THERE is always something new to find in the Cairngorms National Park.
You may think that we know all about the wildlife in an area like the Cairngorms National Park, which is well studied. However, every year something new appears to add to the long list of rare, wonderful or special animals and plants of the Cairngorms National Park.
This year is no exception.
Following a sighting in April by the Highland Council Countryside Ranger, Duncan Macdonald, while out pushing his young son in a pram, the two of us found only the second known colony of smooth newts in the Cairngorms National Park near Kincraig.
This is a common newt in the UK, but it is rare in northern Scotland, as it prefers more neutral and nutrient-rich water.
The male smooth newt has a fantastic wavy crest along its spine, large webbed back feet and big black spots on its belly.
The next month, I spotted an unusual beetle as big as my thumb with a stunning metallic violet-black body when I was out near Colyumbridge.
I did not know what it was, so I took some photographs with my pocket digital camera in the hope of identifying it later. Back home I posted the pictures on a website called "iSpot" (www.ispot.org.uk)
This website is aimed at helping anyone identify anything in nature; you can post a photograph and ask the website community to help identify it.
Almost straight away, I had an identification - it was a violet oil beetle. This was the first recording for this rare beetle in the Cairngorms National Park (although a few have been recorded in the North-west Highlands).
Oil beetles have a fascinating life cycle, linked to solitary mining-bees. The young or larvae of oil beetles hitch a ride on the back of a bee's back to the bee's nest.
The larvae then feed on the bee's eggs and store of nectar and pollen before overwintering in the nest and emerging as an adult oil beetle the next spring.
Oil beetles are under threat, and a priority in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. There is a super guide and some fun activities on oil beetles on the website at www.buglife.org.uk/getinvolved/surveys
In June, while out surveying for great crested newts for the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust (www.arc-trust.org), I did not find any of these very rare newts, but I did find a new breeding site for the even rarer Northern damselfly, near Alvie.
This pretty blue and black damselfly breeds in only 31 ponds in the UK, 28 of them in the Cairngorms National Park, mostly in Strathspey.
The Northern damselfly is a priority in the Cairngorms Biodiversity Action Plan, and classified as "endangered" by the British Dragonfly Society (www.british-dragonflies.org.uk).
Finally, in July, while out with the Atholl Estate Rangers, we found another new animal for the Cairngorms National Park, near Blair Castle, the Azure damselfly.
Another lovely blue and black damselfly that is widespread in southern Britain, it has slowly been colonising central Scotland.
Back in the office, I checked with the Scottish Dragonfly Recorder, Pat Batty, and Azure damselflies have turned up in Insh Marshes, Muir of Ord and North Kessock this year.
Is this a response to climate change, maybe? Who knows, but it does mean I will have to pay special attention to every blue damselfly I see in the future. What a special place the Cairngorms National Park is!
This latest edition of the 'Country Diary' was submitted by Mr Stephen Corcoran, Cairngorms Biodiversity Officer, who can be contacted by e-mail at stephencorcoran@cairngorms.co.uk or called on (01479) 870528 with any unusual sightings.
