Sailing Ship in Largo Bay

 Sailing ship off Lundin Links today.

Update

Thanks to an article in the East Fife Mail have identified the ship. It is the Stavros S Niarchos, one of the members of the Tall Ships Youth Trust.

A Delicate Structure - Identification

About a year ago I found the bird skull (pictured here in the first two photos), on the beach near Lower Largo Harbour. I thought it was that of a small diving bird, a tern, perhaps, but wasn't sure. The mystery was solved on a recent trip to the Isle of May. On a tray in the splendid new Visitor Centre there was a variety of objects that had been found on the island and I was surprised to see a bird skull that looked virtually identical to the one that I had found. Helpfully labelled by the Scottish National Heritage Staff as a guillemot skull, I had the identification for my find.

The guillemot skull displayed in the Isle of May Visitor Centre.

Solomon's Seal Sawfly Larvae

There is a small patch of Solomon's Seal in the garden and yesterday I noticed that some of the leaves had been stripped bare. I thought it was possibly slug or snail damage. However, today I noticed some unpleasant looking grey caterpillars on some of the remaining leaves. The internet soon provided the answer. They are not true caterpillars but the larvae of the Solomon's Seal Sawfly (Phymatocera aterrima).

Adult Solomon’s Seal Sawfly are black, 8-9mm long, and emerge in late spring at about the time the host plant is coming into flower. The female uses her saw-like ovipositor to insert rows of eggs into the leaf stems. The larvae initially make small elongate holes in the foliage (as in above photo), but as they increase in size their appetite also increases. The fully grown larvae go into the soil where they overwinter and pupate in the following spring. Defoliated plants survive but may produce reduced growth in the following year. 

Henbane

A fairly uncommon flower, which we saw on our recent trip to the Isle of May was henbane (Hyoscyamus niger). Henbane has an interesting history. In ancient times it was used as a cure for toothache. It was included by Dioscorides in his work De Materia Medica which was written around 40 to 70 AD.
The plant contains similar tropane alkaloids to the aptly named deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) namely atropine, hyoscine also known as scopolamine, and hyoscyamine. It is therefore a useful source of these medicinally used alkaloids for the pharmaceutical industry but nowadays is considered far too dangerous to be used in herbalism.
In 1910 it featured in the murder trial of Dr Crippen, as it was the source of the hyoscine that he used to kill his wife.

All parts of the plant are extremely poisonous.

A close up of the hairy leaves and flowers which I think are quite attractive but are often described as sinister looking. It is also said to have a noxious smell.

Some Isle of May Wild Flowers

On our recent visit to the Isle of May the predominant flower was sea campion (Silene maritima) which carpeted much of the island.

Here and there large patches of buttercup amongst the sea campion.

At first sight a bit similar to buttercup, silverweed (Potentilla anserina) can be distinguished  by its characteristic leaves which have a silvery sheen.

Thrift (Armeria maritima) is another common plant, although much of it had finished flowering there were one or two pink patches.

A patch of tiny flowered forget-me-nots.

Guillemots, Razorbills and Others

A colony of guillemots on the Isle of May.

Guillemots (Uria aalge) and razorbills (Alca torda) are both members of the auk family. The easiest way to tell them apart is by the shape of the bill, the guillemot has a pointed bill and the razorbill a shorter flatter bill crossed by a white line. Both are present in this photo, two razorbills bottom left, guillemots top and right.

Lesser black-backed gull and two chicks. These gulls are voracious  predators. Special measures using garden canes and tiny wooden tents have been introduced into the tern breeding areas to protect the eggs and chicks from these gulls.

Lesser black-backed gull nesting.

Eider ducks nesting.

Nesting shags taken on a previous visit to the Isle of May some years ago. Beautiful dark green sheen on the feathers, bright yellow patch on each side of the bill and a crest of feathers on top of the head, distinguish the shag from the cormorant.

Kittewakes nesting on the rocks opposite.

Dive-Bombing Terns

Arriving at Kirkhaven on the Isle of May, have to run the gauntlet of the arctic terns to get to the new visitor centre. They are ground nesting birds and protect their eggs and chicks by dive-bombing all comers. A hat is essential!!

Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) perching on the fence in front of the visitor centre.

Two tern chicks peek out from under a little wooden tent. These have been erected to protect the chicks from predating gulls. Garden canes have also been stuck into the site to deter the gulls.