As I prepared to write this diary the
solemness of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month was
upon us. Our TV screens were also
starting to fill with the horrors of the devastation wreaked in the Philippines by Typhoon Haiyan, raising the city
of Tacloban to
the ground and killing thousands of people.
As the eleventh hour approached I headed out, parking the car by the
road to Lurg Farm on the outskirts of
Nethybridge to have a short walk and as Big
Ben started to chime eleven times I had the place to myself with a view out
towards the cloud covered Cairngorms.
What a contrast. Ninety nine
years ago millions of Brits were about to loose their lives in Europe and in
the
Philippines
millions of folk were seeking food and water just to stay alive. And me?
I was about to walk the length of a recently installed deer fence to see
if any birds had collided with it and you start to think that there are bigger
things in this world to worry about. I
hope you all bought your poppy and sent your donation to the DEC appeal.
October started with a search for a new
laptop, my trusty old Dell Inspiron was starting to need repairs, was running slow
and, from April next year, Microsoft will no longer be supporting the simple to
use Windows XP software installed on it.
So, it was time to bite the bullet and upgrade(?) to a newer, faster
machine and the horrors of having to learn to use Windows 7. The purchase though was timely and the new
laptop was pressed straight into use to assist with a talk to a local history
group, the new laptop having the ability to “talk” to the PowerPoint projector,
something my old machine refused to do.
Progress!
At the end of September a very worrying
event took place just up the road from Firwood, a section of the Abernethy Reserve caught fire. I was just driving back down the road towards
home when I realised I could smell smoke and just at the same time, Ian, one of
the reserve staff was also just about to park up to see what was where. Another member of staff was already in the
trees trying to find the fire and an argocat (an
off road 8-wheeled vehicle)
with water bowser and mist sprayers was on its way, as was the local fire
brigade, who I met as I made my way to the Mondhuie Wood entrance. As I parked up I was just quick enough to grab
a few photos of the second fire engine arriving before setting off to follow an
old timber extraction route towards the fire, hoping that someone would have a
spare fire beater once I got there. I
didn’t think it appropriate to take my camera so sadly, this was left
behind. At the fire site John and Sandy
from the village were already tackling the fire with cut sections of juniper
bushes, the argocat had just arrived and generally, the fire was reasonably quickly
brought under control, just as well, as there were no spare fire beaters to
help bash out the flames which continued to flare up in some areas. John and Sandy had seen the smoke from their
houses and had phoned RSPB and the fire brigade before setting off. Despite the dryish weather of September, the
fire wasn’t roaring away and was generally confined to an area of dampish
ground probably no more than a hectare in size.
However, it looked like it had been burning in the peat for a couple of
days before “taking off” and that
 |
| Fire scarred trees |
it had originated from an overnight campfire
which hadn’t been properly extinguished.
A lucky escape. As I looked
around I could see one large wood ant nest in the middle of the burnt area hadn’t
been so lucky and was smouldering away quite badly, meaning the nest would have
to be flattened to ensure no smouldering embers remained. How I wished I had brought my camera, if only
to record the loss of the nest. However,
I thought back to another fire in another part of Abernethy in the mid-1980s
where a large ant nest had been burnt and amazingly, though the nest was
destroyed, the ants survived, so it would be interesting to visit this one
again once the fire had been fully extinguished. The Abernethy staff were on site for a couple
of days until they were happy the last smouldering embers had been dealt with
and it
 |
| The Sickener (Russula emetica) |
was a few days after that before I returned to see what remained of the
ants nest. Despite the blackened Scots
pine trunks and burnt vegetation, there were already signs that the tussocks of
cotton grass had started to recover, and a brilliantly red cap of the fungus The
Sickener (
Russula emetica) had appeared from the charred embers. More amazing, was the scurrying activity of
wood ants, working feverishly to re-build their nest in the hollowed out
crater, the only obvious evidence that remained of their once magnificent nest. In just a few days the ants had already
assembled a small mound, which, hopefully, could be added to over the next six
to eight weeks to provide a mini-dome capable of shedding the worst of the
winter weather. So how had they
survived? The burnt nest was quite large
and hence old, measuring four feet across the base of the mound, and estimated
to have been about three foot in height.
