installed and the whole area looking like a work of art. The gooseberry bushes were also "attacked" and 20 lbs of berries picked, some were packed and frozen, others were topped and tailed and within a day had been neatly converted into regimented jars of gooseberry jam - delicious! A crumble or two also disappeared into the freezer along with a couple of trays of rasps and strawberries from Hardmuir Farm to get us through the winter. The last of the early lettuces were dined on and the other planted produce given a dusting of "miracle" rock dust, natural fertiliser, hopefully giving a late summer boost to their growing season. A displaying osprey overhead whilst in the garden was nice, perhaps Henry returning with dinner for EJ?
A good wander through some more of the bog woodland areas located even more of the big raft spiders guarding their nursery webs, in fact another thirty nests were found with a few guard spiders doing something I hadn't seen before - leaping off the nursery web and... plop, disappearing under the water. I realised a little later that it was probably my pale shirt that was making me very conspicuous and obvious as I moved, and the 
quickest way to safety for the spider was to jump and disappear under the water. Survival first, check the spiderlings second. The highlight of Ross's dragonfly afternoon on Wednesday was two of these big beasts posing for photographs, one with its nursery web and the other carrying its egg sac. Also seen regularly in the same bog area were capercaillie droppings, do the spiders make a tasty and satisfying meal? One bonus of my wander was finding a new site for mud sedge (Carex limosa seen left) a beautiful plant and one that has spread a little as the restored bogs continue to "mature" (right). A second bonus was finding a couple of quite big butterflies resting on the tops of the flowering heads of Deschampsia cespitosa - tussock grass, growing along the line of an old track through the Scots pines. It was obvious that the butterflies were fritillaries, but dark-green fritillaries in a wood? Well yes, that is what they turned out to
be and, with a few nicely maturing thistle heads along the overgrown track, there was a ready food supply to hand. For further information see: http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species.php?vernacular_name=Dark%20Green%20Fritillary#Habitat or http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/species/bdata/butterfly.php?code=dar is it near you, click on the NBN Gateway map on the second website. Staff and their dogs have been wandering the forest this last week carrying out the annual count of capercaillie and black grouse chicks. This has not been a good summer for any of the ground nesting bird species, particularly 
those whose young forage amongst the deeper vegetation on the forest floor. Regular rain, cool temperatures and the chicks get very wet, find food hard to come by, probably call more because the going is so difficult and fall prey to the natural forest predators who pick up on the regular calls. June is the critical month and over the last fifteen years of brood counting it is known that when more than sixty millimetres of rain falls from the skies during that month, woodland grouse productivity will decrease. One hundred and thirty millimetres of rain fell this year and even during July, conditions have not been much better. Staff were amazed therefore when, on Thursday a female capercaillie with two chicks was found, followed by another with one chick. Finding any chicks shows that even under the worst of conditions some chicks can survive, but three chicks from the twent
y females gives an average productivity of just 0.15 chicks per female. For the population to remain stable the recruitment rate needs to be no less than 0.6 chicks per female and for the population to increase then more than one chick per female is required. The latter rate of recruitment has only been achieved three times in the last fifteen years so you can start to appreciate how difficult it is for the caper population to grow. However, over the fifteen years the Abernethy population has just about held its own so we shouldn't worry too much when we get such a poor year as 2007.
those whose young forage amongst the deeper vegetation on the forest floor. Regular rain, cool temperatures and the chicks get very wet, find food hard to come by, probably call more because the going is so difficult and fall prey to the natural forest predators who pick up on the regular calls. June is the critical month and over the last fifteen years of brood counting it is known that when more than sixty millimetres of rain falls from the skies during that month, woodland grouse productivity will decrease. One hundred and thirty millimetres of rain fell this year and even during July, conditions have not been much better. Staff were amazed therefore when, on Thursday a female capercaillie with two chicks was found, followed by another with one chick. Finding any chicks shows that even under the worst of conditions some chicks can survive, but three chicks from the twent
y females gives an average productivity of just 0.15 chicks per female. For the population to remain stable the recruitment rate needs to be no less than 0.6 chicks per female and for the population to increase then more than one chick per female is required. The latter rate of recruitment has only been achieved three times in the last fifteen years so you can start to appreciate how difficult it is for the caper population to grow. However, over the fifteen years the Abernethy population has just about held its own so we shouldn't worry too much when we get such a poor year as 2007. For the last few years I have been searching the local area for a small plant called marsh clubmoss (okay, I know we are back into the wet stuff - but I like the wet stuff!) Lycopodiella inundata. It used to occur in several places around Loch Morlich, but, with the development of activities on the water, the development of a large camping and caravan park along one shore and, being an attractive place to stop for a walk for the thousands of visitors travelling every year along the road to Cairngorm, the poor loch shore has become
very heavily trampled leading to the loss of several rare breeding birds and plants. The clubmoss is one such plant. Some very good clubmoss type habitat does remain but as yet, no clubmoss has been found. On Tuesday a little bit more information came to light as to where it was last seen - in 1978. On Wednesday evening after work, I was there having a look. The plant does like the wet, it likes areas of ground which, for a good part of the year, is under water. At this time of year the habitat should be reasonably dry but, after all the rain we have had this summer, the 1978 site was still fifty percent under water. Nothing was f
ound so another visit will be needed once Noah has released the animals two by two! The visit did, though, produce one unusual plant Drosera angelica the long-leaved sundew (above right). This is a plant which is fairly common in the west of Scotland, but decreases as you travel east, so Loch Morlich is on the edge of its "range". It's one of a group of insect devouring plants, the red blobs on the long leaves being very sticky, insects land, become stuck to the leaf, and the plant then devours the insect! Amazing. Something more amazing though was when Andy (local plant recorder for BSBI see last diary) checked for earlier records he found that a famous local botanist, Mary MacCallam-Webster had found the plant in the same area in 1918! The plant in the picture left is the long-leaved sundew's close relative, the round-leaved sundew Drosera rotundifolia, which is common in this area.
