Following a recent report of large brown upwinged flies hatching on the Doon at Dalrymple I went a had a look at the river at noon last weekend. Right on cue at 12:10 a few large flies started to hatch amongst the smaller olives.
After running about midstream I managed to catch one in my hands and sure enough it looked like a March Brown, later confirmed by Craig Macadam of Buglife. The Riverfly Partnership are running a nationwide survey to record the distribution of the March Brown http://www.riverflies.org/index/marchbrown.html so if you come across any in the next few weeks please let them know.
March Brown from River Doon
Later in the week we also saw several March Brown’s hatching in the upper River Irvine. It now looks quite likely that they could be present in other local rivers, the Ayr and Stinchar are distinct possibilities, if you are on these rivers keep your eyes open around midday/ early afternoon.
The riverfly partnership are also carrying out a survey on the distribution of Yellow May Duns http://www.riverflies.org/index/yellowmaydun.html. They are very common in Ayrshire but it would be good to provide some formal records to this survey. Please report any you see.
Brian Shaw
