September, a month of looking at teeth but without a dentist in sight

As I type this, the leaves are falling rapidly from the trees, the geese have arrived from their breeding grounds and, in a mild spell of weather a week ago, a lone red admiral and a small tortoiseshell butterfly were to be seen on the last of the buddleia flowers. The weather forecast for today is snow on high ground over the next couple of days. Help!

To find out why this man is so happy, read on.

With butterflies in mind I have to say what a struggle the Loch Garten butterfly transects were this year, but, having said that, the actual numbers recorded increased quite markedly from 2009. Many of the regulars were down in numbers but that recent arrival – the ringlet – doubled its numbers, and the Scotch argus had its best season for many, many years, showing an increase of over 300%. The long-distance migrants, red admiral & painted lady, failed to appear on the transect but overall the total number of species was only one down on last year, a single northern brown argus being the only gain. Transects were walked on 20 of the 26 weeks, 4 being missed due to cold weather in April and 2 through lack of sun in September. Quite a commitment. Details of the last two years of the survey are given above.

Looking back over the 26 weeks the highlights have to be re-finding the netted mountain moth, the regular views of the northern emerald dragonfly and recording the continued existence of the colony of six-spot burnet moths. Two new species of fungi were found for the Abernethy Reserve, Helvella macropus and Helvella lacunose, and shining guest ants were found on two new wood ant nests. So again, recording one thing has produce lots of good records of other species.

Once again I got the weather wrong, sunny and calm at Firwood but not quite the same a bit higher up. In early September I had the opportunity to get a lift to the ex-Bynack Stable site at the bottom end of Strath Nethy and the chance to go looking for dragonflies high up on A’Choinneach at a location where I had seen Aeshna juncea way back in 1995, at what could be one of the highest recorded sites in UK. During the drive out several groups of Duke of Edinburgh gold award participants were on the move from their overnight camp sites. These groups were to be a feature of the whole day. Leaving the vehicle by the bridge over the River Nethy I realised that the benign conditions experienced in Nethybridge weren’t going to be a feature of the days walk. The tops were shrouded in clouds and the wind, forecast for tomorrow, had already arrived at this slightly higher elevation. A bit of a challenge and with not much chance of seeing any dragonflies. By the bridge were a couple of tents possibly a safety feature for any of the Duke of Edinburgh folk who might have to pull out from the hills, a nice picture against the dark mountains. The first hour was spent walking through the lower peaty section of the strath and an hour and a bit later I was looking from the Saddle, down into Loch Avon (right). I’d forgotten just how long it takes to plod the 7km or so up Strath Nethy. At the Saddle a couple were sheltering from the wind behind a huge boulder, having their lunch. As I waved and turned left and upwards, it was becoming obvious just how windy it was going to be higher up. Amazingly, as I headed up the hill the clouds were rising with me and it was possible to look across to the Ciste Mhearad ridge were I had been just a couple of weeks ago. Heading down the hill (left) were the first of several groups of DoE students aiming for a nights camping by Loch Avon close to the Shelter Stone rock. On the top of A’Choinneach three more DoE groups passed me as I sheltered in the rocks having a bite to eat. As I looked around a familiar patch of a red stemmed moss came into view – my first patch of slender cruet moss (right) at over 1000m asl – just! The warmth from the strengthening sun made the battering wind just about bearable, but it wasn’t the day to be hanging around so I headed off to where I had seen the dragonfly egg-laying all those years ago. The location was about 940 metre asl, not quite as high as the UK record by about 50m. The route then took me to Bynack Beg and then on down the track back towards the vehicle. In places, this track is now up to 10 metres wide as the folk walking up to the Bynack More Munro keep trying to find a new “soft” route to walk on, hence the track gets wider and wider. In one place a brand new track is appearing in the heather which to me must be more difficult to walk on. A week later I hear that help is at hand and work is to start in a few days time to repair the track to the same standard as the first 1000m from the bridge, which was repaired some ten years ago and is now a single, narrow track which everyone sticks to. By the bridge over the River Nethy the two tents are still there and with the tops clear and the sun shining the view was magnificent.

