Happy New Year.
Blackburn Rovers 3 – Liverpool 1, unheard of!
Blackburn Rovers 3 – Liverpool 1, unheard of!
A new site for the funny limpet like fungus under a log (Erastia salmonicolor) and a patch of Ruffled Freckled Pelt lichen (Peltigera leucophlebia) a beautiful green lichen with an amazing common name growing all over an old sand quarry. A great start to the year which belied a major upheaval in the family when Ruth and the boys, Murphy the dog and Monty the cat moved back in with us.
Celestial
events dominated the start of the year, though a 3am start to photograph the Quadrantid meteors proved to be almost a non-event, with the predicted “up to 120 meteors/hour” trickling by at less than a tenth of that. Undeterred, and with a full moon in a clear and frosty sky, I headed off again to try and capture a photo of the partial eclipse which was due around dawn just before the moon disappeared below the horizon. 7am and the moon lit up the road and everything else as I drove to a good vantage point to capture the event. 8am the moon disappeared behind a cloud and remained hidden until after 9am by which time the eclipse was passed. The rest of the day was frosty and sunny and with a beautifully clear sky. The next clouds didn’t appear for another day and a half! Oh well, I did try. When the cloud did return we started to see
falls of the white stuff, not a lot but enough to see the snow shovel brought into action again. The cloud though did obscure the next heavenly event, the big and brilliantly bright planet Jupiter right next to the crescent new moon and by the time we returned to frosty evening skies the moon and planet where quite a way apart but still worth a quick photo.
The 14 January was notable – the temperature rose to +4 degrees C. All around the roads have been treacherous during January with rain falling onto frozen surfaces and creating sheets of ice. Over parts of the garden veg patch the tops of the parsnips have started to re-appear but r
emain frozen in the ground. They say the flavour improves after a bit of frost – we will let you know, 72 days frozen and counting. The rise in temperature tempted coal tits into song a timely reminder that I still had 5 outstanding tetrads (2 x 2 km map squares) to walk to record birds for the BTO winter Atlas. These tetrads should have been walked last winter but the snow during January and February made this impossible for these slightly remote sites. My preference would have been to walk the sites in February but, with the possibility of more snow, I thought it best to push on and get them done whilst conditions allowed. The first site to be visited covers a brilliant area for a walk, departing Forest Lodge in Abernethy Forest and walking out to Lurg Farm and back. However, with the conditions being generally cold and with still quite a bit of lying snow(above left), I knew a few of the birds that should be present in February would be missing. 12 species were recorded in the two hour count the most unusual being a single snipe in boggy alders by the River Nethy. Twenty feral pigeons near the farm were a surprise. By the 24th all the tetrads have been visited with one of the better records being 7 waxwings in juniper bushes by 
the River Nethy south of Forest Lodge. Capercaillie and black grouse, thankfully, were recorded but the lack of crested tits may have been an effect of the cold weather, pushing the birds into woodland areas at slightly lower altitudes. The most remote tetrad was left until last, comprising the scatter of pines and moorland close to Ryvoan Bothy. The drive out in a 4 x 4 proved interesting – beyond the edge of the forest the track was still covered in deep snow drifts! The remoteness reflected the number of bird species recorded, just 3, with the most numerous being bullfinch! These hardy finches manage to eke out a living in these remote areas by feeding on heather seeds, provided the heather isn’t buried under a foot of snow. As I left the path to check out a group of pines and an ancient willow I came across two amazing patches of intermediate wintergreen (Pyrola media) plants, with over 100 leafy rosettes at each site. As the name implies, the plant has evergreen leaves, but, if you only have leaves available to identify the plant, you have to rely on counting the number of teeth, via a hand lens, on the leaves (see http://www.bsbiscotland.org.uk/Documents%20on-line/Wintergreen%20identification.pdf). Intermediate wintergreen leaves have less teeth than the similar leaves of common wintergreen (Pyrola minor). A search revealed several dried up flower spikes (above right) from the 2010 growing season and poking out from the remains of the flower seed pods (the petals had long since disappeared) was quite a long, straight style, confirming that the plants were P. media. The ancient willow
was a nature reserve in its own right covered from tip to toe with masses of mosses and lichens including two species of Nephroma lichens (laevigatum & parile) two species which are very local in this area (see left). If only trees could talk this particular one would be able to tell you all about local crofters whisky stills and the passing of cattle raiders who came all the way from Lochaber to raid the richer pastures of Strathspey, herding the stolen animals back through the nearby Ryvoan Pass (Rathad nam Mèirleach). It probably also saw the last Abernethy osprey nest being plundered before their UK extinction in 1916.
