Bennachie Weekend

First weekend in November, it must be the Haddo Christmas Fair, organised by the National Trust for Scotland. The run up to this two-day event started for Janet just after the summer holidays, with her little sewing machine working all hours to ensure there was enough tweedcrafts to keep her stall well stocked for the duration of the weekend. So, on the 2nd, and with the car filled to the gunnels, we headed over to the agricultural heartland of Aberdeenshire, stopping off at daughter Laura’s for lunch along the way. This craft fair attracts artisans from across Scotland and there were greetings from a few regulars as we parked by the

Haddo House theatre to unpack and set up the stall in readiness for the 10-o-clock start on Saturday. Duty done, it was back to Laura’s for the night and to Michelin star fare expertly prepared by Douglas. Once again the fair hit a weekend of frosty weather with brilliantly sunny days and once Janet and Laura were happy that the stall was ready for the hoards it was time for me to say cheerio and head off into the surrounding countryside. The wee bit of searching of family background covered in the October diary linked to Granny Ross had lead me, via her birth certificate, to her place of birth, Balbithan on the outskirts of Kintore, not that far from Haddo

House. Being in the general area and knowing that Kintore was on the way to Bennachie/Mither Tap where I had planned my day out, I thought it would be interesting to see whether the farmhouse of West Balbithan still survived. According to the current OS map it did and was located at the end of a track leading to East and West Balbithan and sure enough, when I drove along the minor road towards Kintore, an old signpost by the road pointed the way to the two houses. I parked the car in a layby at the end of the track and decided to walk to the house intending to politely enquire from anyone in residence whether I had found the right house. East Balbithan was modernised but generally as it would have been in Granny’s time. Passing a group of farm buildings (Granny’s parents were farmers) West Balbithan started to appear, but the old farmhouse was

now a group of buildings comprising several let properties, with several more modern buildings in the immediate area. Knocking on a few doors produced no response so I took a few photos before following the track back to the car. My Granny moved over to Deeside when she married whilst other members of her immediate family remained in the farming community close to Kintore. Life could have been very different if she hadn’t made that move all those years ago. The hill that dominates the Aberdeenshire landscape was visible in the distance – time to head in that direction.

The Forestry Commission car park at the start of the path to Bennachie was busy as usual, and not having climbed many hills in recent months the stroll upwards would be quite interesting, particularly as the reason for avoiding the hills was knee and hip protection. The hill though looked inviting and I was interested to see

if there were any unusual plants or lichens around the summit rock outcrop at just over the 500 metres contour. Either side of the track a massive forestry thinning operation had recently taken place. Although heaps of brash and stumps looked quite a mess if the removal of the spruces was to allow natural woodland to develop in its place, that would be a good thing, allowing a lot more light into the wood and track heading up the hill. The climb is quite easy really with the biggest test the repaired path up the steepest sections where pitching had created a series of “steps”, a good test for the thighs! Close to the top I cut off to the right and went to check another rock outcrop where cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus) and fir clubmoss (Huperzia selago) were growing along with the usual mix of rock lichens. Approaching the top of Mither Tap (as the main summit of the Bennachie group is called) from the “back” leads you to a sheer face of rock but with a small amount of scree below, just the sort of place to have a root around. Hanging from the rock faces and in

small patches on the ground was the hair-like lichen Bryoria fuscescens and in other places a tight, spiky ball type lichen Cetraria muricata. Just time for a summit photo (above right) before heading off back to Haddo in time for the close of the first day of the Fair. Day two was again very frosty and the car park at Haddo was, in places, a bit like a skating rink. Just time for a helping hand to remove the covers from the stall before heading off to spend the day in the grounds of Haddo House. Previous visits had turned up many galls associated with oak and beech, so the targets today would be a tiny fungus growing on fallen beech mast (nuts, above left) and wee growths actually on the lichens on tree branches and twigs which are known as Lichenicolous fungi (non-lichenised fungi growing on lichens, all very complex, too much to try and describe here.). Wandering along one of the lesser used tracks lots of elder bushes were present, all with twigs covered in lichens but

none had been parasitised by the non-lichenised fungi, however in the woodland beyond I could see several huge, ancient beech trees which looked interesting. A bit of rooting around amongst the fallen leaves and beech mast and I quickly found what I was looking for; a beech mast with several small, white fungi growing from it. More rooting around produced several more, the tiny fungus going by the name of Hymenoscyphus fagineus. Leaving the beech tree and heading for a group of mature oaks I came upon several sapling ash trees and the twigs immediately caught my eye as they were covered in the right sort of lichens for the non-lichenised fungi. And sure enough there were a few groups of tiny red dots growing on what I call a spiky lichen (above right), one with long hair-like structures at the end of each lobe known as cilia. This lichen was Physcia tenella, a common lichen, and one of the main species to be regularly parasitised by a brilliantly named growth called Illosporiopsis christiansenii. Despite having found Illosporiopsis all over the place close to Nethybridge this appeared to be the first time it had

