Lochaber Local Biodiversity Group

Highland Biodiversity - The Variety of Life

Lochaber Local Biodiversity Group

Key Species to look for in Lochaber

Manx Shearwater

Otter

Purple Saxifrage

Manx Shearwater
Manx Shearwaters are related to Fulmars and Albatrosses. Around 61,000 pairs (23% of world population) breed in burrows on the Rum Cullin. Manx Shearwaters spend the British winter as far south as coastal Argentina, a round trip of up to 20,000 miles.

Chequered Skipper
This colourful, fast-flying butterfly has chequered markings and is only found in north-west Scotland. It was first discovered in 1942, and its distribution is centred on Fort William and where the larval food plant is Purple Moor-grass.
Viewing Tip: Why not visit Allt Mhuic butterfly reserve on the north shore of Loch Arkaig, 20 miles due north of Fort William - visit http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/text/172/allt_mhuic_loch_arkaig.html for more information.

Otters
Otters are semi-aquatic mammals and live in holts around water edges. They are fast, agile swimmers.
Viewing Tip: Otters are widespread along the Lochaber coast and have even been seen on the pier at Fort William.

Maerl
Maerl is a collective term for several species of calcified red seaweed. Maerl is slow-growing, but over long periods its dead calcareous skeleton can accumulate into deep deposits overlain by a thin layer of pink, living maerl. Maerl beds are an important habitat for a wide variety of marine animals and plants which live amongst or are attached to its branches, or burrow in the coarse gravel of dead maerl beneath the top living layer.
Viewing Tip: The Sound of Arisaig is the key location in Lochaber for maerl beds.

Purple Saxifrage
This hardy evergreen alpine produces a mass of cup-shaped pink or purple flowers in spring.and has tiny, blue-green, oval leaves on the long, non-flowering shoots. Each leaf has small depressions near their tips which secrete lime, which can be seen as tiny white dots. Viewing Tip: Purple saxifrage is found on ledges in the mountains of Ben Nevis and Glencoe.

Sphagnum Moss
Sphagnum Moss creates the multi-coloured living carpets of moss found in wet places like peat bogs, marshland, heath and moorland. Sphagnum mosses help to create peat bogs by holding water. There are at thirty-four known species of Sphagnum Moss in Britain, of which, at least twenty-nine have been recorded in Lochaber.

White-tailed Eagle
The white-tailed eagle is the largest UK bird of prey. It has brown body with a pale head and neck which can be almost white in older birds. The tail feathers of adults are white. In flight it has massive long, broad wings with 'fingered' ends. Its head protrudes and it has a short, wedge-shaped tail. The white-tailed eagle became extinct in the UK during the early 19th century and the present population has been reintroduced.
Viewing Tip: The White-tailed eagle was first re-introduced to Britain on the island of Rum and it has spread - now nesting and being seen more widely in Lochaber.

Golden Eagle
A large bird of prey, the Golden Eagle has long broad wings and long tail. It likes to soar and glide on air currents, holding its wings in a shallow 'V'. Eagles have traditional territories and nesting places (earies) which may be used by several generations of birds.
Viewing Tip: Golden eagles can be seen soaring over the hills of Moidart and Ardgour.

Sphagnum Moss

White-tailed Eagle

Golden Eagle