A pleasant circular walk in the north-east of the Wee County begins in the charming village of Muckhart and follows a farm track that offers splendid views down Strathdevon, before looping back to the start point via Muckhart Mill on the River Devon.
As we begun this route recently, red admiral and painted lady butterflies spiralled up into the air ahead of us from hedge banks.
As already mentioned in a recent Wildside column, this is a bumper year for painted ladies with warm conditions allowing them to reproduce rapidly in southern Europe.
They then encountered strong, favourable southerly winds on their northwards migration, enabling huge numbers to tumble into Scotland.
Once here, they have bred again to produce another generation, which when autumn approaches, will migrate southwards back towards the Mediterranean.
Red admirals are also migrants and will breed on arrival in Scotland. While many Scottish red admirals move south come the autumn, others will attempt to overwinter in sheltered places, such as garden sheds, outhouses and log piles.
There can be few insects that match the red admiral for its vibrant brilliance, a stunning contrast of scarlet, black and white with flashes of blue along the hind wing margins that gives the butterfly a regal, velvety appearance.
Further on, and a yellowhammer sang briefly from a fence post by the track before fluttering away on yellow-flashed wings.
Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane in their splendid new publication – The Book of Birds – describe the yellowhammer as the ‘goldsmith of the hedgerows’, and add: ‘Yellowhammer’s a lark dipped in ochre, a scrubland canary, a twenty-four carat sparrow’.
The yellowhammer certainly is a citron gem and one of our most colourful birds, which is sadly in decline, although still frequently found in many parts of Clackmannanshire, especially where there are hedgerows.
Much of the other birdlife on our walk was lying low, such is their habit at this time of year when they are moulting following the conclusion of the breeding season.
However, every so often one would glimpse a willow warbler or a chiffchaff as it slipped through thick tangles of vegetation. These little warblers will soon be heading south to spend the winter in warmer climes.
We are on the cusp of change with the air becoming crisper as the warmth of summer slowly ebbs away and a new chapter in nature’s calendar begins.
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