Firwood Cottage, Nethybridge: Brain and Butter jellies make for an interesting month.

Happy New Year.

My diary entry for the 1^st January 2014 says “not a bad day” it was fairly calm, bright and no frost, in fact there were only 16 nights with frost according to the local weather station during the whole of January, none reaching double digits. It has been showery but with a total of just 60mm of rain, it hasn’t been that wet either, and the snow shown on the TV weather maps hasn’t really affected the majority of the low ground in

this part of Scotland. Higher up is a different story with deep snow and strong winds creating dangerous conditions on mountain tops, allowing big cornices to develop above the cliffs. The cut off seems to be about 600-800 metres, below that level we have had sleet and rain, above that level it has been cold enough for snow to fall. How different to the south of England. It has been sad to watch and hard to believe that as one area of low pressure has run into the south-west corner of England, another one has been waiting in the

Willow buds

wings, some depositing a month’s-worth of rain in just a few days. The weather here has been so kind of late that lots of birds are singing, snowdrops are appearing en mass and some trees are advancing to the stage of bud-burst. Well done all those folk who are trying their best to help people who are experiencing flooding and shame on Eric Pickles MP for his stupid comments about those in the front line. Perhaps he should loan himself out as a sandbag!

An email early in January, from the Warden at RSPB Insh Marshes, informed me that several old aspens had come down in the December gales, a few of which were in an area important for rare lichens. Making up gates for daughter Ruth’s new abode put me in the right area for a visit so after a session of measuring and wood sorting, I drove round to the reserve to see what habitat alterations had taken place. I knew the grid references for the first group of trees was in an area rich in unusual lichens and the first tree I came across

The pinhead lichen
Sclerophora pallida

had lost half its crown, the large detached limb now lying on the ground creating plenty of habitat for the aspen hoverfly (Hammerschmidtia ferruginea) in a year or two’s time. This tree I knew was important for the tiny pinhead lichen Sclerophora pallida and with most of the population established around the bottom couple of metres of the tree, it will safe for the foreseeable future. The falling limb though had caught another small, insignificant looking aspen, making it lean even more than previously. This small tree has, for years, looked like it was ready to give up the ghost and fall over. Quite a bit of the tree is dead but despite this, it is home to a huge population of the same pinhead lichen. Pete, the Warden, had cut some of the smaller branches from the fallen limb in the hope that the small tree would spring back up, but this hadn’t happened so it may have a limited life-span into the future. Nature in action so it will be interesting to see what happens. An adjacent tree had also lost a big section of its crown and whilst being rich in common lichens it wasn’t one of the key trees at this location. A little further away a whole tree had blown over and from earlier survey work undertaken by Brian and Sandy Coppins was also known not to be one of the key lichen trees. However, the top branches of the tree had come to rest up against one of the key trees (with populations of Fuscopannaria ignoblis, Lobaria scrobiculata & Pannaria conoplea)

The Collema tree 2013

and a decision on what to do about them would await a visit by Brian in a couple of weeks time. The blown over tree had also caused a problem for a small adjacent aspen, the two trees when upright having their roots entwined under the ground. When the gale toppled the big tree it also caused the edge of the root plate of the smaller tree to lift, making the already leaning tree lean even further, another key lichen aspen with a life

The Collema tree after gale

threatening lean. The leaning tree has a big population of the pinhead lichen but is also the only tree locally as home to the “gelatinous” lichen Collema nigrescens. This same lichen appeared in a Firwood Blog in April 2013 comparing photos of when first found in January 2010 with its condition in February 2013. Two other aspens had also blown over in another stand about half a mile away so I went to locate them to save time hunting around when Brian visited. Compared to the aspens at the first site these trees had much smoother bark and probably belonged to a different “clone” (trees in different areas being unique to that stand, originating from the same parent via root suckers - see link below for a partial explanation) and with so much smooth bark the lichen Lecanora populicola was likely to be very common meaning its parasitic lichen

The smoothed barked fallen aspen

friend Candelariella superdistans would also be there. Sure enough, the first branch checked found both species, and in quantity. Both species have appeared in earlier blogs, but the populations of both species on this one tree has to be the biggest I have found to date. Brian Coppins was keen to visit these fallen trees with the opportunity to search the upper branches rather than just the first couple of metres of the trunk of a standing tree and we managed to spend a day there at the end of the month. With so many unusual lichens