The tree would also tell you all about the efforts that were undertaken in this remote area to create artificial river spates to allow felled timber removal during the 1800s. My morning Atlas survey took me past what remains of some of this work – dams! Running centrally through Abernethy Forest is the River Nethy, fed in the upper forest by two
major burns (streams). On both burns there have been, locally, major engineering works to create a series of dams, which were used to store large quantities of water to create artificial spates to flood the River Nethy. (The photo on the right shows where the old dam was, the dam was as high as the banks on either side of the gap.) Trees, which were felled in the upper forest, were dragged into the River Nethy, and, by releasing the water from the dams the rush of water into and down the River Nethy, would float the logs down and into the River Spey. From there, special teams of rafters would “ride” with the logs down the Spey to sawmills on the coast at Garmouth some 45 miles away. See http://www.forestry.gov.uk/newsrele.nsf/WebPressReleases/199FE999E63CBD3C80256FF100440995 for a recent re-construction of a log raft and http://www.exploreabernethy.co.uk/explore/page6.html for information from the Nethy Bridge Explore Abernethy Centre.
The photo which en
ded the November diary was taken in Ryvoan Pass during a walk myself and Janet had out to the Green Loch and back through the ancient pines, birches and willows to Glenmore. Right by the path on the way back we spied a very large, very old willow, something I can never walk past without having a look at. Hanging off the willow were abundant leaf-like growths of lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria) and there in smaller quantities, L. scrobiculata, (with Lobaria amplissima left) something that was new for the site. I made a note that this was an area worth re-visiting. The site is part of the Forestry Commission’s Glenmore property and it was with great sadness that in mid-January we heard of the death
of Jim Gillies, long-time a member of the FC staff at Glenmore, an adjacent site to RSPB Abernethy Forest. Jim took early retirement, like me, in the autumn of 2010 and was a vast fount of knowledge about the history of the site. On the day of Jim’s funeral it seemed appropriate to make a return trip to Ryvoan to see what else was growing there. The track towards the Pass was quite icy so I decided to cut across the bog to the general area of older trees and I walked straight in to ancient willow heaven (right). It took about four hours to look over the 
half-dozen willows, taking photos as I went and several lichens new to the area were found. Goodness knows what an expert would find, something I hope will happen now that I have alerted the Commission’s Ecologist about the site. Watch this space. A bonus from this visit was finding a rare local fern – hard shield fern (left), and a wee umbellifer – sanicle, both plants indicating the soil locally has a slightly higher pH (lime rich). Looking over these ancient trees I still keep an eye open for the green shield-moss, but none were found in Ryvoan. However, the month ended by finding the second UK site for both the green and brown shield-mosses growing together, again, as the first site, on a wood ant nest. Brilliant.
Happy reading
Celestial
events dominated the start of the year, though a 3am start to photograph the Quadrantid meteors proved to be almost a non-event, with the predicted “up to 120 meteors/hour” trickling by at less than a tenth of that. Undeterred, and with a full moon in a clear and frosty sky, I headed off again to try and capture a photo of the partial eclipse which was due around dawn just before the moon disappeared below the horizon. 7am and the moon lit up the road and everything else as I drove to a good vantage point to capture the event. 8am the moon disappeared behind a cloud and remained hidden until after 9am by which time the eclipse was passed. The rest of the day was frosty and sunny and with a beautifully clear sky. The next clouds didn’t appear for another day and a half! Oh well, I did try. When the cloud did return we started to see
falls of the white stuff, not a lot but enough to see the snow shovel brought into action again. The cloud though did obscure the next heavenly event, the big and brilliantly bright planet Jupiter right next to the crescent new moon and by the time we returned to frosty evening skies the moon and planet where quite a way apart but still worth a quick photo.The 14 January was notable – the temperature rose to +4 degrees C. All around the roads have been treacherous during January with rain falling onto frozen surfaces and creating sheets of ice. Over parts of the garden veg patch the tops of the parsnips have started to re-appear but r
emain frozen in the ground. They say the flavour improves after a bit of frost – we will let you know, 72 days frozen and counting. The rise in temperature tempted coal tits into song a timely reminder that I still had 5 outstanding tetrads (2 x 2 km map squares) to walk to record birds for the BTO winter Atlas. These tetrads should have been walked last winter but the snow during January and February made this impossible for these slightly remote sites. My preference would have been to walk the sites in February but, with the possibility of more snow, I thought it best to push on and get them done whilst conditions allowed. The first site to be visited covers a brilliant area for a walk, departing Forest Lodge in Abernethy Forest and walking out to Lurg Farm and back. However, with the conditions being generally cold and with still quite a bit of lying snow(above left), I knew a few of the birds that should be present in February would be missing. 12 species were recorded in the two hour count the most unusual being a single snipe in boggy alders by the River Nethy. Twenty feral pigeons near the farm were a surprise. By the 24th all the tetrads have been visited with one of the better records being 7 waxwings in juniper bushes by 