Around all these other happenings the annual tooth fungi survey was progressing, the fifth year of the survey and the fourth that I had undertaken. To try and ensure the survey is carried out in a similar way each year, the same sites are visited on about the same date each year, and it was obvious, after the first week, that there seemed to be many more tooth fungi than in 2009 – potentially, another increase in the number if sites. The methodology is the same so there must be a genuine increase going on. However, this year was going to be hugely important for this group of fungi and quite an honour that I was going to be able to help. Martyn Ainsworth, the man responsible for identifying the dried Abernethy material which revealed two tooth fungi species that were new to Britain, would be spending five days on the reserve. (See http://www.kew.org/kewscientist/ks_37.pdfpdf Fungal Conservation heading). Meeting up with Martyn I asked what he would like to achieve during his visit and he produced a neat “shopping list” containing several species that would be easy to find, one that was my re-find of a few years ago – Hydnellum cumulatum one of the new UK species, and one, Hydnellum gracilipes which had yet to be re-found and with only a dried specimen to say that it had ever been growing in Britain. Alan Lucas, another hugely experienced mycologist (and ornithologist) accompanied Martyn to help with the recording and searching (see all three of us above). Day one gave Martyn an introduction to one of the more species rich sections of Abernethy and he was able to see lots of specimens of a tooth fungus called Hydnellum scrobiculatum, a species which he is confident does not occur in the UK. The British species is probably something different and may eventually be re-named, so lots of photographs were taken (right) and a little material was collected to go away for DNA work. Day two saw us visiting a few old quarries which are important for tooth fungi along with the short, and largely man-made track to the Osprey Centre home to 8 of the reserves 13 species of tooth fungi. Amazing. Day three was dedicated to checking a few of my sites for Hydnellum cumulatum, a species Martyn had only seen as dried material. The first visit was to the site where the first British record came from in 2002, a site I re-found just last year. From there we visited the big population found in 2006, along with a smaller population on a track nearby. On our way back to Forest Lodge we thought a visit to the area where the elusive Hydnellum gracilipes had been found in 2001 would be useful and with four folk looking anything was possible. The first “find” was a rare, tiny fungus called Stereopsis vitellina (left) the Roothole Rosette, found originally in this area during an outing with Peter Orton in 1999. A good start. As Martyn finished photographing the Stereopsis Alan was beckoning to us in a very provocative but excited fashion. Alan had lifted up a section of track-side heather and there, in all its frail and pinkish glory was Hydnellum gracilipes, the only known specimen in the whole of the UK (right)! What a find, and, probably having been present when first found, it was great to be present when it was re-found. However, despite the fungus looking and growing like H. gracilipes, we will all need to wait until it has gone through the analysis and sequencing process at Cardiff University – but we were all pretty confident. Martyn’s shopping list was now complete. To round off a brilliant few days Martyn gave a presentation to all the Abernethy staff team about his work on the British tooth fungi, and the problems still to be overcome. Hopefully his few days at Abernethy will help greatly with the latter.

As we said cheerio Martyn’s parting comment was that all we needed to do now was find some more, which to me, sounded a bit like a challenge. A few days later the bulk of the tooth fungi survey was completed and my preparation for a talk to the Friends of Abernethy at the end of the week was sorted, so time for a bit of “heather lifting”. My initial intention was to see if I could find more of the tiny Roothole Rosette, which has a very limited UK distribution. On one track 3 new locations were found, but on many more there was nothing, and, after an hour or two bent over lifting track-side heather, the old body was complaining. On another track an impressive group of Hydnellum aurantiacum tooth fungi caught my eye and whilst bent over having a closer look I thought I should also check under the track-side heather, and there it was again – the second UK site for Hydnellum gracilipies (right). A day beating juniper bushes trying to find the juniper shield bug failed miserably but it did lead me to a steep, wooded bank above the River Nethy. Stopping to take a GPS reading of a group of tooth fungi growing on a deer track saw me lifting a bit of heather, and there, deep under the heather was a group of Roothole Rosette fungi which I lay down to photograph (left). Lifting the heather to take my photograph I noticed groups of fungal teeth hanging from the heather – H. gracilipes again, with another group a few metres further along the same deer track. My final site was found, again under deep heather, on a steep bank below a track with the Roothole Rosette again close by. Looking for this unusual and secretive tooth fungus is a bit destructive, detaching heather stems from the edge of tracks or breaking through a “curtain” of dead and live heather stems on a steep bank so, having found the probable “natural” growing sites the searching stopped. The bigger tooth fungi survey did prove to be very interesting with 990 sites found this year, up from 770 in 2009. I keep trying to tell folk that Abernethy Forest is special; the last couple of months have shown that it is very special.