Lecanora populicola (white) & Candelariella superdistans
(pale yellow) on bark of fallen aspen

present on the lower aspen trunks it was hoped that more, or other unusual species might be found higher up. Some finds were made that required time with the microscope before identification could be confirmed, but less was found than possibly expected. However, we were able to remove the problem branches in contact with the key tree above, and suggestions made about trialling “propping” of one or two of the leaning trees to try and ensure that some of the roots kept the tree alive for as long as possible. Having been “stressed” by the disturbance some of the aspen might produce flowers (a rare event in aspens) but this was

Orthotrichum obtusifolium

something members of the Highland Aspen Group would monitor to gain more information on flowering and seed production by our local aspens. I pointed a moss out to Brian that might be quite rare, it looked short-leaved, lacked capsules and lead me to think it was one of the Orthotrichum mosses, probably O. obtusifolium. This was later confirmed by local expert Andy though it was possible this tree and its population was known about. It was just nice to know I had spotted the moss and that the characteristics of a few were starting to stick in my increasingly leaky brain!

On my earlier visit the first tree I checked also had a tiny fungus growing amongst the mosses on the bark close to the pinhead lichens. To me it looked like a Mycena so photos were taken along with a couple of fruiting bodies to check at home. The same fungus was seen on some of the other aspens checked, a tiny

Mycena hiemalis & note
the pinhead lichen!

fungus 20mm tall, growing out in the open, in the coldest months of the years In fact the two fruiting bodies collected for checking, were actually frozen! Whether too young or affected by being frozen, spores were very difficult to find but by working my way through the on-line guide to Norwegian Mycenas, I settled on Mycena olida but thought it time to contact local expert Ern. Ern was the man I turned to in November 2012 when I found a bonny, pink Mycena growing on decaying oak leaves. I managed to get very good photos in the field at the time of the find and the spores etc pointed to Mycena smithiana, but when trying to dry the specimens something happened and they turned to mush so Ern had to make the identification from the photo evidence. He did though ask that I try and re-find the fungus in 2013 so that he could be 100% happy with the identification. I searched and searched until just after Christmas when a few fruiting bodies were found and, whilst fresh, transported to Ern on 2 January when the species was confirmed. Phew! So, photos were sent of my find on the Insh aspen and, because

Ern collecting Mycena sample

Ern lives near the reserve, he said he would be happy to see the fungus in situ and would be able to collect a fresh specimen to check. Believe it or not, a day after Ern had a cataract operation, we met up and visited the aspen and new specimens were collected. A few days later the name of Mycena hiemalis (easily confused with M. olida) arrived via email with a request that if I found any more “Mycena” like fungi, he would be happy to check. Over the next few days whilst searching old willows, alder and rowan for “other” things, I spied a few Mycenas which were sent off asap to Ern. The willow and rowan specimens turned out to be Mycena speirea, and the one from the old alder, Mycena pseudocorticola. Because most of the fungus recording in Abernethy with Peter Orton took place in September these finds from so late in the year turned out to be new to the Abernethy list.

Mid-month brother John said that he had the possibility of a lift up to Firwood from a friend who was on his way to do maintenance work at RAF Lossiemouth, and would be able to stay for just three nights with the possibility of two days to wander the area. The one full day out proved to be quite interesting. A couple of

Xylaria carpophila on beechmast

weeks earlier Janet and myself had ventured into woodland surrounding Castle Grant. This impressive castle, dating from the around the 15^th century became the main residence of the Clan Grants, one of whom was responsible for planning and building the town of Grantown on Spey. The policy woodlands surrounding the castle look old enough to have originated from about the same time as the castle with ancient elms, beeches, Scots pines, willows and sycamores. As we walked it dawned on me that I hadn’t really explored some of these ancient trees and thought this would be a good area to visit whilst John was with us. The two of us drove to Grantown, parked the car by the entrance to the main drive, complete with gate house, and made our way up the drive with its now out of control verge-side rhododendron bushes. We