very heavily trampled leading to the loss of several rare breeding birds and plants. The clubmoss is one such plant. Some very good clubmoss type habitat does remain but as yet, no clubmoss has been found. On Tuesday a little bit more information came to light as to where it was last seen - in 1978. On Wednesday evening after work, I was there having a look. The plant does like the wet, it likes areas of ground which, for a good part of the year, is under water. At this time of year the habitat should be reasonably dry but, after all the rain we have had this summer, the 1978 site was still fifty percent under water. Nothing was f
ound so another visit will be needed once Noah has released the animals two by two! The visit did, though, produce one unusual plant Drosera angelica the long-leaved sundew (above right). This is a plant which is fairly common in the west of Scotland, but decreases as you travel east, so Loch Morlich is on the edge of its "range". It's one of a group of insect devouring plants, the red blobs on the long leaves being very sticky, insects land, become stuck to the leaf, and the plant then devours the insect! Amazing. Something more amazing though was when Andy (local plant recorder for BSBI see last diary) checked for earlier records he found that a famous local botanist, Mary MacCallam-Webster had found the plant in the same area in 1918! The plant in the picture left is the long-leaved sundew's close relative, the round-leaved sundew Drosera rotundifolia, which is common in this area.Another old record re-appeared this week. Wandering through a group of stunted Scots pines I could see something bright green on one of the needle covered branches (left). Immediately I knew 
they were sawflies larvae (like caterpillars), and common old pine sawfly larvae they would have remained if it hadn't have been for making contact with Andrew in Germany via Mark in Edinburgh (don't ask) regarding getting a large female adult sawfly identified (below right). The large fly though impressive in size, turned out to be just the common birch sawfly (or club-horned sawfly) Cimbex femoratus. I did happen to mention though, that I has recently photographed the green sawfly larvae I'd seen and
Andrew asked to see the picture. The larvae turned out to be larvae of the pine sawfly Gilpinia pallida , a regular devourer of pine needles, so much so that in some years they can become quite serious pests (if you grow trees commercially that is) stripping trees of all their needles. Andrew kindly sent me a note from the handbook he was using to identify the insect which stated that " JJM King recorded the sawfly in Garten Wood near Loch Garten in 1922"! The same wood where I photographed the larvae eighty-five years later. I'm starting to feel old!
they were sawflies larvae (like caterpillars), and common old pine sawfly larvae they would have remained if it hadn't have been for making contact with Andrew in Germany via Mark in Edinburgh (don't ask) regarding getting a large female adult sawfly identified (below right). The large fly though impressive in size, turned out to be just the common birch sawfly (or club-horned sawfly) Cimbex femoratus. I did happen to mention though, that I has recently photographed the green sawfly larvae I'd seen and
Andrew asked to see the picture. The larvae turned out to be larvae of the pine sawfly Gilpinia pallida , a regular devourer of pine needles, so much so that in some years they can become quite serious pests (if you grow trees commercially that is) stripping trees of all their needles. Andrew kindly sent me a note from the handbook he was using to identify the insect which stated that " JJM King recorded the sawfly in Garten Wood near Loch Garten in 1922"! The same wood where I photographed the larvae eighty-five years later. I'm starting to feel old!A lot of fungi are now starting to appear, the ground is nicely damp and the air temperature is s
tarting to creep higher. Russulas are common along track-sides and a few waxcaps have popped up on the local football pitch. In some of the old track-side quarries or borrow-pits the first tooth fungi are starting to appear and one very impressive species is Hydnellum peckii, a brilliant Latin name is equalled by a very descriptive English name - bleeding tooth fungus. When young (rear red cap), this fungus has a cap that is covered in little red globules, very blood like, and even more so if rain falls onto the cap and all the globules join up to become a single covering of "blood" on the cap. These fungi have teeth under the cap instead of gills hence the name. This is one of the better specimens I have come across in recent days. Note also how the cap of the fungus has the ability to grow around the sticks that get in its way!
tarting to creep higher. Russulas are common along track-sides and a few waxcaps have popped up on the local football pitch. In some of the old track-side quarries or borrow-pits the first tooth fungi are starting to appear and one very impressive species is Hydnellum peckii, a brilliant Latin name is equalled by a very descriptive English name - bleeding tooth fungus. When young (rear red cap), this fungus has a cap that is covered in little red globules, very blood like, and even more so if rain falls onto the cap and all the globules join up to become a single covering of "blood" on the cap. These fungi have teeth under the cap instead of gills hence the name. This is one of the better specimens I have come across in recent days. Note also how the cap of the fungus has the ability to grow around the sticks that get in its way!.jpg)
I couldn't resist putting in a picture of our grandson Finlay accompanied by his mum Ruth. The wee man seems to grow a foot every time we see him!
By the way, the sun shone today!
That's it, enjoy the read
Stewart & Janet
late night reflection at Loch Mallachie
All photos © Stewart Taylor