Taking the car to the local garage again proved very interesting. The garage is next to one of the oldest stands of aspen trees in this area, and while the car was in the garage there was time for a wander through the aspens. In the birches growing with the aspens there were a couple of hundred siskins and redpolls feeding on the ripe birch seeds. A calling jay was more unusual. The recent winds had brought down some aspen leaves and growing from some of them were red rowan berry sized galls (right). Out of interest I popped a few into a tube to take home. Typing “aspen leaf galls” into Google showed that they probably belonged to a wee midge by the name of Harmandiola tremulae, something not known from this part of the UK (http://data.nbn.org.uk/gridMap/gridMap.jsp?allDs=1&srchSpKey=NBNSYS0100003334 ). To check, I sent the photo to ispot the Open University Biodiversity Observatory website (see http://ispot.org.uk/node/88803 ) and had an entomologist agree with my identification. I will probably need to wait though until next year and see if I can capture an actual midge to confirm 100%. Ispot was also used to identify a young shield bug, found in Abernethy on a discarded but unused dog poo bag. See http://www.ispot.org.uk/node/73378 . This bug, Troilus luridus (left), was a first for Abernethy, Highland Region and Scotland. Brilliant.

Not a bad month, enjoy the read

Stewart & Janet

One of a flock of 4 crested tits

Glacial terraces Strath Nethy

All photos © Stewart Taylor

Solorina search leads to ding-dong merrily on high!

Sorry for the delay, major computer problems and far too much on the go in September, so it is now catch up time. August started quite wet, and after a lunch watching the F1 Grand Prix on the first, I nipped over to Craigellachie NNR for a mid-afternoon scramble amongst the rocks just above the nature trail with the hope of finding the lichen Peltigera britannica (left), which hadn’t been recorded in this area since 1990. I must have looked quite a sight bobbing in and out of the rocks with umbrella aloft. I was tempted to visit a few aspens on a rock outcrop but they were just too close to the edge of a big drop to check out properly for any bark lichens. I had to wander off the ledge towards an area which looked like it had suffered during the winter snows. A few small birches had been ripped from the rock and a few metres away the mosses which must have been carpeting the rock for decades, had been neatly rolled off and deposited at its base. But the rock looked quite damp and just what I was looking for, and there it was, quite a few bright green “leaves” (thallus) growing out of the mosses. To be sure, I poked one of the black dots (cephalodia) on one of the leaves with the spiky bit on my knife and it came off, confirming the lichen as P. britannica. Time for dinner.

Thankfully the next day dawns bright and dry, just right for another day on higher ground. I park the car at Lynwilg just south of Aviemore and head up the “Burma Road”, a vehicle track which takes you over to the River Dulnain, a noted mountain bike route (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Th-Burma-Road-Aviemore ), but for today I will only follow the track to the memorial at the highest-point of the track (right). One of the aims of the day will be to look for the mountain lichen Slorina crocea, as shown in the July diary, and with the track habitat reaching 700m, perhaps I would be lucky. Intermediate wintergreen and interrupted clubmoss are found on the way up, and at about half-way I am passed by a couple of guys on bikes, though one does get off and walk for a bit! It takes me about an hour and a half to dawdle to the top, the bikers can get up in about 50 minutes and I hear that Leslie McKenna the Olympic snow-border has done the bike climb in 12.5 minutes! Perhaps that was coming down! Close to the cairn I find lots of dwarf cudweed, just the plant associated with the lichen at the Don-side site, but no luck on this occasion. I leave the track and head up the hill and come across the first patch of berry-less mountain bearberry (left), with its heavily veined green leaves with red edges. In September the leaves will be completely red, the best time to go searching for this very local plant. Higher up the hill I come across the first patch of Cetraria nivalis (right), a pale yellow mountain lichen and usually an indicator that the rarer alpine sulphur-tresses lichen (Alectoria ochroleuca http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/biodiversity/keyspecies/plants/alpinesulphur/about.aspxity/keyspecies/plants/alpinesulphur/about.aspxw.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/biodiversity/keyspecies/plants/alpinesulphur/about.aspx ) might also be present. Sure enough, the first of several patches is found a little higher up the hill. Likely looking rocky areas are checked unsuccessfully for Slorina but a bonus is finding several plants of the slender cruet moss close to prominent rocks where it could be growing on birds of prey pellets or fox droppings. Eventually I reach Geal Charn Beag and stop for a photo of the amazing view towards Kingussie (left)and the Drummochter Pass. Stunning. Apart from a few meadow pipits, the day was relatively birdless until on the way down when, just above the first trees 100+ house martins (mainly) and swallows were circling, catching insects.