Castle Grant

visited a recently found patch of twinflower and as the avenue of trees turned into mainly beech trees we made a quick search amongst the fallen leaves for the beechmast candlesnuff fungus which featured last month. Several were found quite quickly and one, with fungus, a split mast and nut still inside, just had to be photographed. We checked large, wind-blown conifers, unsuccessfully for the green shield moss, but did find the ideal spot for good photos of the castle. Turning off the main track to the castle we came across the most amazing ancient beech tree, half of which had fallen down. Decaying branches were covered in candlesnuff fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon) the bigger version of the beechmast version, but one branch had something quite different, a big population of a white, jelly, brain-like fungus, a bit of which was taken for checking. It turned out to be the white brain fungus or Exidia thuretiana, a species regularly found on decaying beech. We stopped for lunch on a bridge over a small burn and while John made contact with home, I wandered off to look at a big willow by the burn. Bingo, the side of the tree was covered with lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria) as was an adjacent ash tree. By the track was a monster redwood

White brain fungus - Exidia thuretiana

(Sequoiadendron giganteum) joined with a couple of giant firs (big upright cones) and a Douglas fir (cones with little 3-lobed bracts protruding from the scales), all very impressive. Another bridge was reached and this time an elm displayed a big population of lungwort lichen. A branch on the ground had another puzzling fungus growing from it, black and leafy in places and disc-shaped cushion-like in others, so photos were taken for checking later. This one turned out to be witches’ butter (Exidia glandulosa) a strange looking

Witches' butter - Exidia glandulosa

fungus with an even stranger common name as it was thought that witches and trolls scattered this fungus about when they milked cows during the night! John’s outing was going very well and it got even better when I spotted the tell-tale signs of runner-like stems and leaves of twinflower (Linnaea borealis) popping out of the track-side vegetation. Leaving the Castle Grant woodland we followed the Cromdale road for a while before heading to return to the car via the community owned Anagach Woods. As we got on to the track I noticed the tops of several fence posts were covered in a bright green moss, always worth checking,

John checking the Dicranum tauracum
moss on top of fence post

and on this occasion it turned out to be fragile fork-moss (Dicranum tauracum) a species often found on old fence posts and fallen trees. Interestingly, this was a moss I had pointed out to John once before, he remembered that if you stroke a wet finger across the top of the moss, the tips of the leaves break off and stick to your finger –hence “fragile”. As I looked closer I could see several capsules sticking out above the leaves and I thought this might be unusual. Several photos were taken for checking later. As we got to the gate accessing the wood Juncus tenuis was found by a puddle and on the track-side bank old flower heads of heath cudweed (Gnaphalium sylvaticum) were seen and counted and the location of this fast declining

Fragile forked-moss (Dicranum tauracum)
& mystery capsules

plant noted. Having wandered along at my “stop and search” pace it was now starting to get dark so we walked slightly quicker getting back to the car around 5pm, well satisfied with our finds. Back home out came the moss handbook and the entry for fragile fork-moss stated that capsules were “very rare” so I fired off my photos to the experts and was warned that another moss could be growing within the Dicranum cushion. First thing next morning I loaded up camera, tripod and tweezers and headed back to the mossy fence posts. Photos taken, I carefully tried to part the moss cushion to see if another moss was present but couldn’t find anything. Out came the tweezers and a small samplewas pulled out complete with a capsule

Microscope photo of Dicranoweisia cirrata
(left) & Dicranum tauracum (right)

which, when checked with the hand-lens seemed to show the capsule belonged to the Dicranum moss. Could this be one of the few times this moss was to be found fertile in the UK? Back home and the tiny piece of moss was put under the microscope and, as it was teased apart it became apparent that the capsule belonged to another moss, later identified as the common pincushion-moss (Dicranoweisia cirrata) thanks to Andy. A couple of days later and I made another visit to the Castle Grant woodland and realised that on the previous visit with John we had missed a clump of pendulous sedge (Carex pendula) right by the entrance track (probably a garden escape) and a wider search of the big old trees produced more unusual lichens, so a bit more time will be needed to complete the wider search.

