June
saw me dusting off the Collins Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers and printing off
five maps each with an area of 2km x 2km highlighted (tetrads) at the start of
a survey, with others, of areas within the Cairngorms National Park Authority
(CNPA) area where there are few plant records.
My recording squares are spread between Newtonmore to the south and
Grantown in the north, once again taking me into areas seldom, if ever, visited
in the past. The maps were the easy bit,
awakening my brain to the various species of buttercups, violets and rushes
would be more difficult as recent plant records for the various databases
comprised those that I knew to be rare or local in their distribution. This project is aimed at recording as many
species as possible from each of the tetrads visited, with records made, if
possible, for each of the one hundred metre squares walked through within the
recording area. The project is being
supported by the CNPA and the Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI) and
organised by local BSBI recorder Andy Amphlett allowing a little funding to be
available to cover mileage costs.
Normally my outings are as a
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| Bird cherry by River Tromie |
volunteer with all costs borne by
myself. Though the many hours of data
entry covering plants seen (the boring bit) would continue to be done as a
volunteer! An outing to try to re-find
Shepherd’s Cress (Teesdalia nudicaulis), would be a good introduction to one of
my tetrads, listing all the plants as I walked along the bank of the River
Tromie. The cress wasn’t found but my
brain was given a thorough work-out and McClintock and Fitters guide
was
consulted regularly as I battled with the white flowers of stitchworts,
mouse-ears and chickweeds. Whilst this
isn’t the most modern of wild flower guides it has the huge benefit of showing
all the illustrations of blue, yellow flowers etc. together, saving having to
thumb through the 600 pages of the newer Collins Flower Guide. As it would be impossible to visit every part
of a tetrad I employed a transect method, walking a line through each of the
1km squares but diverting off-line to visit interesting areas, like bogs, along
the route. To date nothing too unusual
has turned up but additional records of butterflies and dragonflies in
under-visited areas has been quite valuable.
A
phone call early in the month from Beth at the Boat of Garten Post Office was
pretty amazing – “You’re in the Times” she informed Janet! On this particular day I was visiting
daughter Laura and Douglas to pick up their cat before they departed on holiday
but on the way I had picked up a copy of The Times so I dashed out to the car
to get it. Inside, in Melanie Reid’s Notebook
article she is berating BT about her broadband not
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| The Times article |
working and at the end she
suggests a good way to get over her rage at the poor service was to make use of
a present a friend had bought her – a Dammit Janet Doll, made by no-other than
Janet Taylor of Nethybridge! There
followed several phone calls and emails asking Janet how the callers could get
a doll to ensure a few more folk could “encase themselves in the scent of
lavender”. Thanks Melanie, but obviously
Andy Murray didn’t take up your suggestion!
On
the 6th June there were many events to commemorate D-Day 70 years
ago with original footage shown about the horrors of what took place on the
beaches of Normandy. Highlight of the
day was the “escape” of Bernard Jordan from his care home in East Sussex to
join other veterans attending events in France a repeat of the true war-time
grit displayed by so many 70 years ago.
We will remember them. My day was
nowhere near as eventful but did have a few pleasant surprises. The sun
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| The red-felt mite gall on birch leaf |
shone allowing the weekly butterfly
transect to be walked, green-veined whites being the only species seen. The red-felt mite gall (Acalitus
longisetosus) was the first find, the distinctive purple/red gall covering the
leaves of a young birch tree. The orange
ladybird (Halyzia 16-guttata a bit easier than Halyzia sedecimguttata!) was
also seen again for the second time in a couple of weeks, a nice find and an
indicator of ancient woodland habitat. A
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| Orange ladybird |
small purple-bar moth also remained still enough on one track to allow me to
photograph it. Then it was over to
daughter Ruth’s to cut their grass with the aim on the way back to investigate
an introduced plant that we had seen whilst driving past and could cause big
problems in the future. This plant,
skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) can easily be
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| Small purple-bar moth |
bought from garden centres
with the nice wee advert “A marginal aquatic, which is ideal for softening the
edges of a pond or stream, or for growing in bog gardens and other areas that
remain waterlogged for any length of time”.
