Someone has planted two groups of three Monkey-puzzle trees (Araucaria araucana) on the lower slopes of Temptation Hill on Raasay. (There could be more.) This seems slightly strange to me, but perhaps no stranger than the Forestry planting little patches of cypress all over the place in the same area. They should perhaps have been planted more than one metre apart if they are to grow to full size.
Nearby a small forest of Ribes sanguineum (Flowering Currant – silly name as all Ribes species flower!) is coming into flower:
Recent finds have included lots of this Globular Springtail on a picnic table (Thanks Stephen M for identification):
and, yes, those marks at the bottom of the picture are millimetre divisions.
Larvae of The Drinker were out in numbers yesterday:
There were lots of this common fly sunning themselves on a wooden bridge across the Arish Burn:
I see this one pretty much all year:
The moth trap has been out a couple of times but has yielded nothing new for the time of year in the way of moths. Adults caught so far this year are Dotted Border, Hebrew Character, Mottled Grey, Pale Brindled Beauty and Red Chestnut.
However a coouple of days ago there were no moths in the trap, just a few gnats and this fine spider:
According to the Spider and Harvestman Recording Scheme website this species is “very scattered…. in northern Britain”, “can be found in most wetland habitats, especially in emergent vegetation at the edge of water and occasionally on sand dunes” and “adults have been found throughout the year, but mostly in late spring to mid-summer and late summer to early autumn”. My specimen is not far from wetlands but I am not sure that it is late spring yet nor that being found in a moth trap is entirely normal. Something of an outlier as a record.
Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles 
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