it for the first time last year, and now it is visiting the garden. It is an incredibly agile little bird with the ability to descend head first down the trunk of trees.