Two months, all in one blog!
1st November and, right on cue, a tawny owl was
calling very loudly in the trees just across the road from Firwood. This is towards the end of the main calling period
(late August to October) the time of year that tawny owls sort out their
breeding territories. I took part in the
last BTO survey in 2005 but decided not to sign up for this one but, the BTO
were asking for volunteers to go out to randomly chosen OS map squares, to
listen for calling birds during the two hours after sunset. This survey has been resurrected due to the
decline in tawny owl numbers by comparing the data from the last two BTO UK
Bird Atlas surveys (1968 -1972 and 2007 – 2011), from the annual Breeding Bird
Survey and the all year round BirdTrack records. The BTO were also asking for additional volunteers
to undertake a new survey ‘The Tawny Owl Calling Survey’ a weekly survey from your
garden, a local park or piece of woodland (30 September 2018 to 31 March 2019)
for 20 minutes between sunset and midnight.
Even though this survey is now well underway the BTO would still be
happy to have your records between now and the end of March 2019. Worth checking if either survey will run
again in 2019.
Work on the electric fence progressed well and, with new
drill gadgets available to screw in the insulators etc, progress was quite
quick. The length of the almost square
fence was just 200m so not too big a job but not having worked with 20mm wide
electric tape before, a few lessons had to be learnt. A few overhead branches had to be trimmed
along with bits of juniper bushes and any tall vegetation touching the old
stock fence because contact between tape and the ground (earth) would short-out
the electric current and take the power from the fence. Unlike wiring in a house, the
positive wire
goes between battery and electrical tape and the negative wire goes to a one
metre metal stake in the ground. This
wiring system ensures that whether human or animal touches the tape its body
acts as a conductor allowing 6000-8000 volts to give a sharp shock as it
travels through the body to the ground.
The tape isn’t constantly ‘alive’ as the fence unit sends out a positive
pulse about every 5-10 seconds ensuring the battery doesn’t run out of power
too quickly. The battery in turn
receives all its power from the solar panel so everything works well – but only
if the sun gets a chance to shine! The
‘official’ switch on was on the 12 November and all worked well until a voltage
check in early December showed there was no power and walking the fence-line I
found a roe deer had jumped the fence but caught the top, bending the metal
tape holder over until it touched the
wire of the stock fence. Tape holder bent back to upright and tapes
re-tightened and it was fingers crossed in the hope that deer had had a bit of
a scare and wouldn’t be back. Wrong! The same thing happened again a couple of
weeks later. The forest floor on the
outside of the fence at the point of incursion was high enough to give the roe
deer a bit of height advantage when jumping in and it was probably when trying
to get out that it caused damage to the tape.
Annabel, who has horses in the field at the end of our road had a few
spare plastic electric fence posts and these were borrowed and quickly
installed with an extra piece of electrical tape attached which removed the
ground-height advantage. To date this
has solved the problem and possibly with the help of a discarded plastic tub I found
nearby filled a little with human scented urine!
Thinking about odd scents leads nicely on to another unusual
find close to the electric fence whilst checking out a recently fallen aspen
brought down by a recent gale. The
woodland around the fenced plot is grazed by sheep in the winter and cattle in
the summer and it was, as I was approaching the
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| Cow-pat top and spores etc at x400 and x1000 oil of Cheilymenia (=Coprobia) granulate fungus |
aspen that I noticed an old cow
pat with a bright orange colouring on top.
A closer look showed the cowpat was covered in probably hundreds of a tiny
disc-like fungus, 1-2mm in size and, because the cow pat was several weeks old
and turning crusty, I thought it ‘safe’ to cut a section away with a good
number of the discs for checking once home.
Typing orange disc fungus on cow pat into Google led me straight to Cheilymenia
(=Coprobia) granulate, an early coloniser of cow pats and other herbivore
droppings and is one of many organisms converting animal droppings into
humus. However, because there are
several other disc-type fungi on dung the websites advised to check a specimen
under the microscope to be sure of the right species, so that is what I
did. As I increased the magnification it
was clear to see massed ‘tubes’ (asci) all containing eight spores and at x1000
magnification the ellipsoid spores measured 16-19 x 10-12 microns (µm) so all
was correct. Despite the fungus
supposedly being ‘quite common’ I think this was the first time I had seen it.