The Loch Garten butterfly transect progressed through its most productive month for numbers if not species. The month, like quite a bit of the recording year, was dogged by poor weather and it was a case of watching the weather forecast to try and aim for a potential good day. The species recorded comprised green-veined white with the mergence of a new generation, common blue, meadow brown, ringlet, small heath, scotch argus, small tortoiseshell and dark green fritillary. Apart from ringlet and scotch argus the numbers of the other species recorded was low. After the first week of the month ringlets declined to zero whilst scotch argus (mating pair right) numbers rose to a stunning 164 contacts on just one walk. Once the season is complete I will try and give a full table of contacts or, failing that, you can see for yourselves everything about the transect at http://www.ukbms.org/SiteFactsheet.aspx?siteId=51. The last butterfly transect over my Breeding Bird Survey square was completed with another encounter with the impressive Laphria flava fly but to top that I encountered one of our more amazing ichneumon flies not once but twice in the woods at the end of the walk. At approximately three inches in length Dolichomitus imperator (left) is an impressive fly and is most often encountered in woods where there is a reasonable amount of standing or lying deadwood. The one photographed had already found “its” log and having walked up and down a section of the log it had, by some sort of sensory means, located a long-horn beetle larva within the deadwood. At this stage it raised itself on to tip-toes and bent its body back down so that the long “drill” or ovipositor was in contact with the log. It then started to circle round, still on tip-toes, so that the ovipositor started to penetrate. Sadly, at this stage, I moved too quickly with the camera and it flew off leaving me with just this amazing side view. Next time! If I had been a bit luckier you would have seen the fly with the ovipositor drilled fully into the log and also into the beetle larva where it would lay its eggs. When the ichneumon fly larvae hatched they would devour the beetle larva before emerging as fully grown adult flies. So the butterfly visits to this one-kilometre square have produced records for four butterfly species a few bumble bee records, a few rarer plant records and three fairly rare flies, not bad for a fairly boring looking hillside.

The next day it was off up high again to look for the mountain lichen and possibly mountain bearberry which had been recorded on another hillside nearby. After parking by the A939 at Bridge of Brown I headed off down the track towards a point where I would head off across country to Creagan a’ Chaise. I hadn’t gone very far when a landrover pulled up along side and the estate gamekeeper asked me where I was heading and could I stick to the tracks. I explained that this wouldn’t be possible if I was to get to the top of the hill, but, to save disturbing red grouse with the “Glorious 12th” approaching, I said I would stay on them as long as possible. On the low ground some good families of grouse were seen, but far fewer were seen higher up the hill. One of the most amazing sights though was the sheer amount of fruit on blaeberry plant all across the hillside, in some cases, a direct result of the practice of muir or heather burning. The top of the hill is just high enough (700m) for the vegetation to be dwarf heath with lichens and all around tiny prostrate heather plants were just coming in to flower, and, despite there being heavy showers visible all around, the top of the hill was bathed in sunshine, producing one of my insect highlights of the year. As I had left the car earlier in the day I had seen a couple of blaeberry or mountain bumblebees (Bombus monticola right) feeding on an abundance of flowering thistles. Here, at 700m, I thought I was standing next to a beehive as all around these distinctive bees, with their orange “bums”, were feeding on the flowers of the tiny heather plants, there were dozens of them. Bee folk I have talked to about what I saw say this was very unusual and hadn’t heard of such gatherings before. One explanation could be that with such a huge amount of blaeberry on the surrounding hillsides, the bees would have had a tremendous start to their breeding season earlier in the year when the blaeberry was flowering, producing healthy numbers of bees in surrounding nests. Whatever, the event was something that was outside the scope of a simple static photograph.

