The 15th and 16th February provided two very different experiences. A break in the cloud and a frosty evening on the 15th tempted me up the road, complete with camera and big lense to see if I could see Asteroid 2012 DA14. An earlier phone call from Ruth and the boys informed me that they would be heading down the road towards Ruthven Barracks with the same intention because Finlay is very interested in the solar system. He reminded me in no uncertain terms that the sun was a star and not a planet! Silly Grandad! So, as we headed out to our two viewing sites we promised to phone if anything was seen. The
internet guidance was that the asteroid would pass through the stars making up the Plough, somewhere near where the handle joined the four stars forming the “pan”. The accuracy was such that an approximate time was given when this would take place, round about 9pm. So, with everything set up at 7.45pm I awaited the big event. Trial exposures of 2-3 minutes produced the usual patterns of star movements (left) even in that short time, and, because the asteroid would be travelling across the Plough in another direction to the star tracks, any bright object should be fairly obvious. 9pm came and went and still there was no obvious asteroid “track” and by 9.30pm it was becoming apparent that once again, the heavens had failed to play ball. So, with feet and hands loosing all feeling it was time to head home defeated. Ruth had more sense and realised early on that there was little chance of the boys standing around long enough to find a dull object through binoculars passing high over head, and had headed home to bed. Oh well, we might have better luck when it passes by again on 16 February 2046!
Despite frosty nights, day times mid-month were often quite sunny and the 16th dawned with lots of birds singing and the great-spotted woodpecker drumming away on its usual tree just down the road. On-going checks of aspen trees locally lead me to Tulloch where catkins appearing on hazel trees also hinted that
spring was on the horizon. A small section of aspen wood I was visiting had been surveyed in 2001 and 2002 by a group of lichen experts and I felt quite honoured to find a few new locations for some of the rarer species along with the occasional new species. A few fallen hazel branches had tell-tale signs of a strange fungus which makes itself known by causing the recently fallen branch to peel back its bark allowing the fruiting body to develop on the wood below. This fungus is readily identified by its waxy, slightly shiny appearance and is appropriately known as the waxy crust (
Vuilleminia coryli). A very similar species grows in exactly the same way on oak branches. These fungi belong to a group known as “resupinates” meaning that the fruiting body of the fungus grows with its body lying flat on the substrate. It was “crusts” though of the lichen kind that started to make me feel that aspens in this section of woodland, not previously visited by experts, was a
little bit special. The nice bluish lobes of
Pannaria conoplea was found quite regularly (left) along with the darker Parmeliella triptophylla with its tiny coral like growths (isidia) growing from lobe margins. I find this group of lichens quite difficult to identify correctly in the field so a few small samples were collected from the bigger populations for observing under the microscope once home. A month later one of the specimens collected was going to lead to a return visit, confirming that a new species had been added to the Tulloch aspen list. More about this next month. The trees in this area almost fall into the pasture-woodland category, the stand of aspens, birches and hazels being cut into by small areas of farm fields, no doubt converted from woodland a couple of centuries ago by our pioneering ancestors. On the edge of one field I could see the remains of a large birch tree which must have been removed after falling over, the smaller sections of the tree having been cut up for
firewood. Immediately, areas of the butt of the tree looked like green shield-moss territory, and sure enough, a group of 4 capsules grew proudly from the decaying log. Close by was a recently fallen aspen and, with all the usually high up smaller branches now at ground level, it was possibly to check for a Red Data lichen which was only re-discovered in the UK in 2001,
Lecanora populicola. This lichen only grows on bark of the younger branches of aspens and is absent from the rougher bark of older sections of the trees, so anything recently fallen is always checked in passing. Even more unusual is a Red Data and UK Biodiversity Action Plan species of parasitic lichen going by the brilliant name of
Candelariella superdistans, which is found growing on the