Another fence was also finally completed at the end of
November, the fence that was heightened around the planted aspens back in May. As a stock height fence it wasn’t classed as
a problem for woodland grouse (black grouse and capercaillie) but, by
increasing it to deer height, additional droppers had to be added to make it
more visible. Because help wasn’t
available in May when the fence was ‘completed’ these droppers were attached
using just a heavy-duty hand stapler, but I knew that these wouldn’t be strong
enough to hold the droppers in place should red deer rattle them with
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| Thank you team |
their
antlers. Proper fencing staples would
need to be hammered in to replace them but, with the lightweight droppers
attached to just three line-wires, a second person would be needed to hold a
heavy-duty hammer against the dropper to allow the fence staples to be banged
home. With help from Amelie and Chris at
RSPB Abernethy along with volunteer Alan this job was completed on the 30th
November. As we were driving out to the
site, I had to explain to the team that the bottles rattling in the back of the
landrover contained Prosecco, something to celebrate with once the job was
done. Once back at Forest Lodge each
team member was given their mini-bottles to celebrate with
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| 2 green shield-moss capsules growing from moss on rock |
once home, but one
was opened just to say thanks for helping finish this long-running job. On the way home, I stopped to check out a
regular location for the green shield-moss (Buxbaumia viridis) and though there was none on the
usual log something on a lightly mossy rock caught my eye: three capsules
growing quite happily and possibly a UK first for the moss found on a rock
habitat. All of my records to date have
been from wood based habitats.
For the hundredth anniversary of the 11th hour of
the 11th day of the 11th month and end of the First World
War I headed for the peace of the Rynettin croft area in Abernethy Forest. This location would allow me to see if the
flock of herdwick sheep undertaking the grazing this year for the owners were
doing a good job waxcap-wise and to be in a peaceful place for the two-minute
silence at 11-o-clock. Six different
waxcaps were found comprising about 75 fruiting bodies so quite an important
grassland
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| Crimson waxcap top and meadow waxcap |
site. The species seen were
butter waxcap (Hygrocybe chlorophana), meadow waxcap (Hygrocybe pratensis), parrot
waxcap (Hygrocybe psittacine), crimson waxcap (Hygrocybe punicea) and snowy
waxcap (Hygrocybe virginea). On this
visit and the one later in November to finish off the fence it was obvious that
the sheep had done an amazing job and, despite the dry summer, lots of fruiting
bodies had appeared, probably all down to the grazing technique of the sheep. Also
noticeable was, as the autumn progressed, the sheep left the improved grassland
field and concentrated on the natural but previously under-grazed adjacent
‘rough’ grassland. Right through until
the end of November
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| The brilliant herdwick sheep |
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| We will remember them |
more and more fruiting bodies appeared and, apart from odd
ones getting trampled, most were left to mature and spread their spores. Adjacent to the croft’s rough grassland, RSPB
own a very rank area of the same natural grassland mix and discussions have
started to see if this area could also be grazed by the herdwick sheep – so
long as I can find some funding to help fence the site to allow the sheep
access to graze. Fingers-crossed because
with the list of species known to have been present at this site before the
grass grew too deep makes it almost of national importance thanks to the
recording effort of the late Peter Orton with myself as companion and chauffer. This was also the right sort of location to remember all
those who lost their lives during the 1st World War.
Late in November Janet’s brother phoned to say her mum had
been taken to hospital with breathing difficulties, her condition deteriorating
over the next couple of days. When the
phone rang at 3am on the 26th we both knew that her amazing life of
almost 99 years had come to an end, confirmed by Janet’s brother during the
call. Nellie was born near Wigan into a
mining family. She married Albert in
1942 and they had four children, Janet being the second eldest. A keen cycling family, most Sundays were
spent out with the local Cyclist Touring Club members and a few weekends saw
visits
to Youth Hostels. Cycle tours
during the school holidays became famous with trips to the Yorkshire dales,
Ireland and Wales, the early ones as family holidays but, over the years,
numbers grew and trips to Wales and Ireland saw about 20 folk on a mixture of
two and three-wheeled bikes, tandems (including Nellie and Albert) and even a tandem
trike! A few of the attendees were also
keen folk singers and it wasn’t unusual on the last Ireland trip to see faces
at the windows and the doors constantly being opened to see who was singing all
the songs when we visited the local pubs at night. Pedalling back from southern Wales in the
mid-60s saw myself and Janet getting to know each
other better, eventually
marrying in 1969. Nellie and Albert
climbed Ben Nevis in their 50s, hitch-hiked through the Uists in their 70s but
perhaps their most unusual ‘adventure’ was when Albert got a job as a gardener
at Pittodrie House in Aberdeenshire. We
were already living in Nethy Bridge so it was nice to welcome other family
members north. Nellie and Albert
returned to Lancashire as her mum got older, and though the tandem wasn’t
resurrected they attended Ramblers outings most weekends. In 1999 Nellie lost her husband and best
friend but carried on as long as she could attending outings with the local
rambling groups. Our recent visits to
Lancashire will long be remembered for the lunchtime outings to pubs and cafés
where Nellie had the ability to ‘squeeze’ in a nice pub pudding to finish off
the meal!