been recorded in Aberdeenshire. To show just how overlooked it was I also found some growing on lichens on a nearby beech twig. The amazing spiral spores of I. christiansenii are shown left.  By early afternoon the temperature had dropped and the frost was setting in. As I started to make my way back towards the big house I flushed a buzzard from the base of a wall running parallel to a small burn and immediately I could see the bird had something wrong with it as it almost ended up in the water. Slowly, I walked up to it and it was so weak that there was little resistance as I bent down to pick it up. There was no food in its crop and the bird’s breast-bone was sticking out like the bow of a ship, it had obviously not eaten for quite a while. Thankfully I always carry a black bin-liner for occasions like this, though quite often they are used to bag dead birds of prey. The buzzard was carefully wrapped so that it could be carried back to the car without attracting any attention. Back at the car the bagged buzzard was left as comfortable as possible in the passenger foot-well before I returned to the craft fair just in time to mingle with the last of the visitors ahead of packing up the stall. Back at Laura’s the shattered sales team

were able to relax over a cuppa whilst I went out to check on the buzzard, but the bird, sadly, had died. Arriving back in Nethybridge the following day I had just got into the house when the phone rang to ask if I could attend a meeting with a registered osteopath in Inverness as part of the insurance claim following our car crash OVER A YEAR AGO! No wonder our insurance premiums are so expensive. Perfect timing as the buzzard could be delivered to the Scottish Agricultural College vets to see why the bird had died, and a few weeks later it was revealed that a form of pneumonia was the cause.

A few days in the first half of the month were spent checking local oak stands to see what galls were visible before the leaves parted company with the trees. No more knopper galls were found but in some of the stands foraging jays were present. Checking amongst the fallen leaves for galls I encountered a few spindly,

tiny fragile fungi belonging to the group called Mycena, growing from the main veins on some leaves. Time to put my training with Liz last month to the test. This wouldn’t be too easy without the fungal identification books which I have yet to buy, but on the internet there is a brilliant guide called A Key to the Mycenas of Norway, (http://home.online.no/~araronse/Mycenakey/list.htm ) describing 120 species, with photos and microscopic descriptions. The laborious bit is having to check each of the species individually, but eventually you can narrow the identification down to one or two species. Then the tricky work is needed to carefully slice out one of the tiny gills, and then if that wasn’t enough, the gill then has to be cut into tiny slivers before squashing a couple of the slivers on a glass slide and checking under the microscope. A couple of hours later the fungus turned out to be Mycena smithiana with the view down the microscope producing amazing

views of tiny spores all of which had a ‘punk hair-style’ sets of projections from the broad-end of each spore. Click on Mycena smithiana on the above website to see what I mean and just about visible in the attached photo (right). Brilliant!

The winter thrushes have mostly now headed south and all around we now have fields full of grazing geese, mainly greylags. Few reports, as yet, of the unusual geese that appeared last year, white-fronted and bean. A local green woodpecker is very unusual and if the weather remains reasonably kind perhaps we will see a repeat of the breeding which occurred during the 1980s. The local tawny owls have been calling, setting up their territories for 2013 and with the shortest day upon us, I can’t wait for the lighter days of spring. One bird that has been quite regular during November has been the waxwing, with 20-30 in most of the groups I was lucky enough to encounter whilst looking for galls and lichens. Most birds were found finishing off the

last of the rowan berries (top of tree left) and at a couple of sites, much rarer hawthorn berries. It was great to hear their tinkling bell-like calls as I wandered from tree to tree in local aspen woods looking for the beautiful but rare script lichen Schismatomma graphidioides. In one aspen wood thirty plus trees have been found with the lichen and considering just a tiny bit of the wood has been surveyed, this could turn out to be quite an important site in UK terms for this species. Several other rare lichens have already been recorded in this wood during a short survey in 2001 – so it is turning out to be a very special piece of woodland indeed. Another bit of woodland that has been saying “come and visit me” is a tiny sliver of mainly birches running away from the A9 Perth to Inverness road just to the west of Slochd Summit, clearly identifiable to those

travelling north by the phone mast perched on the highest bit of the hill. A few nice things were recorded and, because I left it late to make my visit, I will have to return again one day. As I climbed out of the gulley, close to the mast it was getting quite late and with darkness falling I had to make a quick call to Janet to let her know I was still alive! Knowing there was a track leading from the phone mast back to the road I headed towards it and was pleasantly surprised by the sight of rows of lights from vehicles thundering below me on the A9. Perfect, and just time for a long exposure photograph before heading back down the icy track to the car. If you go down in the woods today, do keep an eye open for strange growths on the tips of new growth on Norway and Sitka spruces. A morning walk with grandson Archie took us up through the spruces on Forestry Commission

land above Insh Marshes, and whilst Archie used his stick to attack the dead stems of bracken, I noticed several slightly bulbous growths on the tips of several Sitka spruce branches, so I popped a couple into a tub for checking once I got home. Under the low-power microscope I cut one of the growths in half and was amazed by what I found (left), more than a dozen empty galleries which during the summer would have been full of aphids. The aphids belong to the family Adelgidae and the gall is known as Adelges cooleyi. Thanks Archie.