No warning about the problems it can cause, and yours on a 3 day
delivery for just £9! Several years ago
many of our local schools created their own wildlife gardens and it would
appear that someone at Deshar School in
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| Skunk cabbage |
Boat of Garten though this would be a
good plant to add diversity to the edge of a wee stream on the edge of the
playground (apologies if this isn’t how it arrived). As the monster leaves expanded in May and June
we could see that a big population had become established along this wee stream
with a few plants creeping up towards the main road. I parked up and climbed over the fence, and,
being in plant recording mode, started to list the plants I could identify. I wandered out towards a group of aspens and
came across a resting peacock moth (Macaria notate), beauty in the size of a
fifty pence piece. Looking down the
stream I could
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| Peacock moth - Macaria notate |
see the cabbage was thickly established all the way along the
water-course and under a nice stand of willows.
Beyond the willows was a small sedge filled lochan, at least half of
which was now covered by this invasive plant.
In time there is no doubt that the plant will continue to follow the
trickle of water and reach a true lochan called Loch Ban. Armed with the grid references covering the
size of the population it is time to let the Park and Highland Council
Ecologists know about this growing problem.
The weather forecast for the rest of the day and evening was set fair so
time to complete the third and final woodcock survey. Thankfully, I set off with a reasonable
amount of time to spare (the count was to start at 9.55pm and end at 11.10pm)
because on the way to the Sluggan Bridge a group of elms caught my eye. A recent entry on the Highland Biological
Recording Group website had asked folk to keep an eye open for curled leaves on
elm trees because there were very few records of the aphids causing the leaf
curl in northern Scotland.
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| Eriosoma ulmi on elm leaf |
As I checked
the lower branches I could see several curled leaves and once home managed to
un-curl to find the waxy Eriosoma ulmi aphids inside.
Over the Sluggan Bridge and another find to stop me in my tracks. By the edge of the track I could see a couple
of morel-like fungi, and, being only early June I thought it might be something
I’d not seen before. So, out came the
camera again, and though it was getting a bit dark, setting the camera on the
mini-tripod I was able to get reasonably clear photos. Further along the track there were more and
this carried on, in places for several hundred metres, so with plenty of
specimens, a
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| Elfin saddle morel |
couple were taken for checking at home. I needn’t have worried because the grooves on
the stem of the fungus lead me to the elfin saddle morel (Helvella lacunose)
something I’d seen several times in the past but in September. Earlier in the day I had also seen my first
chanterelle – in early June! Very
odd. By now I was behind time and I had
to push on up the hill quite quickly to get to the woodcock recording location
in time for the 9.55pm start time, just in time for the first woodcock to pass
roding overhead. By the end time seven
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| Last woodcock count |
woodcock fly-pasts had been recorded, one involving two birds chasing and with
a moon now visible above the woodland track, just time for one last photo. With darkness descending fast I made my way
back down through the trees to the track leading back to the bridge and
car. As I “clicked” my way along the
track with my Leki-poles I suddenly became aware of something on the track to
my left and as my eyes focused on the object I realised I was standing next to
a roe deer calf! Surely if I stop, it
will disappear off into the night, but no, it
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| "Frozen" roe deer calf |
remained motionless as though
frozen to the spot. Would it let me take
its photo? Not a problem, though I did
have problems with my camera, not being able to see the setting properly. It was only later that I realised the flash
had been set at just 25% of maximum for photos I had taken a few days earlier. Dammit Janet!
Photo taken I pushed on leaving the “frozen” youngster just where it had
been found. Amazing.
