This month I will highlight some of the insect life that can be found on the golf courses. Many of these can go unnoticed but with a closer look there are many different types to be found. A selection of other photographs taken this month can also be seen below.
BUTTERFLIES , MOTHS AND CATERPILLARS
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| Common Blue |
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| Common Blue One of the most striking butterflies to be seen on the links. |
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| Six-spot Burnet Moth Both the Moth and the Caterpillar are poisonous. |
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| Cinnabar Caterpillar The cinnabar moth lays its eggs almost entirely on the Ragwort plant on which the caterpillar feeds. Ragwort is a poisonous plant which can spread quickly if left alone. We spend time removing it by hand but there are always enough plants left to ensure that these Moths and caterpillars continue to be seen around the links. |
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| Meadow Brown One of Britain's most common butterflies. The females are unusual in that they are more distinctive than the males. |
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| Ringlet This butterfly is a common sight on the links. The name comes from the large false eyes on the underside of all four wings. |
Garden Tiger
One of the largest caterpillars to be seen on the links.
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INSECTS
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| Bumble Bee |
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| Bumble Bee There are 25 species of Bumble Bee in the UK. Bees play an important part in plant pollination. Unfortunately numbers of bees have been in decline in recent years. |
Soldier Beetle
These beetles are often abundant on flower heads such
as Cow Parsley.
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| Common Field Grasshopper These are more often heard rather than seen but are widespread over the two courses. Very hard to see in the grass as this photo proves. |
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| Seven Spot Ladybirds Ladybirds can be seen on plants, where they feed on aphids. This picture was taken in the long grass to the right of the 6th Medal hole. |
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| Millipede Because of their small size, about 3-4 cm long, the only time they are easily spotted are when they making their way across the greens. |
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| Spider Britain has 40 species of orb-web spiders, which spin the disc- shaped webs traditionally associated with spiders. There are large numbers of spiders all over the links, it becomes evident just how many there are in damp misty conditions when all the gorse bushes can be clearly seen covered in webs of all sizes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
BIRDS
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| Pied Wagtail This Pied Wagtail and its mate can be seen around the green- keepers sheds. They have nested behind a boarded up window in the old cottage. The grass nest lined with feathers usually contains 5-6 pale grey speckled dark eggs. |
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| Sand Martin and nest tunnels |
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| Sand Martins A good number of Sand Martins have made nests in the dune face close to the 6th medal tee. The nest tunnel can be as much as a metre deep. A feather lined nest is made ito which 4-5 pure white eggs are laid. Unfortunately due to the unstable nature of the dune face it is doubtful if any will successfully rear any young. |
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| Whitethroat This summer visitor can be seen around the links. It is a member of the Warbler family and spends the winter south of the Sahara. It can be quite a noisy bird for its size. Its hair lined nest is usually sited low down in brambles, gorse etc in which it lays 4-5 pale buff eggs , spotted with dark brown / grey. edit: Since publishing the article it has been brought to my attention that the above bird may be that of a Willow Warbler and not a Whitethroat. With further help of a Scottish Wildlife Trust Ranger , she is of the opinion that it could well be a Willow Warbler. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WILD FLOWERS / PLANTS 
Maiden Pink
Maiden Pink
A member of the Dianthus family, this small plant can be seen
in the rough of the seaward holes of the medal course, especially
the 6th and 7th holes. It is quite a scarce plant in Scotland. One of
its main strong holds appear to be on Montrose and Kinaber links.
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| Harebell Known as the Bluebell to most Scots, this flower can be seen all over the links. |
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| Jack-Go-To-Bed-At-Noon Also called Goats Beard, this plant attracts attention on sunny mornings when its dandelion like flowers are out. They quickly disappear about midday hidden within long pointed finger like bracts. |
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| Jack-Go-To-Bed-At-Noon After flowering has passed large downy clocks ( seed heads ) can be seen. There are quite a few of these plants in front of the 6th Ladies tee on the medal course. |
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| Yellow Rattle Yellow Rattle is sometimes known as rattle-box because of the sound produced by the ripe seeds inside their capsules. It is a partly parasitical plant, which fixes its roots onto the root system of adjoining grass, and extracts water and minerals from it. |
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| Purple Milk -Vetch The flowers are very like those of Clover but the leaves are totally different, being divided into numerous leaflets covered with soft whitish hairs. |
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| Sycamore A photo of winged seed heads. There are numerous self seeded Sycamore saplings within the gorse bushes on the Broomfield course, especially around the 6th and 9th holes. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ANIMALS |
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| Stoat This one is pictured crossing the path at the 7th medal tee. |
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| Stoats A family of stoats can often be seen close to the 7th medal tee. Other sightings have been seen over the 2 courses. Hopefully they will help to bring rabbit numbers down. In winter their coats turn creamy white except for the tip of the tail which stays black, they are then called ermine. |
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| Hedgehog Hedgehogs are not seen very often on the links, I'm not sure if its because they are shy and often only come out at night or that their numbers are declining in general. This one was spotted close to the 14th medal tee. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Next Month I will explain some of the measures that we have taken to try and increase the patches of Heather growing on the links. Les Rae First Assistant Montrose Golf Links Limited. |