Lecanora, but more about the two of these shortly. So, with so many young branches available I made my way over to the aspen. As I started to check the twigs something else caught my eye, a brown, cup-like fungus, pushing up through the bark (above left). My first thoughts were that the fungus looked very similar to the spring hazel-cup fungus (
Encoelia furfuracea) I had been finding quite regularly last winter, but it definitely wasn’t that species. So, plenty of photos were taken along with a small section of twig complete with a few of the “cups” for checking later. Searching the rest of the branches failed to find the
Lecanora, a pattern that is starting to develop when visiting various aspen woods. Some woods have the lichen whilst others have hardly any and this might have something to do with the aspen “clone” present in each wood. Most aspen reproduce asexually, ie via suckers from roots of existing trees, producing a stand of genetically
identical trees. The chemical make-up of the bark might be ideal in one aspen stand but not in another – who knows, but this phenomena seems to hold for some of the other scarce lichens. I digress. Loaded up with several crust lichen specimens and one fungus, I headed home to set up the microscopes. I was reasonably happy with the identification of most of the lichens though there were a couple of queries for expert Brian. The fungus was in good condition and allowed several very thin slices to be made for “squashing” to check under the microscope. Sac’s (asci) of 8 spores (left) were found with the spores slightly banana shaped. Not having any fungus identification handbooks I was now a bit stumped but thought I would try typing “fungus on populus tremula twigs” into Google and, amazingly, on the first page of options the FRDBI (Fungal Record Data of the British Isles) web-page was shown giving me a name of
Encoelia fascicularis, and showing that there were only 39 records in the database, the last known one in Scotland being in the 1800s! Typing the name into Google Images showed I had the right fungus and this was confirmed a few days later by expert Liz. Brilliant but worrying that this was yet another species to go and look for! Two days later another small population of the fungus was found by the River Spey near Grantown on Spey – watch this space.
Early in the month myself, Ruth and the boys headed down to Lancashire at half-term to meet up with Janet who had been there for the first week and to spend a few days with Grandma Holden now that she was much better and out of hospital. Janet had found a suitable house to rent on the edge of Great Harwood just
a few miles from Grandma but also very handy for outings into the surrounding Ribble Valley. The picturesque village of Waddington was a perfect place for a bar lunch on the first day and a walk round the village allowed Finlay and Grandad to test out one of several sets of stepping-stones crossing the tiny stream running through the village. A nuthatch in the trees by the church was nice to hear. A late afternoon walk up the hill found a couple of galls on a roadside oak, but the main aim was to try and capture a photo of the surrounding landscape as the evening lights came on along roads, factories etc just as folk were making their way home from work. Grandma Holden was in good form for an outing to Slaidburn the next day though the wind and rain curtailed any village walk. The last day saw us visiting the Roman settlement of Bremetannacum, the modern
day village of Ribchester where a Roman fort was built to protect the location of the crossing of the River Ribble. It is thought that the fort was abandoned around the 2nd Century AD, but the remains of the main building have been excavated and the adjacent museum tells you all about the goings on all those years ago. Interestingly a friend of my fathers gave me a roman coin which supposedly was dug up by workmen involved in building houses in Ribchester around 1900.
The first week of February saw a few days where snow greeted the opening of the curtains in the morning allowing a bit of data entry catch up. A day out in the light covering of snow in the Kinchurdy area of Boat
of Garten was interesting as evidence of the presence of three of our regular mammals was found as I walked along the track towards the River Spey. Fox and pine marten tracks were scarce with just a few imprints but the badger I followed for several hundred metres along the main track left lots of obvious footprints as it shuffled from one side of the track to the other (left). A holidaying couple I met close to the estate fishing hut by the Spey went one better, having just seen an otter, down river and at close quarters.