That’s it for another month.
Have a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for 2013.
Stewart and Janet

Happy Christmas

Somewhere over the rainbow – with Archie

Sorting out the Christmas card!

Bennachie sunset


Photos © Stewart Taylor

A “galling” month with a house move thrown in

Welcome to our 100th diary entry.

The brain and new microscope were tested at the start of October. Ex-work colleague Andy, had arranged a fungus identification course at Abernethy and I had been kindly invited along. This wasn’t to be a “bums in the air” event, wandering the forest looking for species but a course specifically aimed at learning the more technical aspects of fungus identification with bums firmly fixed on seats. Explanation of the technical nomenclature, the use of species ID keys to get you from what you hold in your hand to (mainly) a positive identification, and the skills required to present the right bit of the fungus, on a glass slide, so that the microscopic bits of the fungus can be checked were the aims of the course. Expert Liz from Deeside was the course leader and my admiration of her rose immensely as with great patience and huge knowledge of all things fungal she lead us through the technically demanding aspects of the kingdom of our greatest group of

natural recyclers. To assist the learning process several fungi had been collected locally. Slowly we learnt how to remove a whole gill from under the cap of the fungus and then slice it into tiny slivers before placing the tiniest of the slivers on a glass slide, adding a drop of water before squashing under a cover slip ready to present to the microscope. This allowed access to the world of cystidia and basidia (2-pronged "growths on right of photo left) and whether the latter were 2 or 4 spored – key to many identifications. Tiny thin “scalps” were also removed from the skin of the fungus caps ,testing our skills with those old fashioned razor-blades, again allowing access to the inner make up of the fungus. Spores were found and measured, again a key requirement when determining the species you are working with. At the end of the two days I was working hard to try and retain many names and features of species we had worked with, just a dozen or so from the many hundreds out there in the wild. All I need now for Christmas is one or possibly more of the technical identification guides, the ones that take you well beyond the popular guides produced by Collins et al. Good as many of these guides are for getting you towards the right family and allowing identification of the commoner species, they are unable to provide the more technical information you need to check with what you are seeing via the microscope. Slowly forward! Many thanks to Liz for a well run course.

In February 2011 I said “never again”, but as the October school holidays arrived, and with grandson Finlay covered in chicken-pox, we were all involved in packing stuff into boxes and moving the contents of one house across the River Spey to another. Ruth was on the move again having found the tiny cottage at Balavil her “perfect place” but just too small with two upwardly mobile boys. So, over two days beds, boxes, freezers, chairs and settees were loaded into a transit van and car trailer and driven round the roads to Insh, overlooking the RSPB Insh Marshes Reserve. The new house is warm, dry and has superb views but so far

has lacked the brilliant displays of leafy tree lichens found across the river, though a few good things have been found nearby and will no doubt feature in future editions of the diary. One last find at Balavil was made when we moved an old armchair which had been stored outside open to the elements. As we lifted the chair, poking from the bare ground underneath was a strange stem-less, pale brown fungus in the shape of a floppy edged cup. I knew it was a member of the Peziza family (Peziza means a mushroom without a stalk) an Ascomycete fungus with no gills. Time to test out the microscope and with plenty of spores, dropped by the fungus onto a glass slide (right), I worked my way through Peziza Key available from the Web (http://www.fieldmycology.net/GBCHKLST/key.asp?KeyID=8 ) arriving at Peziza repanda the Palamino Cup, found, according to the Key, on soil or rotten textiles! Right on both accounts. And with that last find we waved bye-bye to Balavil.

Hard on the heels of the house move came a visit from the grandchildren as Ruth took off to Edinburgh for a couple of days. After a morning emptying the toy cupboards of their contents it was time for an afternoon outing to “Eagle Alley” or Strathdearn where the River Findhorn flows from the Monadhliath Mountains

towards Tomatin. As we got out of the car and were donning wellies Archie said “What’s that?” All around there were rutting stags and Archie had picked up on the sound and was possibly a little worried. We all had a go at being roaring stags but failed to attract any hinds. A distant stag with his harem appeared on the skyline and after much pointing everyone could just about make them out. The massive tumble of rocks by the road, all brilliant for lichens, proved a challenge and eventually we all managed to get on top of one of them. Grandad produced a small football and there was great fun kicking it back and forth as we wandered along the road though we came close to loosing it when one good hoof saw the ball trickle down the bank and into the River Findhorn. Grandad to the rescue and a great save was made before the ball headed off towards the Moray Firth! About 25 years ago we did the same walk when our daughters were about the same age as the grandchildren on this outing and they had a favourite alder tree right by the road which had a hollow centre but with a convenient hole at road level. Dropping stones into the hole was great fun as they emerged

a few seconds later out from the roots. The remains of this tree still survive but the hole has long gone. Checking an adjacent tree with what looked like a hollow centre produced a tin with a message that this was a Geo-cache site (not sure if this is their website http://www.geocaching.com/ )and in the tin were various wee items. We signed to say we had been and returned the tin to its hole. Not sure why folk need to deposit these things all over the countryside (there are thousands) to enjoy a day out, but each to his own I suppose. Just time for a family photo before making our way back to the car when, as usual, Janet shouted “eagle”, and sure enough one glided quietly overhead, heading down river, no doubt towards it evening roost site. The kestrels on the crag above us didn’t react to the eagle passing overhead though I am sure the ravens we saw earlier in the afternoon wouldn’t have been so benign. On the drive back down the glen we caught up with the herd of feral goats half-way up a hill on the opposite side of the river. The aspect of this brilliant area though is under threat from neighbouring estates as you will read later in the diary.

