SWSEIC Recording Group at Eastriggs MOD, 4th June 2025

The recording day at Eastriggs was held jointly with the Dumfriesshire Botany Group. The event was well attended with 14 of us showing up to survey the site on the day.

The site lies SE of Eastriggs, covering the area inland of Torduff Point, and was once the production site for the explosive cordite during World War I. Today it is a mixture of grassland, woodland and brownfield. Unlike most of the sites we visit, there was virtually no previous wildlife records  on the site so anything and everything we did find, common or otherwise, was likley to be new knowledge. Amazingly between us all we recorded 580 species – a major success!

Whilst the botany group went off immediately to start surveying, most of our troop as usual started off looking through the moth and mammal traps. The moth traps didn’t catch huge numbers of moths but a few of the highlights included Devon Carpet Lampropteryx otregiata, Broken-barred Carpet Electrophaes corylata and Knapweed Bell Epiblema cirsiana. Richard and Barbara Mearns also recorded Marbled White Spot Protodeltote pygarga and Northern Grey Tortrix Aphelia unitana on the day which may both turn out to be firsts for Dumfriesshire. They also found the uncommonly recorded Birch Straw Thyraylia nana. Special thanks also to Alison Robertson who added Knapweed Bell Epiblema cirsiana and helped with identification of specimens under the microscope for some of the trickier micro-moths.

Freshwater invertebrate enthusiast Bob Merritt had a productive day recording 80 species including two nationally rare species: the money spider Bathyphantes setiger and the water beetle Rhantus frontalis. He also confirmed breeding of Emperor Dragonfly Anax imperator on the sites’ ponds, a relatively recently colonist of Dumfries and Galloway.

The Dumfriesshire Botany Group had hoped to find a number of brownfield species but sadly did not find many of these. They did however record 187 vascular plant species between two separate 1km squares; highlights included Trailing Tormentil Potentilla anglica and Blunt-leaved Pondweed Potamogeton obtusifolius, neither of which are commonly recorded in Dumfriesshire. Considering the site had almost no previous plant records however this is a significant improvement on our knowledge of the sites botanical diversity.

Jon Noad recorded a number of bees, wasp and ants. Most notable were Ectemnius continuus and Myrmica rubra, both of which are probably under recorded but good records for Dumfriesshire.

A small group (SWSEIC’s Malcolm Haddow joined by Lorraine Hall, John Halliday and Alison Robertson) went bug hunting and recorded a number of species. These included the uncommon hoverfly Platycheirus scutatus, the bug Cymus glandicolor and 24-spot Ladybird Subcoccinella vigintiquattuorpunctata.

Unfortunately the day, whilst dry, was quite windy and cloudy and was not ideal for insect recording. This was disappointing as during the risk assessment we had discovered a colony of Dingy Skipper Erynnis tages which is now a very rare butterfly in Dumfriesshire. During the risk assessment we also found a female Broad-bodied Chaser Libellula depressa and saw and heard Cetti’s Warbler Cettia cetti. Sadly, none of these species showed on the day.

Nonetheless the site has much left to be discovered, and several recorders have expressed and interest in revisiting the site. This is something we are looking into…

 

Malcolm Haddow

SWSEIC Support Officer

If you are interested in joining our recording group you can do so here.