Although we see the mass of twigs and needles that make up the nest
above ground, another part of the nest
 |
| The 4' diameter base of burnt ant nest with new build just visible |
goes well underground, providing the
ants with reasonably secure accommodation for the winter months. The mound above would shed the water and snow
and the underground section would probably be maintained at a few degrees
warmer than the surrounding air on cold days.
So, despite the fire removing the “nest”, many ants, including queens
would have survived below ground and with the RSPB folk removing most of the
smouldering nest, this would have stopped the fire from burning down into the
ground as it had done in other sections of the woodland. Some ants would have also survived by being
out collecting nest material and food, the latter often from high in the
surrounding trees. So, as soon as it was safe to emerge the surviving ants
started doing what ants do best, nest building, and though many ants would have
perished, those that had survived would be having a good go at producing as
much of a thatch before the
 |
| Typical size of 4' diameter ant nest |
worst of the winter weather arrives. One major aspect of the ants lives that would
have been disrupted though, would be their immediate food supply, comprising
the many small insects, including aphids, that the ants scour the surrounding
vegetation and trees to find. Only time
will tell, but on my last visit just a few days ago the old nest crater had a
mound several inches high in its centre and though work has now stopped for the
winter they may just have been able to do enough to allow the fire survivors to
see the first warm days in February 2014.
Fingers crossed and watch this space.
The 6th October was quite a nice
day in Nethybridge, the sun was out and there was a bit of breeze so it seemed
the right sort of day to go and have a last look for alpine bearberry
(Arctostaphylos alpinus), the nice red-leaved plant which featured last
month. This plant has yet to be found on
the RSPBs Abernethy Reserve so I
thought one last big effort to a series of tops forming the boundary of the
reserve with the
 |
| The days outing, both tops |
Forestry Commission in Glenmore might produce the goods. I decided the best way to the top of
Craiggowrie would be from Tulloch Moor and I had warned Janet that if
everything went well, I might need a lift back to my car from the Glenmore
cafรฉ. As I made my way across the Glac
Mor flats below the steep climb up Craiggowrie I started to doubt that I had
made the right decision as the wind was starting to blow quite strongly and I
had hardly started to ascend. Willow trees were checked
for galls and lichens as I passed them and the wet flush I was following
upwards produced one or two different plants worthy of note. Somewhere along its length there is an old
record of bog orchid, and though most suitable sites were checked, nothing was
found. Eventually the ridge well west of
the summit of Craiggowrie was reached and I had a job to stand up and when I
reached the summit I was glad of the shelter that comprised part of the summit
cairn and decided this was the best place to have lunch, but all the extra
layers of waterproofs would be needed to try and fend off the wind. Over lunch I made a note of a couple of
lichens on the rocks and took out my GPS to show the location. I then realised that Craiggowrie and the
 |
Tulloch, Lochs Mallachie & Garten
from Craiggowrie |
ridge beyond was a bit below the 700m contour, something I should have checked
on the map before setting off rather than relying on out of date memories! Lunch over I headed out along the ridge
checking any suitable looking bits of habitat for the bearberry, but nothing
looked quite right. The ridge path took
me down into a hollow and up onto next rocky knoll which just got me into the
700m height, but without a single suitable bit of bearberry habitat in sight. The aim from here was to have progressed on
to Creagan Gorm and Meall a’ Bhuachaille before heading down to the cafรฉ at
Glenmore but with the wind trying to part me from my waterproofs it was time to
bale out and head back toward Tulloch and my car. All was not lost though as I was able to head
north out onto another rocky outcrop before heading down via the Craiggowrie
Burn an area I had never visited before, and
 |
| The lichen Alectoria ochroleuca |
Delbog and then to the car. As I reached the rocky outcrop something in
my head was reminding me that I might be in an area where the rare mountain
lichen Alectoria ochroleuca had been found in the recent past, despite the area
being well below its usual altitudinal range.
Just as well I had remembered because after finding the first small
patch of this creeping, thin branched lichen, more and more patches started to
appear, the subtle yellow colour distinguishing it from other similar looking
lichens on site. Alectoria comes from
the Greek for ‘hair’ and that is just how the lichen appears as it sits there
in a slightly tangled yellowish mass on the short vegetation. My GPS informed me that I was at around 670m,
almost 100m below where you
 |
| Rock Art Craiggowrie Burn |
would normally expect to find it. And then the hard downhill slog began,
walking through deep, tussocky vegetation all the way down the burn and beyond. The burn with its mainly Scots pine woodland
was interesting but didn’t produce anything out of the ordinary and it was with
great relief that the track from Delbog was reached and normal walking could be
resumed. Halfway along the track I met
Sally who thought I must be absolutely mad to have tackled Craiggowrie by the
route I had taken. Lesson learnt, and
with only seven entries of notables in my diary for the day, not the most
productive of outings.
