It feels like a month where I have been out a lot but with not too much to report. The search for the pipe club fungus continued and in the end over 40 new sites were recorded and the details forwarded to the British Mycological Society (BMS) for their database. The records will eventually appear at http://www.fieldmycology.net/FRDBI/FRDBIrecord.asp?pg=6 and to search for other records go to http://www.fieldmycology.net/GBCHKLST/gbchklst.asp and type the Latin name in to the Genus search term box and click “search for genus”. This is quite a good site and for each species page you can click on a tab for NBN maps to show distribution. Still on a fungus theme, I managed to sort through all my tooth fungi records for 2008 (600+) and forward these to BMS with all my records for 2009 (770+) due to be sent shortly. The names of all species recorded over the years can be found in an earlier diary (15 Oct 2009).
The pipe club fungus search took me into many broadleaved woodlands and whilst in the beech woods I had an eye open for something the Highland Biological Recording Group had asked its members to look for – the beech
leaf-gall midge (Hartigiola annulipes left). The mind boggles at what we get up to. But of course a challenge is there to be met so, looking down at the ground for fungi, my eyes were also on the look out for beech leaves with strange wee growths on their upper surface. It didn’t take long to find some, firstly in the ancient beech woods at Rothiemurchus, and then in most of the others visited in the Strathspey area. The galls were also found in beech woods at Mar Lodge on Deeside, a first for this area. As is the case with these undertakings, we are out there looking for something that is obviously fairly common but just hasn’t been searched for before. The actual midge is very difficult to see but the gall literally “sticks out like a sore thumb” and is relatively easy to see. Before this request there was one location known in Scotland so to see what has happened over the last couple of months visit http://www.hbrg.org.uk/Frameset.html and be amazed.
As the fieldfares departed the wild greylag geese arrive (as compared to the
ever increasing flock of feral birds locally 400+) and can now be seen on many of the cereal fields locally. The first round of BTO Winter Atlas tetrads were visited without coming across anything out of the ordinary. Our chalet guests spotted a rare species on rowan berries in the garden mid-November, a male blackcap. The same bird(?) also turned up in another garden in Nethybridge the following day but hasn’t been seen since. A turnip field close to Lurg farm on the outskirts of Nethy was starting to attract a large number of chaffinches on 15 November along with a few twite and goldfinches and a single reed bunting. A brilliant male king eider is also cu
rrently tempting birders up to Burghead where it can be seen just off-shore along with a few scoters and long-tailed ducks. Firwood garden has also seen a big increase in bird numbers recently with frosty weather turning to heavy snow over the last couple of days. As I type and the snow falls heavily, there are 30+ chaffinches, yellowhammers, coal, blue and great tits, the odd crested tit (above), collared doves, woodpigeons, house sparrows, blackbirds, dunnocks, robins, great spotted woodpecker and a couple of pheasants in the garden searching for food. A few rooks appeared yesterday and no doubt the odd sparrowhawk will have whizzed through. Up to 5 red squirrels are also around. Brrr!
The pipe club fungus search took me into many broadleaved woodlands and whilst in the beech woods I had an eye open for something the Highland Biological Recording Group had asked its members to look for – the beech
leaf-gall midge (Hartigiola annulipes left). The mind boggles at what we get up to. But of course a challenge is there to be met so, looking down at the ground for fungi, my eyes were also on the look out for beech leaves with strange wee growths on their upper surface. It didn’t take long to find some, firstly in the ancient beech woods at Rothiemurchus, and then in most of the others visited in the Strathspey area. The galls were also found in beech woods at Mar Lodge on Deeside, a first for this area. As is the case with these undertakings, we are out there looking for something that is obviously fairly common but just hasn’t been searched for before. The actual midge is very difficult to see but the gall literally “sticks out like a sore thumb” and is relatively easy to see. Before this request there was one location known in Scotland so to see what has happened over the last couple of months visit http://www.hbrg.org.uk/Frameset.html and be amazed.As the fieldfares departed the wild greylag geese arrive (as compared to the
ever increasing flock of feral birds locally 400+) and can now be seen on many of the cereal fields locally. The first round of BTO Winter Atlas tetrads were visited without coming across anything out of the ordinary. Our chalet guests spotted a rare species on rowan berries in the garden mid-November, a male blackcap. The same bird(?) also turned up in another garden in Nethybridge the following day but hasn’t been seen since. A turnip field close to Lurg farm on the outskirts of Nethy was starting to attract a large number of chaffinches on 15 November along with a few twite and goldfinches and a single reed bunting. A brilliant male king eider is also cu
rrently tempting birders up to Burghead where it can be seen just off-shore along with a few scoters and long-tailed ducks. Firwood garden has also seen a big increase in bird numbers recently with frosty weather turning to heavy snow over the last couple of days. As I type and the snow falls heavily, there are 30+ chaffinches, yellowhammers, coal, blue and great tits, the odd crested tit (above), collared doves, woodpigeons, house sparrows, blackbirds, dunnocks, robins, great spotted woodpecker and a couple of pheasants in the garden searching for food. A few rooks appeared yesterday and no doubt the odd sparrowhawk will have whizzed through. Up to 5 red squirrels are also around. Brrr! A special mention must go to Barbara, our chalet guest in early November, she has to be the first guest to clock up about 100 walking miles during her weeks stay. I staggered up and down Meall a’ Bhuachaille above Glenmore in an afternoon. Barbara walked from Firwood to Glenmore and back in the day, and nipped up the same mountain in passing!