Wandering round looking at the bees and looking for the distinctive leaves of mountain bearberry I noticed a tiny scrap of a pale yellow lichen – alpine sulphur-tresses once again and from a new site. Very nice, but not the species I was looking for. Undaunted I headed off for Carn Tuairneir with its monstrous summit cairn, several metres in diameter and height and despite lots of quartering back and forth no mountain bearberry or mountain lichen was found. If I had known beforehand how damp the habitats were on these summits I might never have visited and would have missed out on the flight of the bumblebees.

A few days of dry weather allowed me to replace all the rainwater gutter brackets on the house that were bent during the snowfalls earlier in the year (I should add that these were metal and not plastic!) In the woods the first tooth fungus (Hydnellum peckii left) was seen reminding me to get the maps etc sorted for the survey due to start about mid-month. Before the survey though I hoped for a day out on the Cairngorm – Ma’m Suim ridge to see if the mountain Solorina lichen had escaped detection in the past. The weather forecast said the rain would stop early in the morning so, with sandwiches and camera packed I headed for the Coire na Ciste (lower) car park on Cairngorm. Within half an hour I was in the mist and cloud. Light rain was falling and the wind increasing. I was getting less sure about the weather forecast by the minute. A bit of ridge searching as I climbed found another patch of alpine sulphur-tresses lichen and dwarf cornel plants resplendent with their red berries. I decided not to look for the arctic stag’s-horn club moss en route, last seen two years ago, but plodded upwards with hood up now against the elements. A patch of slender cruet moss caught my eye so I stopped to record GPS location and at 900m my highest record to date. As I ran out of obvious path, one of the top winding wheels for the ski poma-tow came into view and I decided to stop behind a large rock for lunch. Visibility now about 100m! I phoned Janet for a grid reference somewhere on the ridge north of Cairngorm summit as I had set off without a map. With GPS in hand I set off again. As a large shape loomed up in front of me I heard voices – I’m not the only one who is mad – and I came acrossthe weather station building on the summit of Cairngorm, with a couple sheltering in its lee. “Hello, nice day” With a quick check of my compass, I headed off for Ciste Mhearad. This was madness and not enjoyable and after about 20 minutes heading north and with no sight or hope of seeing any landmarks, I decided to call it a day. The biggest problem though is I didn't actually know (without a map!) where I was. My GPS does, but without a map….....….

It’s at moments like this that a bit of mammal poo with mosses growing on it, comes to the rescue. I copy the co-ordinates from my notebook to create a waypoint in my GPS and then press the Goto button and the arrow points the way and tells me that the slender cruet moss is 2.25km away. Snow-fencing then a path is found and a few hundred feet above the car park I descended from the cloud to see my wee blue car. Phew.

