Following my excursion into the heart of the Cuillin I have had a couple of shortish lowland trips. Firstly, I went into a tetrad with only two records (ever) southwest of Mugeary. Secondly, in between the dentist in Kyle and a forestry meeting back on Raasay, I visited Loch nam Madadh Uisge and Luib, principally to resolve the ridiculous position of having no post-1999 record of Eleocharis palustris (Common Spike-rush) for the entire 100km2 that is NG52. (Well, 92.8km2 that is land or freshwater, if anyone is counting.) There are 20 pre-2000 records in eight different tetrads.
The Mugeary tetrad was mostly pretty dull – forestry plantation or uninspiring moor, but to get there I passed though some really nice marsh/wet meadow and at the end of my time in the target tetrad (NG43I) I found a stretch of burn that had many of the common species I had not seen plus a splendid bog with Comarum palustre (Marsh Cinquefoil) and Carex canescens (White Sedge) which cheered me up and helped raise the taxon count for the tetrad to a magnificent 85.
There were also Large Heath (as well as Small Heath) butterflies and a fine Northern Eggar moth:
Moving on….. At Loch nam Madadh Uisge, finding Eleocharis palustris (Common Spike-rush) turned out to be harder than I expected. The loch is full of the similar Eleocharis multicaulis (Many-stalked Spike-rush), but I eventually found a few spikes in the wee burn at the north end. I had forgotten that this loch is a Pipewort loch and the flower stalks were now above water level – though the leaf rosettes alone are very distinctive.
I also spotted my first flowering Dactylorhiza incarnata (Early Marsh-orchid) and Platanthera bifolia (Lesser Butterfly-orchid) of the year:
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles 
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