Over
the last few weeks I had been helping the Woodland Trust and Ancient Tree Forum
select local woods where suitably ancient trees could be found for
measuring/surveying to add to the database of where these great leviathans are
to be found currently. Of the 4 woods
visited by the recce team in May, two were selected for their members to visit
in
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| Phaeolus schweinitzii - dyer's mazegill |
June, an area within Abernethy with ancient Scots pines and alders and a
second mainly birch and aspen woodland close to Aviemore. The survey day went well and a good mix of
trees were visited, surveyed and photographed to add to the growing
database. The Ancient Tree Forum
developed from a gathering of experts several decades ago who realised there
was a need to raise an awareness of the biodiversity value of veteran trees,
many of great age. This group was able
to bring together forestry and biodiversity knowledge and expertise to assist
with the management of ancient and veteran trees for the benefit of owners,
advisers and practitioners. I attended
one of the first meetings of the veteran tree group making contact with two of
the people whose passion for these ancient features in our
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| Jill, Ted and another ancient species |
landscape were the
reason for the Ancient Tree Forum coming to life, Jill Butler and Ted
Green. Both were taking part in the days
surveying and the next day we had the opportunity to meet up to catch up with
each other’s news and ideas, and to visit a couple of sites were we would be
amongst the trees we value so much. The
morning outing allowed us to visit ancient trees both alive and in their
secondary life of dying and decay. Old
fruiting bodies of the bracket fungus Phaeolus schweinitzii or dyer’s mazegill
were found on the trunk and roots of a live Scots pine and close by Jill and
Ted came face to face for the first
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| Stemonitis fusca slime mould |
time with a small population of green
shield moss capsules. The same tree also
produced a small population of a quite amazing myxomycete fungus (slime mould
family) called Stemonitis fusca. After a
quick lunch we then visited one of my favourite ancient woods locally,
comprising a mix of ancient aspens, willows, bird cherrys and elms. Jill couldn’t resist going straight into
survey mode and before we departed a couple of dozen trees had been measured and
recorded. Ancient tree batteries fully
charged all round it was time to say cheerio, and just a great honour to be
associated with such dedicated veteran tree experts.
A
long day plant recording near Dulnain Bridge ended by finding yet another act
of agricultural vandalism taking place. From a high vantage point on the A95 road I
was able to look down onto the wet, rush dominated fields east of the River
Spey and close to Broomhill Bridge, to see a JCB trying to get a bogged down
tractor, complete with plough attached, mobile again. I had noticed a few days earlier that the
vegetation on these two wet fields had been sprayed with herbicide, and here I
was, once again, watching the man with the yellow JCB destroying several more
hectares of prime wader habitat. I took
a few photos with my
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| Wader habitat being lost - with JCB on hand |
small lensed camera before dashing home to get the other
camera complete with telephoto lens to get a better photo record of what was
going on. Not only is this a loss of
good wader breeding habitat, it was also an area which probably produced lots
of insects for other birds to feed on along with the plants that supported the
insect life that pollinated the plants that the birds depended on. There really is no end to the greed of this
particular farmer(?) who has systematically drained, sprayed, ploughed and
fertilised land which once supported lots of wildlife. For years now, RSPB, SNH and the CNPA have
written lots of words about helping the wader populations of this area, and
still the birds, plants and animals continue to lose out to agricultural greed. Emails and photos were sent next day to the
three bodies mentioned earlier informing about what once again was
happening. A reply from RSPB at least
acknowledged that all previous initiatives seemed to have failed to halt the
rapid loss of wader habitat and that new initiatives were currently being
considered. A response from the Park though
doesn’t hold out much hope for improvements in the near
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Wader loss, all the green areas were once wader
fields |
future with the
suggestion that because of “the types of soil we have locally there will
continue to be ploughing, harrowing, re-seeding, rolling and spraying to
maintain grazing and crops”. However,
“this should be done with caution and according to best practice with waders in
mind”. Oh yeah? Last month I mentioned the spraying that was
taking place with young waders present on a farm in Cromdale and at Broomhill
herbicide was applied and habitat destroyed probably with young waders
present. I’m sure I could see something
attached to the JCB which looked like a large hand with two fingers pointing
skyward and bouncing up and down as it left the field.
