It’s been quite a month for weather and it was possible to enjoy snow free outings to search for things until the 5th, when 2” of snow arrived. The following day it was -3 degrees C, and finally looking like winter had arrived. A deepening low brought more snow on the 7th before we really had to batten-down the hatches when, on the following day the barometer dropped dramatically, heralding a gale much more severe than any in my recent memory. The weather folk said it would arrive about lunch-time. By 2pm the TV signal was lost followed by the power, and as darkness started to fall, out came the candles and the wee 2 ring calor gas stove, last used when we were building the house. I tried some batteries in the “modern” DAB radio, but it had lost its signal in sympathy with the digital TV signal. Thankfully the old faithful analogue radio accepted the batteries quite happily and despite there being nothing available on the VHF band, the good old long-wave was still proudly broadcasting Radio 4. So as darkness fell we had the flickering light of the candles, the hiss of the calor stove and the horr
ors of the shipping forecast (hurricane force 12 no less in some northern sea areas!) at 5 to 6 on the radio. All very romantic but I disappeared off to bed at 8.30pm once the battery on the laptop gave out and Janet pretended she was a 1920’s crofter and managed quite a bit of sewing, by candle-light, in readiness for the next farmers market. In a hazy dream at some time during the night I heard the words “answer on” from the answer-phone indicating that the Hydro-board folk had braved the gales to join the broken cables together. 165mph on the top of Cairngorm was almost a new UK record (-8mph) and at Nethybridge level we were in the 60 to 70mph region. In places in the forest a few trees have blown over and some snapped in two but overall deadwood creation ie tree damage, was far less than during the heavy snows of the last two winters. The last few days have seen a mix of snow, rain and frost creating treacherous conditions underfoot. On many local roads “invincibles” in their 4x4s found that they didn’t quite grip the tarmac as the sales brochures had claimed!My final visit to the lime-rich quarries above Finlarig had a bit of an archaeological feel to it. The OS maps at 1:25,000 scale show “cup marked rocks & stones” and as I made my way round to the final quarries to be checked I could see a few very impressive ro
cks higher up the hill-side. I have often seen the references to cup-marks on maps but have never known what to look for. A few weeks earlier I had met up with Sue from Boat of Garten and she had mentioned visiting the same area on an archaeological outing and had seen these very things, small, round cup shapes, chiselled and ground into the rocks by our ancient ancestors. No one is sure why these marks were made but one website suggests the following: “The reason, or reasons, behind these carvings is unknown. Various suggestions have been put forward since early 
antiquarians identified them as prehistoric; including maps of the world, maps of the stars, sites where fat was set alit for religion, records of ownership or boundaries and so on”. Purely by chance one of these big rocks had a set of these very “cups”, not one but four, three in a row with an additional one above, no doubt the pattern meant something to the folk who created them. On my way to the quarries I had to pass several more big rocks and on two of these I came across a set of what can be best described as “scratchings” as though a giant tiger had pawed at the rock. These rocks were not identified on the OS map so I passed on my photo to a local archaeologist and I await his suggestion as to what they are.Mid-month Janet attended two farmers markets, and having helped her set up, I just had a couple of hours before returning to lend a hand to dismantle everything. Amazingly, both of these short outing produced good finds. On the first outing, after a brief visit back to Firwood, I just had time to nip to Loch an Eilein with the intention of checking o
ut the location of a possible lime quarry. Being a bit too ambitious I realised I was short of time and decided to head for an impressive rock outcrop on the edge of Ord Ban, overlooking Penny’s Pottery instead of searching for the quarry. Despite the light covering of snow, most of the rock outcrop was snow-free and, in places, free of anything growing. However, I was drawn towards a few young aspens clinging to the rock and was puzzled by the small ball-like growths on most of the branches (right). These had to be a gall of some sort, but having looked at lots of aspens locally, I couldn’t remember seeing anything quite like them so a photo was taken along with a sample ju
st in case a critical examination would be needed by an expert. A slightly more vegetated section of crag then revealed what I had hoped might be growing there, a tiny patch of Peltigera britannica lichen, with its dark, dish like black growths (cephalodia) on the upper side of its bright green “leaves” (thallus), something new to Ord Ban. Arriving home after helping Janet to pack up her stall I typed “galls on aspens” into Google, and after checking a few of the results I had what looked like the right name for my gall, Aceria populi, and this was confirmed a couple of days later after sending my photos to expert Ian. Interestingly the NBN map shows only one location dot for this species in the UK (http://data.nbn.org.uk/gridMap/gridMap.jsp?allDs=1&srchSpKey=NHMSYS0020190426 ), Ian did say there were at least a dozen records still to add, but obviously this was an interesting find.The next farmers market was held just a week later, in Aviemore Village Hall, and once Janet’s stall had been organised, there was time for a quick shop in Tesco before heading off to Kinrara Estate just south of Aviemore. The day was very icy and with a dusting of fresh snow so I would need to find somewhere on the estate where there would still be something to see. I decided to visit a brilliant ancient alder stand close to the River Spey to see if there were any alder cones on the trees and thereby the possibility of finding the alder tongue fungus which had yet to be recorded from this end of Strathspey. The gales of a few days ea
rlier had snapped one big tree and had brought down a few branches so I was hopeful that there would be a few old and possibly new cones to look at. This though, wasn’t the case and very few cones were found. At one location, whilst checking a branch on the ground something else caught my eye, and again I was linking what I was looking at with something I thought had seen in one of my books. The alder branch which was detached from the tree was about 2” in diameter, and bursting out of the bark were a few fungi (right), some like elongated blisters and some, a little more developed, looking a bit like stars. For some reason I had read the description for the fungus I thought I was looking at and I remember it had something to do with dead hazel branches but that it had also been found growing on dead alder. More photos and, because I could see plenty of fruiting bodies, a small sample was sliced from the branch. A tall plant with many seed-heads growing by the branch also had me scratching my head and was something I should have b
