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