Have you seen them? Robin’s pin cushions on wild roses, oak apples, knopper galls and spangle galls on oak trees and those bright green pea-sized balls on the undersides of willow leaves. Having spent a little of last autumn looking for a few selected galls, mainly on oak trees, I have spent quite a lot of time this autumn adding to my knowledge and expanding my searches to look for specific galls whilst at the same time finding

others by accident. Little did I realise that there is a whole new world out there comprising mites, sawflies and gall wasps. The last diary gave a small insight into what was found during September but with membership of the British Plant Gall Society paid and the purchase of the AIDGAP (Aids to Identification in Difficult Groups of Animals and Plants) assisted book British Plant Galls made, I have been taking home an increasing number of lumps and bumps found on plants and mainly tree leaves for identification. Once you actually start looking you suddenly realise how many wee insects rely on plants to provide a home for some part of their breeding cycle. On one small willow (probably Salix cinerea or close hybrid – yet another world!) there were galls like corsages on the tips of new stems, in leaf buds, in stems and in associationd with leaves! The genus Salix (all willows) supports more galls than any other in Britain although an individual oak will support more than

an individual willow. The book uses quite good keys to lead you to the right species but even here, at the last step to identification there are words of caution that the insect species is poorly understood/recorded and that it might be that species or the gall insect will need to be bred out to confirm ID. So, arriving home with several potential galls I started merrily cutting into them to see what was inside and it was only after finding several were still occupied and I ended up cutting the occupant in half, that a more cautious approach was developed. In most cases this involved opening the gall a little like cutting to peal an orange, scoring round the outside of the gall before carefully prising apart the two halves. And what a lot of surprises then followed. One, on broom pods, revealed a sort of black fungal sack, left behind after the occupant had departed. On some

willow leaves the empty gall was full of “frass”, the chewed up inner of the gall after passing through the gall larva (ie poo). On some of these galls an obvious exit hole was visible but the inside of the gall had to be checked to see if the frass was present (one species) or not (another). My first encounter with life in a gall came via a striped pea gall on an oak leaf. After parting the two halves of the gall I realised that something was moving in one half and as I watched, an adult gall wasp emerged (above left and right). This is a common gall and, because confirmation of the exact species inside a gall is still very important the wasp was kept and sent to the gall insect ID man for checking. On this occasion the wee wasp was true to its gall and was confirmed as Cynips longiventris. One of the pea-sized willow leaf galls also had live contents, the right sort of larva to be producing the frass, but to be sure it was a sawfly and not a caterpillar I had to see enough of the larva to

be able to count its number of legs. Both have 3 pairs of legs just behind the head but in a sawfly there are 6 or more pairs of prolegs whereas caterpillars have 5 or less. The prolegs are the larger stubby legs just over half-way along the larva’s body (see photo of Caterpillar © André Karwath - right). I could see 6 so the resident sawfly seemed to be correct so the gall was put back together and the gall returned to the wild. The last live gall content was found right at the end of the month and again involved a willow host. Having followed the identification key, the book told me that the larva inside, if present, should be a caterpillar, and sure enough, when I opened the gall there was a pale green caterpillar present (above left). Amazing. The book named the larva as belonging to the micro-moth Cydia servillana, a moth not yet recorded from Scotland (see NBN map right), but, having contacted three prominent moth experts, there may be some doubt about the caterpillar matching up to the name. Whilst making these contacts the gall had been

put back together (a circle of blu-tac no less!) and the gall placed in a cool room. About a week later I was fairly certain that the caterpillar would be dead but, amazingly, it had turned into a chrysalis, so the next test will be to see if it is possible to get the moth to emerge so that it can be properly identified. A second, unopened gall is also with the first one, so hopefully one will survive. Watch this space.