Another outing took place which lead to a
bit of deer dung related work! A couple
of water beetle recorders (Garth and Don) were visiting the Abernethy Forest
area to check sites where the unusual beetle Agabus (now Ilybius) wasastjernea
had been found in the past. This beetle
that made an entry onto the British beetle list originally as a fossil record,
only to be found alive, in 1991, following some pitfall tapping work linked to
capercaillie research, in Abernethy
Forest. The original “find” came about after I had
ensured that all beetle specimens, once counted as potential bulk prey items
available to capercaillie, were sent to a
 |
| Garth & Don the water beetle survey team |
beetle expert, John Owen. John had been undertaking surveys as a
volunteer at Abernethy for the previous twelve years. The find created a bit of excitement in the
world of water beetles, and following the original identification by John and
subsequent searching in the forest to find the habitat occupied, a paper was produced
for the Entomologist's Record, Vol. 104, in October l992,
titled “Agabus wasastjernae - Sahlberg (Col.: Dytiscidae) New To
Scotland, by Owen, Lyszkowski, Proctor and Taylor.” Sadly, I’ve been unable to find a link to
this paper that is easily accessible on the internet, so a short excerpt is
given below, prรฉcised a little to save space.
“Sub-fossil history in Britain. While
these specimens of A. wasastjernae are the first to be recorded from Scotland
and the first to be recorded in Britain for historic times, examination of
sub-fossil deposits have shown that the species lived in Britain in the past. Coope (1959) examining Pleistocene deposits
from
 |
Current UK distribution of
Ilybius (Agabus) wasasjernae |
Chelford, Cheshire,
found fragments of a number of specimens of A. wasastjernae along with
fragments of ten other water beetles of the family Dytiscidae, of which eight
are among those we found in searching for specimens of the Agabus in
Abernethy. These deposits were dated by 14.
C (carbon dating) as were deposits from Church Stretton, Shropshire, where more fragments of the beetle had been
found. These deposits gave a 14. C
date of 8101 ± 138 years B.P. Since most
of Britain has been free from glaciation since that time there is every reason
to suppose that A. wasastjernae has had a continuous presence in Britain in the
past for at least 8000 years, becoming a northern species as its required
habitat became extinguished in the south. Examination of sub-fossil deposits
has demonstrated the presence in Britain
in the past of many beetle species which are present in Britain today but this is apparently the first
instance in which a beetle was known from such deposits in Britain some years before it was discovered in Britain alive.”
Despite the publicity
generated by this find there have been few records for the beetle since the
early 1990s and the reason for the current visit was to see if it could be
found in a couple of its old haunts.
Knowing the location of the 1991 site and having found the beetle there and
in other locations since, I was invited along to help with the search. Sadly, the dry summer meant that there was
hardly any water in the
 |
Chickweed wintergreen &
seed head by pools |
root holes where the beetle had previously been found
and the only bit of evidence it had been there was a single wing case or
elytra. However, Garth was also keen to
check groups of red deer droppings for a species
of dung beetle - Cercyon borealis, which had yet to be recorded in Britain. More about deer droppings shortly. By the side of the last root hole we checked
another very small insect caught my eye which Garth suggested might be a shore
bug, a group he didn’t know intimately, so the specimen was popped in a tube to
be looked at once I got home. On the way
back to the car I managed to find a single specimen of the tooth fungus
Hydnellum caeruleum, something that Don had long wanted to see so just time for
a photo before we said cheerio and parted company. Once home, the wee bug was very well behaved
and allowed my to take some reasonably good photos to aid its identification,
and once I visited the British Bugs website I was reasonably happy that I had
the right name –
 |
| Shore bug Chartoscirta cocksii |
Chartoscirta cocksii.
An email with photo to expert Stephen confirmed my identification so I
set off back to the forest to release it almost where found.
 |
| Sarcodon glaucopus |
On the way back from
releasing the wee bug I just happened to find a place where a red deer or two had spent the night and there
were several piles of reasonably fresh droppings. Could Garth’s dung beetle be within? Poking a few droppings it was obvious that
something had been living within them but it was also obvious that I could be
there for some while checking them one by one with a stick! So, into a polybag they all went, sealing the
bag securely before heading back to the track.
