Kirkcudbrightshire Botany Group at Ken Dee, 1st June 2024
The RSPB Ken-Dee Marshes reserve, probably best known for its wintering populations of Greenland White-fronted Geese Anser albifrons and for its breeding Willow Tits Poecile montanus, is a complex and diverse wetland site with large areas of open water, fen, swamp and lowland acid grassland. It has a multiplicity of designations: River Dee (Parton to Crossmichael) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Loch Ken and River Dee Marshes Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar. We were privileged to survey some of the botanically important areas with the kind permission of the warden, Gavin Chambers. Amongst a wealth of interesting observations made on the day, this report describes some of the highlights.
We met in the small reserve car park and transferred to 4×4 vehicles to drive up the track to our first stop, known by the RSPB as ‘the Moraine’. This is a small oblong ridge of drier ground which extends eastwards in a peninsula between wetter swampy vegetation each side. It has an exceptionally rich flora along the sloping sides of the ridge. Flowering plants include abundant Spignel Meum athamanticum, Wood Bitter-vetch Vicia orobus, Globeflower Trollius europaeus, Dyer’s Greenweed Genista tinctoria, Bitter-vetch Lathyrus linifolius and Saw-wort Serratula tinctoria. The Trollius had finished flowering and the Serratula was yet to flower, but the Vicia and Meum were showing extremely well and they were present in abundance.
There was also a good range of sedges including the lovely fresh green Pale Sedge Carex pallescens with its hairy leaves and crimped bract. The swamp beyond the ridge had both Bottle Sedge Carex rostrata and Bladder-sedge C. vesicaria. As we wandered around enjoying the wealth of plants, a Willow Tit was calling in the scrub nearby.
Bob did a sweep for invertebrates and was fortunate enough to find the rare jumping spider Calositticus floricola at a new location. The reserve is the only known Scottish locality for this spider and we were all delighted to be able to see it.
We then walked back to the cars for lunch before moving on to our second stop. On the way we heard and saw a Wood Warbler close by the path, alarming loudly. Gavin later confirmed that it had a nest with young nearby. Notable woodland plants included Beech Fern Phegopteris connectilis and Wood Horsetail Equisetum sylvaticum.
Our second stop, known by RSPB as ‘the Mire’, is an open area of wet heath/fen meadow which RSPB keeps clear of encroaching willow scrub by regular cutting. Here we added a number of the more typical acidic species such as Star Sedge Carex echinata, Hare’s-tail Cotton-grass Eriophorum vaginatum, Marsh Speedwell Veronica scutellata and Marsh Lousewort Pedicularis palustris.
The last site that we had time to look at lies in between these two areas and comprises a very tussocky area of Purple Moor-grass Molinia caerulea and Hare’s-tail Cotton-grass with scattered Bog-myrtle Myrica gale. Towards the eastern edge are some fen pools with Mare’s-tail Hippuris vulgaris, Bogbean Menyanthes trifoliata, Marsh Cinquefoil Comarum palustre and Bladderwort Utricularia sp. (which wasn’t in flower and couldn’t be identified to species level with certainty.) Bob showed us a Great Diving Beetle Dytiscus marginalis and the larva of the Common Emerald Damselfly Lestes sponsa with its characteristic striped caudal lamellae.
Bob and Gavin had made a brief visit to this last location during the lunch break and had been lucky enough to have a good view of an Osprey Pandion haliaetus soaring overhead along with three Red Kites Milvus milvus while several Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries Boloria selene flitted amongst the vegetation around them.
Driving back to Castle Douglas at the end of the day, Ken suddenly spotted the Osprey again, this time hovering over the southern part of Loch Ken, and those of us travelling with him were lucky enough to see it.
My thanks to Gavin and the RSPB for allowing us to visit this wonderful reserve and for so much help on the day; to Bob for showing us the spider as well as sampling the aquatic plants and invertebrates, and to everyone who came along and contributed to a very enjoyable meeting.
All the botanical sites we recorded were in a single monad, NX6869 and we had a total of 148 plant species.
Sarah White