Nellies funeral was held on the 5th December at
Accrington crematorium with the Taylor-clan driving down the day before and
staying at Sparth House in Clayton-le-moors.
Having booked in we visited the funeral parlour to pay our last respects
to Nellie and finding a nice display of ferns popping out from the red-bricked
wall of the building, one of which turned out to be rusty-back fern. On the day
of the funeral our cars met up at
Milnshaw Gardens, Nellie’s last place of residence before following the funeral
car to the crematorium. Despite the
sadness of the day (and the return of emotions as I type), Laura’s partner
Douglas managed to find a series of songs by the Irish Band the Clancy Brothers
one of Nellie’s favourite folk bands and I hope she was listening as we joined
in with the songs as we drove. As we
said one last goodbye to our mum, grandma, great grandma and great-great
grandma, the Ashokan Lament was playing in the background.
As we arrived back home Janet had to load up the cars ready
for the Boat of Garten Christmas Fair the next day, a well-attended event in
the village community hall. As Janet
sold, I returned home to make up a card to send to the warden and residents at
Milnshaw Gardens to say thank you for their companionship and friendship over
the many years. On the Sunday it was
back to normal with an outing to Loch Ruthven to look for a lichen I had heard
about on BBC Radio 4 earlier in the year.
I was lying in bed early on the morning of 25 March with BBC Radio 4
playing quietly into my ear-piece and was privileged to hear a repeat of ‘The
Living World’ from 2011 when Paul Evans joins Ray Woods in Snowdonia in a
programme titled The Celtic Rainforest.
The programme’s content struck a few personal chords with Ray taking
listeners firstly into the world of ‘filmy-ferns’ and then mentioning a lichen
going by the name of black-eyed-Susan.
Not being familiar with the name I
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| The first Wilson's filmy-fern in Inshriach NNR |
typed it into Google to find I was
dealing with Bunodophoron melanocarpum and was inspired to go looking for it
and also to do a bit of botanising. When
we lived on Rum in the mid-1970s I was fairly certain that we saw Wilson’s
filmy-fern (Hymenophyllum wilsonii) the first filmy-fern Ray talks about in the
programme and I wondered if this fern had been found in my local area in
Strathspey. Help from the BSBI informed
me that there had been a recent find on a rocky hillside in Inshriach Forest NNR
near Aviemore plus a couple of old records from the early 1970s from near Loch
Ness. The next day I headed out to try
and re-find Wilson’s filmy-fern in Inshriach last seen in 2012 and, after much
scrambling over large rocks, it was found on several boulders close to the
original location. Also present on the
rocks were the lichens Sphaerophorus globosus, Rhizocarpon geographicum and
interrupted clubmoss (Lycopodium annotinum).
A few days later I visited one of the best sites locally for Lobarian
lichens, the Pass of Inverfarigaig adjacent to Loch Ness. The filmy-fern though hadn’t been seen here
since July 1971, well before GPS aided recording the precise location but, a
little guidance said, “above memorial stone”.
The higher rocks didn’t look suitable, so more time was given to the
damper rocks closer to the road and, on one narrow ledge, a few tiny
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| The Wilson's filmy-fern east of Loch Ness |
fronds of
what looked like the filmy-fern were found, one group thankfully, with
sporangia confirming this was the fern. My
luck was holding. A couple of weeks
later I had the chance to visit yet another important lichen site, a craggy
rock outcrop to the east of Loch Ness, the third of the Wilson’s filmy-fern
sites. The wee fern was last recorded
here in August 1975 so once the crag-face was reached a careful search started
of the main gully, the BSBI record stating that this was the area where it had
been found. Collema flaccidum, Leptogium
gelatinosum, Polychidium muscicola, Sphaerophorus fragilis lichens were
recorded during the climb up the gully along with a nice mixture of plants
despite this being early in the growing season (16 April). On one of the slightly damper ledges the now
familiar filmy-fern was found, and a wider search revealed 3 small populations
several with good numbers of sporangia.