Thankfully they were not intimidated by a strange man staring at aspen trees as they approached and were even interested enough to enquire what I was up to. The weather forecast was predicting more heavy snow on the 4th and 5th so on the Sunday I decided to make a long awaited return to a steep-sided burn close to the Highland Wildlife Zoo – sorry, Park! My first visit was way back in December 2009 when I was looking
for suitable sites for the green shield-moss when I happened to bump into several old goat willows with big populations of lungwort (
Lobaria pulmonaria). With a bit more knowledge of mosses and lichens I was sure there were more unusual species still to be found. Leaves of primrose and wild strawberry indicated that the site was not too acidic and would probably warrant a summer visit to see which other flowers might be present – provided the sheep and deer predation wasn’t too high. More willows were found to be supporting populations of lungwort and a couple of trees had small quantities of the rare lichen locally,
Degelia plumbea (above left). Highlight of the day though had to be one of those tricky “crust” lichens,
Fuscopannaria mediterranea, identified recently by Brian Coppins, growing on an ancient willow (above right). Saddest sight of the day
was the skull of a long dead capercaillie by a forestry fence, the fence just stock height, unmarked and a manmade artefact still doing damage to this huge forest grouse. Six inches of snow fell the next day! On-going surveys of local aspen stands continues and at one recently visited wood near Carrbridge I found perhaps one of the biggest aspens yet encountered. The tree was found late one afternoon as it was getting dark so I re-visited the next day to measure the tree and despite having lost half of its crown the diameter at breast height (DBH a standard way of measuring trees) was 84 centimetres. With lots of fresh branches close to the ground the tree was very suitable for looking for the
Lecanoria mentioned earlier and possibly its wee parasitic friend
Candelariella superdistans. Despite there being lots of young branches, only a few
looked suitable for the
Lecanoria and several, thankfully, had the lichen present. Now for the difficult bit, finding a small yellow speck on the apothecia (fruiting bits) of the lichen. The only guide I had as to what I was looking for, was a photo I had taken of a group of lichens growing on a snapped branch in one of the Grantown on Spey woods. I hoped what I had photographed on that occasion was
Lecanoria populicola so asked Brian for his expert opinion. Yes, most likely was his reply “but it also looks like you have photographed its parasite
Candelariella superdistans, the 3 yellow apothecia on the far right”. So this is what I based my search on and as I worked from branch to branch I found what looked like the real thing, 4 yellow circular growths on one of the patches of the
Lecanoria (in centre of photo right). This was confirmed recently, adding another dot to the atlas of distribution for this rare parasite.
In between times a new talk was prepared for the AGM of the Highland Branch of Butterfly Conservation in March, a red deer hind was skinned, hung and cut up for the freezer. The 27th saw a temperature difference on the day of 18 degrees centigrade, minus 9 to plus 9 between night and day leading to an over-dressed
outing on one of the warmest days of the year! Minus 12 degrees centigrade though was the lowest of the month. I also lost 20-14 to Finlay as he gets better at the backyard version of football! New lichens were also found for RSPB Insh Marshes (
Sticta sylvatica) and RSPB Abernethy Forest (
Leptogium saturnium). An amazing fact also arrived during the month regarding my recording database MapMate. Records passed between users via “replication” passed the 10 billion records mark since the system was created showing the huge amounts of data created and shared by MapMate users. Most of these records eventually get passed on to the National Biodiversity Network allowing the creation of the hugely informative distribution maps for many of the UK species. A red squirrel was also seen undertaking the impossible, getting into the top hole of the tall nest-box in the garden. The starlings that bred in the box last year are now probably aware of the threat and have so far not been seen near their old nest site.
Web links from the diary above.
For Bremetannacum / Ribchester see:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bremetennacum&hl=en&sa=X&rlz=1R2AURU_en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=JvBSUaDfDuaW0QXw-oCAAw&ved=0CHAQsAQ&biw=1428&bih=617
For MapMate see:
http://www.mapmate.co.uk/
For NBN Gateway see:
http://data.nbn.org.uk/
That’s it for another month, sorry for the delay which will be covered next month but do enjoy the read.
Stewart and Janet
Archie at Grandads special pinhead lichen tree
Snowy Cairngorms
Race to America
Photos © Stewart Taylor
