Sunday 26 July 2015

Flower Power - Killinallan family activity 23rd July

Red Soldier Beetle on Frog Orchid
Despite the wind and the rain cloud that skirted to the north of Loch Gruinart, it stayed dry and sunny.  Our band of mini explorers set off for flower heaven.  They found lots of lovely colours amongst the petals and leaves of the bountiful carpet of dune flowers.  Including many orchids - Northern Marsh; Frog; Pyramidal; and Fragrant which we all had a good sniff at.  Other plants with good sniffs were Meadow Sweet and Thyme.  Colours: yellows from Buttercup, Lady's Bedstraw; pinks from Red Clover, white from Eyebright and Daisy; blue from Milkwort; purple from Self-heal.

Colour pallets filled

Beetle larvae

Fun finding mini-beasties
After filling our pallets with colour, butterflies and other beasties were on the agenda.  Armed with nets and bug pots, the children were expert at finding and catching butterflies, moths and a whole array of other mini-beasties.  Meadow Brown was the main butterfly, also Six-spot Burnet Moths, we discussed how to tell moths and butterflies apart (wing folding and antennae).  Spiders, flies, slugs and beetle larvae were our discoveries.

All these great 'Mini-wildlife Adventures' are funded this year thanks to the I&J Toy Library and funding from Foundation Scotland so are free for families to attend.  Next Thursday we are having fun on the beach creating sand sculptures, time to get creative - join us at Machir Bay, Kilchoman at 2pm.
Fiona

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