Islands

I love an island, me. Absolutely love them. I'm talking about smallish ones mind, not whopping big ones like the UK or even Australia, which is probably so big that it ceases to be an island in the traditional sense.

I like the feeling of being away from things, of being 'cut off' from most of the rest of you. There's just something a wee bit magical about sitting on the seashore watching the waves lap and knowing that you're pretty much on your own. I've been lucky enough to visit lots of islands over the years and even managed a 3 month stint on the Seychelles island of Cousin in the late 90s, studying birds and racing giant tortoises. Happy days.

Anyway why this lengthy preamble? Well I recently got to spend a week on the west coast Scottish island of Shuna. Where, I here you cry, is Shuna?

Red circle marks the spot. Isle of Mull to the north west and Jura to the south-west.

It was supposed to be a back to basics week for the family with some healthy walks and some sea kayaking, all of which we participated in but it was also an excuse to look at wildlife.

Best of all were stunning views of otters. Down to five metres in some cases. There was an adult with a pup that swam past the cottage each day and that were reasonably curious if you sat still. We watched them fishing and playing. A real joy to watch.

The island still has a lot of forest cover made up mainly of birch and oak, and when the sun was out it was glorious.

We did a wee bit of rockpooling at low tides and the best for me was a new species of starfish, Ophiocomina nigra.

Black brittlestar (Ophiocomina nigra) I think

 It was also nice to reacquaint myself with a few plants that I haven't seen for a while...

Butterwort Pinguicula vulgaris

Round-leaved Sundew Drosera rotundifolia

...and others that I can't believe I hadn't seen or recorded before.

Lousewort Pedicularis sylvatica

Beetle-wise, there were a couple of species that I was really chuffed to finally catch up with.
The first was the staph Dianous coerulescens, known (by me) as the waterfall rove beetle. Closely related to the genus Stenus, it shares that groups large eyes and distinctive shape, the main difference being the length of the temples (back of head, behind the eyes). It is found in the moss and vegetation next to water falls and that is exactly where I found mine. They were moving in and out of the moss in the splash zone, presumably looking for prey.

According to the NBN website there are only four records from Scotland and I suspect that it's just woefully out of date, as opposed my having found a rare species.

Map of Dianous coerulescens records

The second beetle was the shoreline carabid Aepus marinus. This one of two species of Aepus found around UK shores. This particular species lives under flat bottomed stones part-embedded in sand or fine gravel a little way below high water mark. This substrate means there are small air pockets that beetles can survive in when submerged by the rising tide. It's a pretty extreme habitat for a carabid so respect to them for going there. The other species, robinii seems to favour silt filled gaps in between stones, possibly even further down the beach. Many thanks to Seth for the info on habitat.

[EDIT: it's been pointed out that this is in fact robinii not marinus!! Seems like these didn't read the memo on habitat]

They are tiny, strange looking things but I'm pleased to have seen one after looking unsuccessfully in a few places.

All in all it was a great week, and would thoroughly recommend a visit.
Here's an appropriate track from the 80s from the mighty Mike Oldfield featuring a the ever-gravely-voiced Bonnie Tyler.