The blackcap put in another appearance but hasn’t been seen since the 6 January. Up to 8 blackbirds regularly fight over the big fat-cakes I put out and 16 species of birds were counted on RSPB Big Bird Count weekend including two visits by the sparrowhawk, and the first siskins of the year appeared on the day. A search for the jackdaw and rook roost failed to find any signs now that they seemed to have moved on from the usual Loch Pityoulish site. Some friends visiting though did report a big evening gathering near

Last photo of blackcap

Loch Insh, but whether that is just too far for the birds from the Grantown area I’m not too sure. An Iceland gull was spotted by Richard in one of the wet fields below Nethybridge so I made two evening visits to Lochs Garten and Mallachie to see if it was coming in with the other gulls to the evening roost. All very confusing! Loch Garten has been the traditional roost site so I stood there waiting and a dozen big gulls turned up, departed towards Loch Mallachie and within 15 minutes had returned.They hardly settled before they headed off to Mallachie again – so I followed. I got to Mallachie to find several hundred gulls roosting

Too dark to see - Loch Mallachie

along the edge of the reeds but it was now too dark to see whether the Iceland gull was present. The following night I checked Loch Garten in passing but headed straight to Mallachie. 4pm and a dozen big gulls dropped in, perfect, and with the scope and tripod ready I awaited the arrival of the others. Wrong. The dozen birds headed off toward Garten! More gulls started to appear, circling around and heading off to Garten. It was too late to move so I stayed put. 4.45pm and more than a hundred gulls arrived, circled, a few landed but took off again to join the other gulls flying overhead but then flying towards Boat of Garten before returning to circle. It was now too dark to see much so I left, not knowing where the gulls roosted that night. So no current record for

Iceland

gulls roosting on the reserve, last record November 1997 and only other record by me in April 1988.

Ahead of some planned woodland management, thinning or removal of sitka and

Norway

spruces plantation (see last Blog) I had been visiting the sites to look for green shield moss capsules so that any areas with the moss could be avoided. On one visit I wandered through a stand of huge sitkas but was tempted out by a big stand of willow bushes, probably Salix cinerea or hybrid. I made several checks for the elusive large willow aphid one of the HBRG target species but without luck, but many of the dead twigs were covered with another of species of jelly fungus Exidia recisa. The willow stand was quite extensive so I followed it uphill towards another stand of spruce trees. As I popped out of one of the willow bushes an

Wood small-reed

amazing sight appeared before me a big, dense stand of something that looks like Phragmites reed but has a much more beautiful flower-head, even in winter. A piece was popped onto a tube to check but I knew I was looking at the best Abernethy Reserve stand of wood small-reed (another brilliant name and much easier to remember than Calamagrostis epigejos) and only the fifth location within the reserve. This isn’t a common plant in this part of the world so it was nice to add another location to the Highland distribution map. After leaving the willows and this group of spruces – no green shield moss capsules found – I made my way to the main stand of Norway spruces where the big population of green shield moss capsules was

Grey coral fungus (Clavulina cinerea)

found last month and on the way came across one of the winter coral fungi called grey coral (Clavulina cinerea) growing from the side of an old track. It looked too fat and dumpy to be that fungus when found but a photo of fungus and spores allowed Liz to confirm the identification. Two more locations were found for the moss, though all that was visible was the remains of last seasons capsules, but sites worth checking again if we get a wetter summer and autumn than 2013 when this species struggled. A later visit with Reserve Ecologist Andy confirmed that this area of spruce will receive minimal management with probably occasional trees being felled to provide potential habitat for the moss. Checking more willows on my way back to the car provided a nice surprise. On one of the small branches a tiny white spot caught my eye,

Scale insects on willow branch

particularly as it seemed to have a golden coloured tip to one end of the oval shape. A scale insect came to mind so out came the trusty Nikon D3100 again and after a bit of fun with balancing and securing the GorillaPod tripod to some of the branches, a decent enough photo was obtained to sent to Stephen to check and hopefully provide a name. “I think you sent me a photo of this insect once before” came the reply, and sure enough it was the same species found on the side of an aspen tree a year earlier and was named as Chionaspis salicis.

And finally, one to finish with. The jelly fungi have featured quite a bit this month indicating that winter is the time to see them. These fungi rely on rain to allow them to function properly and they are best looked for after a spell of wet weather. Without rain many almost disappear or are very difficult to find as they dehydrate. This was demonstrated really well when I brought a small section of the white brain (Exidia thuretiana) home to check. I knew I had left the piece of bark with fungus in one of my petri dishes with something else I had collected that day (one of the pinheads) and I could find the pinheads but no sign of the jelly! However, there was a tiny piece of bark and when checked under the microscope I could see the grey, dehydrated fungus almost invisible stuck to the bark. The next series of photos show what happened when I re-wet the fungus, from first to last taking 1 hour! Enjoy seeing something few folk will have witnessed.