At the bottom of the gully were beautiful hanging
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| Alectoria sarmentosa top and purple saxifrage |
populations of Alectoria
sarmentosa subsp. sarmentosa lichen, occupying a relatively small section of
the conglomerate cliff. Small areas of
the rock-face were bright purple due to the early flowering purple saxifrage
(Saxifraga oppositifolia) growing next to non-flowering cushions of mossy
saxifrage (Saxifraga hypnoides).
Leptogium palmatum was the last lichen entry in the notebook as the
freezing wind was telling me it was time to return to the car being slightly
under-dressed on what I thought was going to be a warmer spring day. Making a few enquiries about the Bunodophoron
melanocarpum lichen I found it had been recorded at Loch Ruthven in 1994. The recorded location was rather general and
at the 100m square level, and there was no information about whether it was
growing on a tree or a mossy rock. In
the west of Scotland, the lichen can be found growing on bark of birches and
oaks and also on mossy rocks and it was the latter habitat I decided to
concentrate on
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| The big population of black-eyed Susan top and the black apothecia in bottom photo shows how it got its common name |
particularly when I was finding big population of Sphaerophorus
globosus on the mossy rocks, a species it is often found growing alongside and
can easily be confused with. Wandering
back and forth across the hillside many rocks were visited but without finding
the elusive black-eyed Susan. The rocks
though were mossy and covered in many lichens, far too many for me to identify
but a few nice finds comprised; Andreaea rupestris (Black Rock-moss), the
regular rock lichen Umbilicaria polyrrhiza, and, in a boggy area lots of bog
asphodel several with the fungus Microdiplodia narthecii present on the dead
flower heads. There then followed a bit
of email correspondence that led me to a 2015 record of the lichen in the Glen
Garry area, a big population, on a fallen birch tree, and, it was fertile, a
big aid to identification! So, before
the chaos of Christmas I set off early one Sunday
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| The very similar Sphaerophorus globosus lichen but with apothecia upright and on top of branches |
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| Leptogium burgessii |
morning to the sounds of a
dawn chorus on Elizabeth Aker’s Radio 3 programme arriving in Glen Garry with
fingers crossed that the lichen would still be there. For this outing I had a reasonably accurate
grid reference which guided me along the River Garry to a location where I
searched for the fallen birch tree. It
wasn’t too difficult to find and, to my huge relief there was black-eyed Susan
waiting to greet me. I could have kissed
‘it’. Taking a few photos of this
amazing lichen required scrambling over rocks to get the best pictures. It was, as I was just about finished taking
my photos that something very strange happened; I looked down onto the rock
next to my rucksac and I had to decide if I was looking at a leafy moss or a
fern! Thankfully there wasn’t anyone
nearby as I
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| What a find, the Glen Garry Wilson's filmy-fern |
shouted, just like Victor Meldrew “I don’t believe it!” and whether
guided by Ray Woods I don’t know but there, next to the Bunodophoron laden
birch tree was Wilson’s filmy-fern. An
amazing early Christmas present! The
fern had been recorded a few kilometres away, but this was a new location. The next couple of hours were spent
scrambling around on the rocks and through the trees by the river finding
another tiny Bunodophoron population along with lots of Leptogium burgessii
lichen on a small hazel and Peltigera leucophlebia on a rock by the river, both
new to the location. The drive back home
saw me passing close to Loch Ruthven with thoughts of another visit there in
the near future now that I had a better idea of exactly what I was looking for.
This winter, the BTO have initiated a new survey, the
BTO/Natural England Winter Bird Survey, to build up a picture of where birds in
winter reside along with their numbers.
I was given the option of continuing to survey the same 1 kilometre
square I do for the breeding birds, so offered to take this on, requiring one
outing per month between December and March.