A couple of days later the tooth fungi survey starts and will occupy most of my time for the next month and a day later the weather is better and Cairngorm is again visible from Nethybridge. Time to return! Same routine but this time I do stop to see if the arctic stag’s-horn club moss is still there and after a bit of searching the plant, complete with spore bearing “cones” is located (left). Not sure if this site is unique but without moving, 4 species of club moss are visible: the arctic stag’s-horn, interrupted, alpine and fir club moss, with a near relative lesser club moss also present. I say hello to the poma-tow winding wheel again and now realise that what I thought was water just visible through the mist on the first visit was actually the Ptarmigan restaurant! As I climb, patches of ground are covered with dwarf willow (Salix herbaceae) and just occasionally bright red waxcaps were present. I would like to think these were Hygrocybe salicis-herbaceae (mountain waxcap) but I think they are too red for this species which would appear to be quite rare throughout its range. However, with a project starting next year to collect a few specimens of all waxcaps for DNA work, Cairngorm might be worth another visit. Being able to actually see where I was going this time there was no problem in finding the ridge running towards Ma’m Suim, and soon I was watching a group of a dozen reindeer heading into Strath Nethy and on to the Abernethy Reserve, and tucked neatly under a rock was the successful remains of a ptarmigan nest, all 7 eggs had hatched. As I searched round the next rocky outcrop for my mountain lichen I spotted what looked like a coiled piece of thick white string resting on the ground. It was obviously a lichen so a photo was taken and later it was identified as Thamnolia vermicularis a lichen restricted in Britains highest mountains. My next encounter came as a complete surprise. Whilst working in the Abernethy office I had often heard about a mountain shelter called El Alamein, but I had no idea where it was apart from “being somewhere along the higher parts of this ridge”. As I cut across a damper piece of ground I spotted a small pile of wood and tin and assumed that I had found what remained of the refuge. It was only when I had walked about quarter of a mile further down the ridge and turned to take a photograph that I spotted what looked like a very large cairn well back in the rocks. So, thinking that I might never pass this way again, I turned and walked back to check out this pile of stones. It was indeed the El Alamein refuge, with a date stone of 1963, though how useful it would be in this location made me wonder. Like a moth eaten bit of material the shack certainly wouldn’t keep you dry and neither would it shelter you from the wind. Nice view from the doorway though! Soon it was time to depart from the ridge and head back across country to the car park, but just before I did I had time to spot another patch of alpine sulphur-tresses lichen. Cairngorm was very busy with people ascending and descending, but since turning left near the summit I hadn’t seen a soul. What a brilliant but knackering day.

The last search for the mountain lichen lead me to one of the strangest encounters I have had in a long time. Having found the lichen on a track in Donside I thought it would be sensible to check out the hill track in Abernethy Forest. En route I could do part of the tooth fungi survey before crossing the Faesheallach Burn to walk up the hill track. At one point, I dropped down from the track back to the burn to check a gravely/sandy outcrop for anything unusual growing there – coltsfoot past flowering, blaeberry bumblebee and scotch argus butterfly were the only notebook entries, but high above me in the pure, hard sand “cliff” was a group of up to ten sand martin holes. I checked my GPS and the altitude was 450m. Amazing. Back on the track to find the obligatory patch of slender cruet moss, probably on a fox dropping before turning left at the top of the track to head towards Carn na-h-Ailig. In the boggy heather an occasional patch of dwarf birch was seen along with dwarf cornel and bog bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum). The stony summit of the hill offers a little hope that the mountain lichen might be there but no joy though by two of the bigger rocks there are a couple of golden eagle pellets. A search of the obvious bird perch rocks turn up a few more records of the slender cruet moss with one clump so vividly red (left) that I get out the camera and lie down on my side to get a close up photo. Whilst lying prostrate I am fairly certain that I hear bells ringing! Surely not, and I continue to take a few more photos. But there it is again and as I lie there I imagine there will be a few reindeer close-by when I get up. As I rise, sitting watching me is a big peregrine falcon, probably a female. Immediately I can see that this is a falconer's bird complete with jesses (the bells) and radio aerial. It doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to depart so I assume it has become detached from its owner. Several estates locally allow falconers to fly their birds to catch red grouse, so I assume there might be someone in the far distance watching my encounter. Could I get it to land on my arm? So I pull my jacket sleeve down over my hand, hold out my arm, and start to swing my GPS around my head to act as a lure. The bird is up and circling and seriously thinking about landing on my arm. Not to be fooled it eventually flies off and lands on another rock (right). Just in case I am being watched I head off and leave the bird in piece. As I head off the top of the hill I again come upon several new patches of alpine sulphur-tresses lichen. As I wander back and forth counting the patches, I hear bells again jingling overhead, the last fly-past of the day before I head off on my three mile trek back to the car. Hard to believe? I have the photos to prove it and next day a couple of German visitors turn up at Forest Lodge asking for permission to retrieve their bird. What an amazing month, it really is hard work being retired.

Happy reading

Stewart & Janet

A bicycle made for 7 on the A939 at Bridge of Brown (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-10868799)

Thunder in the Glens 2010
All photos © Stewart Taylor