Jellyfish & Dragonflies

Having enjoyed the masses of wildflowers on Friday's wander around Littleferry woods and links we returned along the beach finding yet another first for the year....

....several moon jellyfish stranded by the rising tide.

I have a bit of an obsession about each year's 'firsts' but it does seem to me that this annual reappearance of species we haven't seen in months is something of a pay-back for the wildlife famine that is the British winter.

The jellyfish were the only 'first' we found on what was otherwise a deserted beach - we saw no-one else during the three hours we wandered it, while the footprint evident suggested that only two people with two dogs had braved the showers to visit the beach that morning.

As we walked back through Ferry Woods we turned aside to check Loch Unes where, in another warm sunny interval....

....we found the first blue-tailed damselfly of the year. The lochan was also host to....

....four-spotted chasers and....

....the most common damselfly in this area, the large red: this is a female Mrs MW found disguising herself on a lichen-covered stick.