A trip to Aviemore on 22nd was a new experience – the start of a two week long public inquiry into the first of seven wind farm proposals on high moorland right on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park. This first one was looking into the planning application for one between Aviemore and Kingussie, to the west of the main A9 route north. The site, Allt Duine, within the Monadhliath Mountains and on the boundary of three estates, is for 31 turbine with a maximum height to blade tip of 125 metres. Details of the site can be seen at http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/306982/rwe-innogy/sites/wind-onshore/united-kingdom/in-development/location/ and click on the right-hand map. This site is operated by the developer RWE and provides details of their application. The application was opposed by Highland Council, the Cairngorms National Park Authority along with several outdoor/landscape charities. Sadly Scottish Natural Heritage and RSPB didn’t object despite the high natural history value of the site, which includes a couple of adjacent eagle territories. All the details of the sites importance and the objectors can be found at http://www.savemonadhliathmountains.com/farmfacts.htm . See Chris Townsend's © photo of the site below.  If this inquiry allows the development to go ahead, there are several other applications already in the pipeline for more wind farms within the

Monadhliath Mountains which is, currently, one of the largest area of “wild land” within the UK, more remote than the Cairngorms themselves and an area which should be managed for its natural history interests so badly neglected by the estate owners over the last couple of centuries. In the northern section of the Monadhliath’s the Dunmaglass 33 turbine “power station” is already under construction by RWE (type Dunmaglass into Google to see details) along with a similar sized completed development on the moors above Farr. The site we visited as a family as detailed earlier in this diary comprises one area where the estates owners Coignafearn Estate, have embarked on a course of actions aimed at restoring woodland along the River Findhorn strath whilst continuing to run the estate as an environmentally sensitive sporting estate. For this they are to be congratulated. Sadly, Alex Salmond and his majority Scottish devolved government have the final say on the Allt Duine application and if their track record is anything to go by they are likely to

rubber-stamp this application as they progress with the industrialisation of Scotland’s much cherished landscape. Under the Nationalist government wind turbine planning applications have soared to such a rate that, according to a Times article (21 Nov 2012), three have been made for every day that Alex Salmond has been first Minister! The same article shows that since 2007 there have been 5,528 applications for turbines in Scotland. Aberdeenshire alone has received 1,078 applications (see http://www.cawt.co.uk/index.php ). Applications to Fife, Aberdeenshire and Moray local authorities have risen to such a degree that they can’t cope, and have asked for a moratorium on further applications. There has to be a better way to treat Scotland’s countryside with an urgent need to plan where these huge industrial structures can be accommodated rather than the

free-for-all which pertains currently. The Allt Dunie wind farm, if built, would dominate the distant view of the photo shown in the dairy of 3 October 2010 and repeated here (right). At the inquiry, the sheer amount of paperwork already produced by the applicant (the pile above left was sent to all interested parties) is frightening and the money available to promote their proposals at the inquiry when compared to the charities opposing the plans is obscene. The stakes are high when you consider the “power station” will cost over £30 million to construct, enough to put the maximum of 16 solar panels on around 5,000 houses.

Driving over to Deeside via the Lecht I have often seen the car park and sign pointing to the Lecht Lead Mine a place I had never visited until a few weeks ago. I was hoping that the site would provide some areas of quarrying and possibly some spoil-heaps in the hope that a few unusual plants or lichens might be present

as were found in a nearby ex-lime quarry. About half a mile from the car park is a very impressive building and it was towards this building I headed. I have a habit of checking juniper bushes in passing, just in case the bright yellow lichen Vulpicida pinastri might be present and there, on almost the first bush I checked was the lichen presenting me with my first photo opportunity of the day. The building is pretty impressive (left) and obviously well looked after though all that remains of the once very busy ore sorting unit are the four outer walls topped by a new roof. A display inside (left) shows how the ore arrived in the top section of the building via a bridge from the adjacent hillside, and was worked on as it descended through the various floors. All the internal machinery was powered by a large external water-wheel. Outside, I scrambled up the side of the adjacent

spoil heap spotting several tiny fruiting bodies of the moor coral fungus (Clavaria argillacea). Sadly, most of the tops of the spoil heaps and their gently sloping sides are heavily visited by sheep and deer and over most of the area are quite disturbed. Just occasionally undisturbed areas were found and creeping out of some of these were runners of the stag’s horn clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum) with a mixture of single,

double and triple headed spore cones. As I stopped for a bite to eat I noticed lots of flies “dancing” in the sunshine above the heather and suddenly remembered the request by the Highland Biological Recording Group to keep an eye open for two under-recorded Bibio flies (right)described as behaving in the way the flies in front of me were behaving. Parking my sandwich I whipped out a tube and managed to capture a couple and what I had in the tube seemed to resemble the description I could remember from the website, so the flies were retained for checking once home. Lunch over, I headed for the last and more distant spoil heaps where again more clubmoss was found along with its mountain cousin alpine clubmoss (Diphasium alpinum). A tiny clump of a more unusual looking lichen was also growing by the clubmoss and by its colour I knew it was something a 

 little unusual, and possibly normally found higher up on the mountains. Its name escaped me so lots of photos were taken to help with identification once I got home. More homework! As I reached the domed top of the spoil heap I was presented with an amazing sight of masses of the same lichen, so much growing that I didn’t feel guilty by removing a small sample for checking under the microscope if needed. Once home the fly was one of the ones to be looked for – Bibio lepidus, and the lichen was one I last encountered high up on Cairngorm Alectoria nigrescens (left), usually found above 700m. No doubt the conditions close to the Lecht ski-grounds were similar to higher elevations and the gravelly habitat with little competing vegetation was also very similar to the wind-swept summits.