By the track another tooth fungus was spied this time the rarer Sarcodon
glaucopus and hiding under the heather were another four fruiting bodies,
enough for me to take one to photograph and check the spores. Back home the deer dung was placed in a deep
tray and then water was added so that the tops of all the individual “pellets”
were just above the water. Almost
immediately beetles started to appear and within an hour a real mix of species
were sitting on top of the balls of dung.
Several of the rounder shaped beetles were collected whilst the rove
beetles known as Staphs (Staphylinids) were released, being one of the more
difficult group of beetles to ID and with no one readily available to undertake
the task. The tube of beetles was then
sent off to Garth who identified Cercyon impressus and a colleague identified
two species
 |
| Sarcodon glaucopus spores x1000 |
of Aphodius, A. pedellus and A. fasciatus. All three species had previously been recorded
by John Owen, an amazing coleopterist.
Not knowing what was what before sending the beetles off, links are
given below to websites with photos of each species. The tooth fungus though produced lots of spores
and despite having seen hundreds of fruiting bodies of this fungus during the
survey years; this was the first time I had taken the opportunity to look at
the spores. Amazingly tiny, measuring
only 5-7 microns (0.005 to 0.007mm!) but beautifully ornate with their tiny
warts (tubercles) making them look a bit like stars.
Mid-month saw the bulk
of the Scottish contingent of the Taylor clan heading south for a weeks holiday
in Lancashire, time to catch up with great gran Holden and to let her meet up
for the first time with great grandson Harry.
So Janet and I piled in with Ruth and the boys and headed off down the
A9 with baby Harry demanding only two stops during the 350 miles. The same journey in a years time might need
 |
| Great gran & the boys |
passports and travellers cheques if “our dear leader” has his way! Janet had found a cosy cottage about ten
minutes drive from her mum’s and close enough to the Lancashire members of the Taylor clan for the
occasional get together. Outings with
the six year old and four year old boys was good fun but a test of being able
to run to keep up with them in races round the local parks and with four month
old Harry the old biceps were well exercised in between sleep and feed
times. We visited Ribchester, Longridge
and Slaidburn to dine, shop and walk and a final days outing to Townely Hall near
Burnley found a brilliant bit of ancient
woodland, fountains and a nice cafรฉ. For
the first time in many a year we saw lots of ladybirds, two of which, found
more than once, had me guessing a bit with a leaning towards harlequins, where
male and female are quite different.
This ladybird is a very recent arrival in Britain the first ones only being
found in summer 2004 but since then the spread has been rapid and not good news
for our native species. The harlequin
breeds continually during the summer so the population grows very rapidly, our
native species reproduce
 |
| One version of the harlequin ladybird |
only once a year.
The harlequin also has a voracious appetite and can out-compete our
native species. Since its arrival
several UK
native ladybirds have declined quite notably.
Visit the Ladybird website below to read more about this ladybird and
its amazing spread across Europe. Once home the photos were sent to the UK
Ladybird website and all were confirmed as this species, the Longridge record
being from a new map square. The other things
of interest related to oak trees. Whilst
racing the boys round a small park in Longridge (well Harry was actually in his
pram) I pointed out a leaf to Finlay who told me it was an acorn tree and many
of the leaves we looked at were heavily covered with spangle and silk
galls. A search on the ground produced
several acorns with the hat shaped knopper gall covering the nut,
 |
| Another version of the harlequin |
something we
also found in quantity at Townely Hall.
The week went by in a bit of a blur and soon it was time to say cheerio
to great gran before heading back north, just in time to get the chalet ready
for the arrival of Zoe and Darren and their amazing motion activated trail
camera which captured visiting pine martens during every night of their stay.
Enough, enjoy the read.
Stewart and Janet
British Bugs website - brilliant
Website with photo of Aphodius pedellus
Website with photo of Aphodius fasciatus
Website with photo of Cercyon impressus
Harlequin ladybird
Buglife Calendar 2014 - £6.50 inc. p&p.
 |
| Andricus seminationis gall on local oak tree |
 |
| Support Buglife see weblink above |
 |
| Slug (Arion ater) eating waxcap (Hygrocybe conica) |
Photos © Stewart Taylor
