Over the Border...

Today myself and John took a short jaunt north over the border into Scotland. From home this was only a 50 minute drive and it was well worth it..Above, Burnmouth harbour looking as scenic as ever. From here we could just see Holy Island and Bamburgh castles in the distance..

The limestone scree here was covered in nice wild flowers with White Stonecrop, Salad Burnet, Wood Sage, Red Valerian, Lady's Bedstraw and...

Above, Common Rock Rose. This is almost non existent in Northumberland, but here it is prolific.

So it was with little surprise that we found our goal quite easily - Northern Brown Argus, above. Although worn, these tiny chaps have bottle spending their time harassing every other butterfly that dares fly into its territory. We had about 5 in a small area along with 20+ Grayling, below, 1 Common Blue, 10+ Meadow Brown, 5+ Ringlet, 1 Small Tortoiseshell and 1 Large White.  

We also came across a very showy Hummingbird Hawkmoth, that began laying eggs on Lady's Bedstraw, bottom. This must be a scarce occurrence in Scotland...  

The only noteworthy birds were a single Raven over and a lone Crossbill in some pines in the village.