That’s it for another month as we head towards the shortest day.

Stewart and Janet

Acorn - a bit scarce this year locally

Redwings and fieldfares in garden

Ash at Lochindorb but for how much longer?


Photos © Stewart Taylor unless shown otherwise in text

Great care needed with angels of the destroying type!

As the Olympic Games passed seamlessly into the Paralympics we kicked off the month of September and with just three days of the month gone, we had two gold post-boxes within sixteen miles of each other. The

one in the wall in Grantown on Spey was decorated following the efforts of past track sprint Olympian Craig MacLean (41) as he piloted Anthony Kappes to the gold medal in the tandem sprint final in the London Velodrome. This was Anthony’s second gold in that event, his first coming in Beijing in 2008, but with a different pilot. Craig’s home town is Grantown where the recently built sports centre is named after him in recognition of his many titles as part of the famous Sir Chris Hoy team, including Olympic silver in the Team Sprint with Hoy and Jason Queally in Sydney in 2000. He again teamed up with Sir Chris and Ross Edgar to win gold in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia in 2006 and earlier this year, with Kappes, won two world championships in the Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Los Angeles. So not a bad second wind, after having to retire from the Hoy team in 2008 following a back injury. The second gold post

box appeared in Aviemore after thirty-four year old Dave Smith won gold as a member of Paralympic GB’s mixed cox adaptive four rowing team in the one-kilometre event. Like Craig, Dave has been around for a while winning major events, his first world rowing title coming in 2009 in the Munich World Cup, but only gaining national recognition by winning gold on home (UK) soil this summer. Dave’s feat was all the more impressive considering he underwent life-saving surgery in 2010 to remove a tumour from his neck after which he was unable to move anything other than his right arm! Well done to you both and your respective teams. You can see both medal winners on the special Royal Mail commemorative stamps

Fungus searches have featured a little this month with a special trip being made over the mountains to Deeside to see something special. An email from Liz informed me that she had found a small number of fruiting bodies of a fungus with the amazing name of Boletopsis perplexa the Black Falsebolete, a close relative to the Bankera group of tooth fungi regularly encountered at Abernethy. Previous to this find there have only been 11 UK records for this unusual looking fungus, all from Scotland, the two general locations being Rothiemurchus Forest in Strathspey, or Inveray near the Linn of Dee on

Deeside. Liz has been responsible for six of these finds – now make that seven. The new find was by the River Dee on the opposite bank to Ballochbuie Forest on the wider Balmoral Estate but the fungus when found had been very badly eaten by slugs, so time was of the essence if I was to see what remained of Liz’s find. After parking up by the A93 I made my way towards the river, knowing that the previous records nearby had been close to the bank of the same river. After walking back and forth on lines about a metre apart I started to find a few tooth fungi, Bleeding tooth (Hydnellum peckii), Meally Tooth (Hydnellum ferrugineum) and then the subtle marker that Liz had left for the local estate manager to see the fungus, right by the Boletopsis (remains above left). There wasn’t much of the fungus to see, but turning over a part of what remained of the cap to see the under-side, I could see a small patch of the distinctive china-white surface with pores – tiny holes from which the spores drop. A good photo of the top of the fungus can be seen at
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/qCVbJnC-vx6u5jA2OT8ypw  . A wider search found more bleeding tooth fungus and a single group of Sarcodon glaucopus (Greenfoot tooth -right), a rare fungus on Deeside. A visit

to several track-side quarries close to the Linn of Dee failed to find any Hydnellum gracilipes, another aim of the visit, but it was nice to see a few alder tongues (Taphrina alni) on trees by the River Dee and to sit on the rocks by the narrowest part of the river as it charges under the bridge. This brought back memories of visits to the same spot with Granny Ross when the family travelled north from Lancashire to holiday with her in her toll gate cottage (Bridge Cottage) by the Dee at Drumoak. Until she retired in 1966 (when Dr Beeching closed the railway line) Granny Ross or “Auld Tollie” as she was known was responsible for

collecting toll charges from people wanting to cross the River Dee by the Park Bridge owned then by British Rail (previously the Great North of Scotland Railway). Pedestrians, cars and passengers and even farm livestock were all charged for crossing the bridge with Auld Tollie popping out of her cottage (left) to collect the relevant fee, seven days a week, and during most of the daylight hours. The family originally lived just up the road at Park Station where Grandad Ross was a signalman on the railway and is where my mother was born. This line is the famous Deeside Line regularly used by the Royal Family as they travelled to their Highland Retreat at Balmoral. To read more about the line and to see Park Station go to http://www.deeside-railway.co.uk/RDR/the_line_2.html . Having seen the Boletopsis and the habitat it occupied I spent several days wandering the general areas where the fungus had previously

been seen near Loch an Eilein several decades ago and Uath Lochans in Inshriach where a Boletopsis species was seen a few years ago. These were all good outings with plenty of good records of other species but sadly, no Boletopsis. One of the visits to Loch an Eilein was perfectly timed for a count of the number of Meally Tooth fungus (right) fruiting this year, and after a couple of years where there were few to be seen this year produced a bumper crop with over 460 individuals counted. A bonus whilst looking for the Boletopsis was finding a new Meally tooth population in an out of the way wee burn, so not too bad an outcome.