een able to name so another photo was taken. Back home, Janet put on the kettle whilst I unloaded the farmers market goods from the car and then it was a dash for my Collins mushroom and toadstool guide flicking through until the brackets and other fungi growing on wood section was found and there, on page 308 was the spring hazelcup fungus (Encoelia furfuracea), looking remarkably like the fungus I had found. A reply from my email to Liz confirmed my identification and once again, highlighting the fact of how few people there are on the ground recording “things”, this was a new species for Highland Region! A bit odd really, this was winter not spring and the host species was alder and not hazel! My tall plant turned out to be figwort. Inspired, the following morning I headed for my brilliant green shield-moss alder wood near Forest Lodge in Abernethy, and after a couple of hours of searching the fungus was found on a branch on the ground (left) and also nearby on another detached alder branch but this one was off the ground and stuck in a tree. And what was I looking for when I found the fungus on the branch in the tree? The alder tongue fungus – of course. Looking for one thing will always find you something else, so never give up.Having worked for RSPB for over 30 years it’s quite odd that on
many days when I head off out nowadays, I have a hand lens round my neck rather than binoculars – though I do hear all the birds in the areas I visit! In the last couple of weeks though I have made a real effort to catch up with some of our most beautiful winter visitors. On my way to Loch an Eilein I spied a large number of whooper swans feeding in a flooded field where the farmer had struggled to harvest the cereal crop. I only had my wee camera with me so I dashed home to collect my better camera and the 
big lens. The flood was right by the road to Broomhill Bridge so the birds were quite used to cars driving by and they kindly allowed me to drive up reasonably close so that I could try and get a decent photo. It wasn’t all photography and I twice counted the group to find that there were 33 swans feeding, with just 1 juvenile in their midst. When the sun was out the birds glowed against the dark, watery background, and all the time they were calling to each other with their distinctive trumpeting calls. Overhead a buzzard was having fun with three carrion crows. Brilliant.And then, a few days ago, I met Dave (http://davepullan.gyrnet.co.uk/aboutv2.htm ) in the village and he told me that the king eider at Burghead was “showing well”. My last “twitch” was the scarlet rosefinch in Nethybridge accessible by bike, but, in my past, several trips to Golspie had failed to let me see a king eider. According to the record books, the Burghead bird is a regular visitor to the harbour, and, with little to search for locally under a covering snow, I thought his would be a chance to possibly catch up with this most colourful of birds. So, after salting neighbours Bill and Rita’s frozen paths to sheds and drive to road, I headed off to the coast hoping to see at least distant views of my elusive bird. Between Findhorn and Burghead I drove along the edge of the now defunct Kinloss airbase, and saw what could have been army personnel moving into
the ex-airmen’s houses. It’s so sad to see this once thriving base looking dead and deserted. “Thanks for protecting us you men and women of RAF Kinloss, your Christmas card this year is your P45!” Sorry, this was to be a nice day out. Over the humpy bridge by the Diageo processing plant, turn left and straight on to Burghead. It is possible to drive right onto the harbour but I always tend to drive to the headland where the coastguard station is located from where you can quickly scan the harbour. With camera gear loaded, I made my way down to the harbour and could see a couple of birder’s cars parked on the other side of the harbour – there was a chance the king eider was around. Within the harbour there were 50-60 eiders, but none with the nicely coloured head that I was looking for. I made my way towards the end of the harbour wall stopping to scan the eiders bobbing around on the choppy sea just outside the harbour mouth. And there it was, quite a way off, but at last I had caught up with a king eider. Slowly I made my way to the light at the end of the harbour wall where I could at least see the bird, just, through my camera lense. Hood up, gloves on, and I got ready for a wait to see if the bird would come closer. Another scan with my binoculars and I couldn’t find it. After a few minutes I though I should check within the harbour and there it was, bobbing around with a dozen eiders. I quickly made my way back alo
ng the harbour wall, completely out of sight of the eiders, occasionally looking carefully over the edge of the harbour to see what was below. I now had the bird just below me in the water so I took a few photos before I lost it again, before realising that the folk on the other side of the harbour were looking right into the harbour where the boats were tied up! Time for a quick exit and up to the harbour flats and down towards the boats, carefully edging towards the side of the harbour each time the bird dived. Amazingly, it was now with a crab in its bill right below me, again with other eiders! All the birds continued to feed for about 10 minutes before heading back out towards the sea. Phew, and totally unexpected, twitches don’t usually end up like this! A less welcome “tick” was the one I removed from my ankle during the first week of December, a time when I thought they had all disappeared for the winter!So that’s it for another year. A few highlights from 2011 are given below. And what to look forward to in 2012? The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics and no doubt many more surprises.
Stop press: Legal challenge from Friends of the Earth and two solar energy companies upheld saying the government’s bid to rush through cuts to solar tariff payments are illegal. Perhaps the industry can be saved after all.
Enjoy the read and have a very happy Christmas and our best wishes for 2012.
Stewart & Janet
January Archie’s first steps
April Paula’s marathon
July Round-leaved wintergreen Mar Lodge
August Sue and Cliffords pine marten in garden
September Hydnellum gracilipes Rothiemurchus
November Solorina heaven
All photos © Stewart Taylor