It has been a month dominated one way or another by lichens. Oliver, the Bryophyte apprentice working at Abernethy started it off by finding Lobaria scrobiculata (left growing with green Lungwort) growing on an equally rare hazel tree above the River Nethy. We thought the lichen was new to Abernethy until I checked the map on the NBN website (below left) and was intrigued to find that it had been found close to Oliver’s site in 2001. Strange I thought, because a report bringing together all known lichen records for the reserve had been compiled by Sheila & Les Street in……….. September 2000! A quick email and I find out that Sheila & Les were involved in a survey of lichens in aspen woodland stands in Strathspey in 2001, a year after the comprehensive list was compiled. During the survey with Brian Coppins, they visited a stand of just 25 ancient aspens close to the 
River Nethy on the reserve when the Lobaria was found. A report had been compiled but for some reason, I had never seen/received a copy, so attached to the email was a new copy. The report was mind-blowing, the Lobaria was a minor find compared to what else was found. The survey found 65 species of lichen on the 25 aspen trees with some spectacular finds. Lecanora populicola was thought to be extinct in Britain and hadn’t been recorded for 150 years. Caloplaca flavorubescens, now very rare in Britain was found on a third of the aspens at this site making it the most populated site in the UK for this species. Arthonia patellulata was found here and at a site but a few days earlier at Insh Marshes reserve and was new to Britain but pride of place has to go to Rinodina laevigata the first British record for this species and the first time it had been recorded in Europe outside Fennoscandia and Russia. Despite the small size of this aspen relic and its remoteness from other mature stands, the richness of its lichen flora suggests a very long history of ecological continuity. The priority now is to ensure a few more of the root suckers (young trees) appearing on the site receive protection from deer grazing to ensure the aspen stand survives and increases in size.A visit to the stand a couple of weeks ago to accurately record the locations
of some key lichen supporting trees produced another wee surprise. A strange woven cocoon was found on one of the aspens, covered in what appeared to be moth or butterfly eggs. I circulated the photo to a few experts and the answer came back that it was the cocoon of a vaperour moth. In this species the female moth is flightless so that when she emerges from the chrysalis inside the cocoon she has to stay put until a male moth finds her, mates, and she then lays her eggs on the outside of the cocoon. The female moth had long gone but she had left behind a real work of art. Oli
ver’s find also inspired me to revisit a steep wooded gorge near Kingussie where I had found lungwort lichens (Lobaria pulmonaria) way back in January whilst looking for green shield-moss capsules. If lungwort was there there was always the possibility of other localised species and perhaps L. scrobiculata, a lichen quite rare this far east, and anyway, an accurate count of the trees with lungwort needed to be made. This gorge (left) doesn’t have too big a stream running through it but the sides are quite steep and a bit slippery particularly when there had been a hard frost the night before. Thankfully Janet only sees the pictures of where I get too! The first patch of lungwort was found growing on an old willow and when it was time to head homeward, six willows had been found with good populations of the lichen. 
In places there were good patches of a dog-type lichen Peltigera membranacea, mainly grey in colour but with very long “teeth” or rhizines on the underside of the leafy lobes (right). I was still hopeful though of one more lichen turning up and as I made my way to the stream at the bottom of the gorge something bright green caught my eye on the rock wall opposite. Visits like this are always best made in wellies so there was no problem in pad
dling across the stream to the other side and there in all its bright green livery was Petligera britannica, the one lichen I was hoping would turn up.
dling across the stream to the other side and there in all its bright green livery was Petligera britannica, the one lichen I was hoping would turn up. So just time for a few photos (left) and a GPS location before it was time to head back to the car. As I exited the gorge the sun was shining brilliantly in a blue but frosty late afternoon sky and the snow capped top of Carn Bán Mόr in the far distance made for a stunning sight. Red nose, rosy cheeks and a wonky knee but a brilliant day, and a few new lichen locations to boot.
Janet has also been very busy on the Harris tweed craft front with many amazing creations coming from her sewing machine along with cards of local scenes. A full day sale of local crafts at friend Sally’s house in aid of charity in November depleted her stoc
k so another busy period ensued to make more stock for another craft sale at Rothiemurchus in aid of Trees for Life. Craft-work may have to play an important part of her life after Christmas after having had to make a life changing decision recently. Loss of pension rights since going part-time at Grantown Grammar School a couple of years ago means that she will be giving up her job early in the new year, much to the horror of the pupils she supports in the Learning Support Department. So a new year and a new dawn in her life. Watch this space.
I
t has been a busy year at Firwood and we would like to take this opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to all those visitors who have made the journey to Firwood Chalet in Nethybridge. It was nice to welcome those making their first visit and also great to welcome back so many regulars, now friends.
We wish you all a Happy Christmas and send our best wishes for 2010.
Janet & Stewart
Frosty sunset Loch Garten
All photos © Stewart Taylor
