2020 County Report for South Ebudes

Simon M Smart, Malcolm Ogilvie

Recording in the vice county was curtailed for obvious reasons in 2020. Malcolm Ogilivie, who lives on Islay, was able to conduct some of the annual orchid monitoring with results pretty similar to 2019. These sites are all on Islay: The main Plantanthera chlorantha (Greater Butterfly Orchid) site was strimmed in early spring in the absence of former sheep grazing and produced 117 flowering spikes (cf. 31 in 2019). P. bifolia (Lesser Butterfly Orchid) were in noticeably reduced numbers at their regularly monitored sites. The Cephalanthera longifolia (Narrow-leaved Helleborine) site was not visited, but the main site for Epipactis palustris (Marsh Helleborine) held 218 spikes (224 in 2019).

Despite a much restricted field season deskwork carried on apace validating and checking records from vc102 in advance of the new Atlas. The groups of records usefully prioritised by the DDb were tackled, sometimes necessitating enquiries with recorders while also addressing the very useful taxon-specific prompts emailed through from Andy Amphlett. A very different year from 2019 when the high-point for this author was recording new post-2000 locations for Alchemilla alpina and Salix herbacea on Beinn Shiantaidh while competing in the Jura fell-race. Looking forward to be being back in 2021 with an interesting list of records to check following validation work.