The
next section of this blog couldn’t be more different. Late June sees the annual count of lesser
butterfly orchids in three local fields and Jeremy and Jane at the Flowerfield
site should be given medals for their continuing work with their amazing orchid
field. The work undertaken by Andy as
the Parks rare plants officer over the last three years has now ended, but to
continue the count as accurately as possible, the two of us did the count as
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| Lesser butterfly orchid |
volunteers this year. It was fairly
obvious that there were fewer lesser butterfly orchids this year after the
record breaking count in 2013, but the systematic walking of recording lines
about 3 metres apart across the whole field was adhered to. With less orchids to count the whole site was
completed by early afternoon with a total of 1225 lesser butterflies
recorded. As Andy departed I remained on
site to count the small white orchids and over the next hour a total of 338
were counted. When the sun shone meadow
brown, ringlet, common blue and small pearl-bordered fritillary butterflies
were seen along with flying and mating six-spot burnets. On the way home I called in at one of the
other lesser butterfly orchid sites and found 16 were present this year. This site seemed to have more fragrant orchid
than in 2013 so a quick check produced about 250 on the hand tally
counter. On the way into the field I
noticed an unusual plant growing by the track and with the orchid count
complete I went back to investigate. The
plant I was looking at appeared to be a member of the Allium
 |
Un-opened flowers of
Keeled garlic - Allium carinatum |
(onion and garlic)
family, was about 30cm high, and with an unopened flower ball at the top of the
stem. The only wild Allium I had ever
seen was growing on a calcareous rock outcrop near Tomintoul and that one was
field garlic (Allium oleraceum). This
new location didn’t appear to be lime rich so it looked like this one would be
keeled garlic (Allium carinatum), but I would need to seek the help of Paul,
the BSBI Allium expert. Paul agreed that
the Allium in the photo looked like keeled garlic but I would need to check the
flower ball once it opened, keeled garlic has pink flowers and field garlic
white! Just checked, and I can report
pink flowers. Close by there is another
unusual plant, climbing corydalis (Ceratocapnos claviculata), hinting at a
slightly higher pH in the soil at this location. Interestingly, this is the first record of
the keeled garlic in the Cairngorms Park area, and currently there are only 12
locations known for the corydalis.
As
you will know from earlier blogs, I have been involved in recording a group of
fungi found growing on the leaves of twinflower (Linnaea borealis). The larger (but tiny) black spots on the
leaves were identified as Metacoleroa dickiei, and a little later staff at Kew
identified a second, tiny spot
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| Twinflower |
fungus on the leaves as Sphaerulina leightonii. However, as a short paper on these finds was
being prepared for Field Mycology, Martyn at Kew was having a few doubts as to
the true identity of this particular fungus.
This followed on from another fungus that had been identified in the
past on the leaves of the original collection of twinflower leaves, made in
1837, and still held in the Kew collection.
Working with some of my recent collections of leaves with the spot fungi,
I found and photographed something I had seen via the
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| "My Angel of the North" conidium at x1000 |
microscope and named,
temporarily, as “The Angel of the North” because its shape resembled the form
of Anthony Gormley’s sculpture near Gateshead.
Without going into too much technical detail (of which I am not an
expert) I gather what I had seen and photographed is called a “conidium”
something linked to the modes of reproduction of the fungus. With this additional bit of information
Martyn may have a useful link in helping to provide a name for what is
currently growing on the twinflower leaves.
Watch this space.
That’s
it for another month. Sorry for delay,
Uist holiday and extremely sunny weather meant surveys continued apace and with
everything nice and dry, outside painting and maintenance jobs were progressed.
Stewart
and Janet
Bernard
Jordan
Skunk
cabbage and RSPB Insh Marshes
Ancient
Tree Forum
Woodland
Trust
Myxomycetes
Highland
Biological Recording Group
and
how to join HBRG
 |
| Happy 1st birthday Harry |
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| Serrated wintergreen - Orthilia secunda |
 |
| The "famous" Dammit Dolls |
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The mountains of Skye from Plockton on way to holiday
but more about that next month |
Photos
© Stewart Taylor