Two other fungi worth a mention were found whilst looking for insect galls on aspen leaves near Boat of Garten. This wood, with many ancient aspen trees in a mix with mainly birch and a few Scots pines, has produced several good aspen based lichens in the past so, in occasional breaks from staring at the ground checking fallen leaves, it was good to scan the occasional aspen trunk. In one such break, as I made my

way to where an aspen trunk with some obvious rot holes had caught my eye (always good to check for rare pinhead lichens) I noticed a group of white fungi in amongst the grass (left). On closer inspection I became immediately wary as the fungus had all the hallmarks of one of the Amanita’s, a genus containing some of our most poisonous species. Being white there were no obvious “don’t touch me” clues like the red fly agaric, but at the top of the stem I could see an obvious hanging ring, and at the base of the stem a large, bag-like volva typical of this group of fungi. The two species that sprung to mind were deathcap or destroying angel, both, as far as I could remember being deadly poisonous. Having not seen either on my travels I thought it best to be cautious but at the same time I would need a photo and probably a specimen to check once home. Most of these deadly mushrooms are reasonably safe to handle it’s the bits that enter the mouth and end up in the digestive system that cause the problems. Admire isn’t quite the right word but I did, for a while, stand and look at this innocent looking fungus, no more than four inches tall, and think about what it could do. No signs saying hazardous, no signs saying don’t touch, no health and safety notices but there, a few inches in front of me was something that could probably kill me. Goosebumps! So I was hoping there was no one watching me as I lay on the ground photographing the fungus and, with a little more care than usual, one of the dozen or so that were growing was popped into a collecting box for checking once I got home. I did though look for a wee pool of water to wash my hands before eating my lunchtime apple. Once home I found I was right to be cautious as the fungus turned out to be Amanita virosa, the destroying angel. The second fungus I found also had me guessing as to its identity, but, growing as it was like a long tongue from the seed-heads on a grass stem, I was sure I was looking at Ergot (Claviceps purpurea), a member of the same

family as the Choke (Epichlöe typhina) in the last diary. This unusual wee fungus has a two-stage life-cycle, the "tongues" in grasses and cereals in late summer fall to the ground where they over-winter, the “tongue” then germinates in the spring - a more typical looking fungus sprouting from the tongue or sclerotium (see http://elmundoespectacular.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/imagenes-al-microscopio-2-parte.html
 for the most amazing fungus photo). Something in the deep recesses of my mind told me to once again be cautious of this innocuous looking wee fungus, with the strange behaviour of witches coming to mind. Right again! Ergot is very poisonous and can be deadly particularly if the wee tongues enter the food-chain via commercial cereals. Ergot poisoning is mind-affecting and it has been suggested that this is what caused the strange behaviour of ‘witches’ in the Middle Ages. To read about the mayhem that this tiny growth has caused see http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/LECT12.HTM .

Over the last year a group of passionate people have been trying to fight for the future of this part of the Cairngorms. These knowledgeable folk, like me, have spent much of their life out and about in the Cairngorms recording, monitoring and enthusing about the area and trying to ensure the area is treated in such a way as to ensure future generations can enjoy the areas values as much as they have during their lifetimes. Through their various organisations they have been standing up for the Cairngorms when others had plans that were damaging or unsustainable in such an important area When the Cairngorms National

Park became a reality so worried were these organisations by some of the initial plans for the Park, they formed an alternative Park Board. When faced with the Park Authority’s support for thousands of houses within Strathspey within the Park and close to the Cairngorms most sensitive core mountain area and important lower ground habitats, many with high conservation designations, they felt they had to act. As a group they launched a “Save the Cairngorms National Park” appeal to enable them to mount a legal challenge to the Parks proposals, a costly undertaking particularly when other conservation bodies/organisations have failed to object to the housing proposals and hence would not be providing funding assistance. Readers of this diary know my stance and feelings about how badly the Park Authority are managing this important area and I was very disappointed late in the month to hear that the legal challenge had failed. However, an appeal is to be mounted involving more costs so please take time to visit this website, read all about the challenge and help if you can. This appeal alone will cost £50,000. Thank you. http://www.cairngormscampaign.org.uk/images/upload/downloads/111001%20FINAL%20Legal%20challenge%20appeal%20for%20funds%20letter.pdf . The above photo was taken close to the proposed An Camus Mor development where up to 1500 houses are planned.