My first walk was completed on 11th December and produced 37
bird contacts comprising 16 species as shown in the table below. I
was quite surprised to have so many. An unusual species was recorded as I walked
between the two recording sections, a female capercaillie, a species I’ve never
seen in this wood in all the years I’ve done the breeding bird survey. I also managed to visit the last of the
locations I know locally with a good population of interrupted clubmoss (Lycopodium
annotinum) to see if the little recorded black fungus (Phaeosphaeria lycopodina)
was present on the cones. It was quite
nice to visit this area, an area of the Abernethy Reserve where, in the 1980s,
way ahead of others doing this sort of work, we felled all the young Norway
spruce trees before blocking up the drainage ditches that had allowed the trees
to be planted in the first place. In the
summer the area, though still naturally wooded with Scots
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| Interrupted clubmoss |
pines, has nice
populations of common dragonflies and is also home to the raft spider Dolomedes
fimbriatus. I digress. As I approached the location, I could see the
big population of the clubmoss was still present and, as I wandered, I could
see the fungus was also present, the lowest altitude record so far at just 200
metres asl. During this same period the
Radio 3 Carol Competition 2018 was underway with six finalists whose newly
composed music was played quite regularly with the public being asked to vote
for their favourite. Not the usual sort
of thing to include in the blog but what WAS unusual was the poem written by
Carol Ann Duffy in 2011 was all about bees!
The first verse in copied below and a link to the online carol down
below:
The Bee Carol
Silently on Christmas Eve,
the turn of midnight’s key;
all the garden locked in ice –
a silver frieze –
except the winter cluster of the bees.
Another slightly mad survey was also tackled once again at
the end of 2018 the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt, but only for plants that are
actually in flower and found between 30 December 2018 and 1 January 2019. Last year Janet found a flowering shepherd’s
cress (Teesdalia nudicaulis) in the Findhorn dunes, the only record from the
whole of the UK survey. So, on the 30th
December it was to the Findhorn dunes once again that we headed. Kicking off from the Findhorn Foundation site
our route took us out into the dunes and, armed with last year’s GPS grid
reference for the shepherd’s
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| Plant list and tree mallow on sea-front |
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| Sandy earthtongue (Sabulogossum arenarium) |
cress, we checked the spot once again. Amazingly the leaves were there but without
the flowers but, whilst searching around for more plants I found three fruiting
bodies of an earthtongue fungus which, with the help of expert Liz, was
identified as the sandy earthtongue Sabuloglossum arenarium (Geoglossum
arenarium) with just 22 UK records.
Exiting the dunes, we popped out on pebbles by the sea, dodging in and
out of the dunes and shore before ending up at the dunes car park, Findhorn
museum and ice house where quite a few flowering plants were recorded. It was then back along the shore road to our
start point. In all 23 flowering plants
were found compared to 15 last year. The
same survey was done below the Kessock road bridge (17 species), Nairn harbour
(9 species) and the football pitch area in Nethy Bridge (7 species). A couple of other lists were compiled via
casual outings and across all the sites 33 different plants were found in
flower!
And finally, next
year, 2019, will be the 60th anniversary of the opening of the
public viewing facility at the Osprey Centre, or, as it was all those years
ago, a small caravan suitably located to allow the 12,000 people that turned up
to see Britain’s only breeding ospreys.
No doubt there will be
lots of events and publicity but, ahead of all
that the pupils at Deshar Primary School in Boat of Garten, The Osprey Village,
have, with the help of Boat resident Louise Wyllie produced a short story about
these remarkable birds. The story has
now appeared in book form, “Eggs with Legs – An Osprey’s Story”, so, if you
would like to support the Year of the Osprey, please keep an eye open in your
local book shop or purchase one by following the links below..
That’s it for 2018, enjoy the read.
Stewart and Janet
Sparth House Hotel
Radio 3 Carol Competition 2018 - The Bee Carol by Carol Ann
Duffy (2011)
The Living World from 2011
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09wpnvg
BSBI New Year Plant Hunt
Eggs with Legs – An Osprey’s Story
NBN Atlas
Strathspey Weather
Parkswatch
Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group
Mapmate recording database
Fungal Records Database of Britain and Ireland (FRDBI)
BSBI – Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland
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| Daughter Laura's BBC Weatherwatch photo |
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| Cormorants at Loch Pityoulish |
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| Happy Christmas - the lights worked |
Photos © Stewart Taylor