the River Nethy south of Forest Lodge. Capercaillie and black grouse, thankfully, were recorded but the lack of crested tits may have been an effect of the cold weather, pushing the birds into woodland areas at slightly lower altitudes. The most remote tetrad was left until last, comprising the scatter of pines and moorland close to Ryvoan Bothy. The drive out in a 4 x 4 proved interesting – beyond the edge of the forest the track was still covered in deep snow drifts! The remoteness reflected the number of bird species recorded, just 3, with the most numerous being bullfinch! These hardy finches manage to eke out a living in these remote areas by feeding on heather seeds, provided the heather isn’t buried under a foot of snow. As I left the path to check out a group of pines and an ancient willow I came across two amazing patches of intermediate wintergreen (Pyrola media) plants, with over 100 leafy rosettes at each site. As the name implies, the plant has evergreen leaves, but, if you only have leaves available to identify the plant, you have to rely on counting the number of teeth, via a hand lens, on the leaves (see http://www.bsbiscotland.org.uk/Documents%20on-line/Wintergreen%20identification.pdf). Intermediate wintergreen leaves have less teeth than the similar leaves of common wintergreen (Pyrola minor). A search revealed several dried up flower spikes (above right) from the 2010 growing season and poking out from the remains of the flower seed pods (the petals had long since disappeared) was quite a long, straight style, confirming that the plants were P. media. The ancient willow
was a nature reserve in its own right covered from tip to toe with masses of mosses and lichens including two species of Nephroma lichens (laevigatum & parile) two species which are very local in this area (see left). If only trees could talk this particular one would be able to tell you all about local crofters whisky stills and the passing of cattle raiders who came all the way from Lochaber to raid the richer pastures of Strathspey, herding the stolen animals back through the nearby Ryvoan Pass (Rathad nam Mèirleach). It probably also saw the last Abernethy osprey nest being plundered before their UK extinction in 1916.The tree would also tell you all about the efforts that were undertaken in this remote area to create artificial river spates to allow felled timber removal during the 1800s. My morning Atlas survey took me past what remains of some of this work – dams! Running centrally through Abernethy Forest is the River Nethy, fed in the upper forest by two
major burns (streams). On both burns there have been, locally, major engineering works to create a series of dams, which were used to store large quantities of water to create artificial spates to flood the River Nethy. (The photo on the right shows where the old dam was, the dam was as high as the banks on either side of the gap.) Trees, which were felled in the upper forest, were dragged into the River Nethy, and, by releasing the water from the dams the rush of water into and down the River Nethy, would float the logs down and into the River Spey. From there, special teams of rafters would “ride” with the logs down the Spey to sawmills on the coast at Garmouth some 45 miles away. See http://www.forestry.gov.uk/newsrele.nsf/WebPressReleases/199FE999E63CBD3C80256FF100440995 for a recent re-construction of a log raft and http://www.exploreabernethy.co.uk/explore/page6.html for information from the Nethy Bridge Explore Abernethy Centre.The photo which en
ded the November diary was taken in Ryvoan Pass during a walk myself and Janet had out to the Green Loch and back through the ancient pines, birches and willows to Glenmore. Right by the path on the way back we spied a very large, very old willow, something I can never walk past without having a look at. Hanging off the willow were abundant leaf-like growths of lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria) and there in smaller quantities, L. scrobiculata, (with Lobaria amplissima left) something that was new for the site. I made a note that this was an area worth re-visiting. The site is part of the Forestry Commission’s Glenmore property and it was with great sadness that in mid-January we heard of the death
of Jim Gillies, long-time a member of the FC staff at Glenmore, an adjacent site to RSPB Abernethy Forest. Jim took early retirement, like me, in the autumn of 2010 and was a vast fount of knowledge about the history of the site. On the day of Jim’s funeral it seemed appropriate to make a return trip to Ryvoan to see what else was growing there. The track towards the Pass was quite icy so I decided to cut across the bog to the general area of older trees and I walked straight in to ancient willow heaven (right). It took about four hours to look over the 
half-dozen willows, taking photos as I went and several lichens new to the area were found. Goodness knows what an expert would find, something I hope will happen now that I have alerted the Commission’s Ecologist about the site. Watch this space. A bonus from this visit was finding a rare local fern – hard shield fern (left), and a wee umbellifer – sanicle, both plants indicating the soil locally has a slightly higher pH (lime rich). Looking over these ancient trees I still keep an eye open for the green shield-moss, but none were found in Ryvoan. However, the month ended by finding the second UK site for both the green and brown shield-mosses growing together, again, as the first site, on a wood ant nest. Brilliant.Happy reading
Stewart & Janet
Spey flood at Broomhill bridge
Look, no hands, Grandson Archie's first steps
All photos © Stewart Taylor
All photos © Stewart Taylor