The final butterfly transect of the year was walked, and with all the results entered into Butterfly Conservations Transect Walker database, I was finally able to see how the season had fared overall. The

transect survey period is from the first week of April until the last week of September, 26 weeks in all. Despite the weather I managed to walk transects in 23 of the 26 weeks. Because of poor weather double walks were made during 3 of the weeks. Interestingly the same number of species of butterflies was recorded at 14, there was one loss, red admiral and one gain small white. The big gain though was in Scotch argus with an increase of 460 contacts to 756 so despite thinking it was a rubbish year more contacts were made overall (+428) and the number of species recorded was the same as last year. The attached table gives details. With the sun shining for the last few butterfly transects I was able to carry out a bit of additional survey work. Many years ago a small mining bee had been recorded in the approximate area of the last section of the transect and, being a close relative of the bee so regularly recorded in the sand dunes of South Uist, I was quite keen to see if it still bred in the area. Knowing a little about the habits of the bee from what I had seen in the Uists, I had a good idea where it would be best to look for it, and as I finished the butterfly transect mid-month, I headed off for a lightly vegetated patch of moorland with areas of bare ground created by a population of rabbits (now gone)

several years ago. The bee forages mainly on heather flowers and as I approached the possible breeding area I was fairly certain that a bee disturbed from heather was the one I was looking for. The bee, the Common Colletes (Colletes succinctus) nests in holes in the ground so my best bet to check for their presence was to wander slowly across the potential breeding area and wait for any activity. There were several bright green grasshoppers, the odd tiger beetle and tiger beetle larvae with their heads just appearing at the entrances to their underground holes, and a few similar, but smaller, hole nesting bees (Halictus rubicundus) present. Eventually I saw several bees which looked and behaved like the bees in the Uists, landing, and wandering around before disappearing into their holes. Having found their holes I was also able to watch the bees visiting nearby heather flowers. Just to be sure a photo was sent to bee expert Murdo who confirmed that I had indeed re-found the Common Colletes, and, looking at the site, the bee had probably been there since it was first recorded in 1999.

Migrating pink-footed geese were first recorded passing over on the 11th of September and the first “real” greylags towards the end of the month though there remains a little confusion with fly-overs by the local feral flocks. Strangest record came via Richard in Tulloch – a gannet seen flying over Tulloch moor with

additional records of a single bird in the River Findhorn valley during the following week. Janet spotted a hedgehog in the garden early in the month, coming out after dark to feed on scraps left by the birds. So regular was its appearance that I decided to photograph it one night and whilst out on the deck awaiting its arrival I was aware of a rustling sound under my feet. I didn’t move and eventually the hedgehog emerged from under the decking. As it fed on a heap of fatty oatmeal I could still hear rustling under my feet and a few minutes later a second hedgehog joined the first at the oatmeal. I had just time for a photo before the bigger of the two disappeared off under the hedge and was heard wandering in the general direction of the chalet feeders, followed a little later by the other one. Perhaps the two of them were living under the decking, but within a week the nightly sightings had ended and all we can assume is that they have headed off to pastures new. Quite a bit of time during the second half of the month was spent visiting various aspen and oak stands to check the trees for plant galls following on from the work mention in last months diary. More of the galls growing between the stem and leaf on aspen leaves (see photo last month) Eriophyes diversipunctatus, have

been found, the one on RSPB Abernethy NNR being new to the reserve. A few aspen leaves with the groups of brilliantly red galls (Harmandiola tremulae right) on their upper surface were found whilst out with the Kincraig Playgroup and when we stopped to cut open one of the galls leaders and children were highly delighted to find it contained a wee orange grub, particularly when it crawled out onto the outside of the gall. On the same outing a small club-shaped gall was found on a fallen oak twig which looked like Andricus seminationis (left) which if

confirmed, would be new to this part of the UK. However, final identification will need to wait until next spring when the insect that emerges from the gall (in captivity currently) can be correctly identified. Gall ID is not always straight-forward, and in the case of this particular gall it could be the correct gall wasp that emerges or it may be “an inquiline” another insect which could have laid its eggs in the gall initially created by the gall wasp! Phew.

The month ended with a trip down to Lancashire to see Janet’s mum and to catch up with all the other family news. We endured a soggy few days but enjoyed good pub lunches and wanders in familiar haunts. A walk

around Whalley found the River Calder in spate and paths across fields impassable but with a few detours we completed the walk. Along the way we saw many oak trees with good populations of acorns so of course I had to check for galls and on the first tree I was able to point out to brother John and sister-in law Jill the many knopper galls present on the acorns (left). The next tree was an alder and on one of the cones we also found the alder tongue. A calling chiffchaff was probably my last one for the year and once again it was nice to catch up with a couple of nuthatches. The month also ended with me being the proud owner of a brand new high-powered

microscope, replacing the useful, but basic model bought when I retired from RSPB. Brunel Microscopes (suppliers of both) were very good and offered to take the smaller version back in part-exchange for the incredible SP500. Two eyes open, brilliant lighting and a camera attachment “third” tube means that this will be my last foray into the purchasing of microscopes field. I now need a course just to find out how all the various forms of lighting and filtering work but in the meantime it is being put to good use checking out spores from a mix of fungi. Brilliant.

Enjoy the read
Stewart and Janet

Loch Gamhna

Physocephala nigra

Motormania fun Grantown

Pine sap-run - future amber jewellery? 

















Photos © Stewart Taylor