Over the last couple of months I’ve been visiting a possible
site for creating a small, but new aspen stand as part of a project linked to
the Cairngorms National Park. Following
an initial meeting of interested people/organisations in January comprising
about 8 people, two of us have led most of the work aimed at protecting small
groups of suckers growing from roots of established trees up to protecting just
over a hectare of trees with suckers (mentioned in June and September blogs) by
increasing the height of an existing stock fence. This fence was initially installed to protect
the trees and allow suckers to grow but, with red and roe deer managing to jump
over it, very little had happened. Raising the height of the fence should help
establish new trees. My recent work has
seen
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| Canada geese flying overhead |
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| Noon fly (Mesembrina meridian) |
me GPS-ing the strainer posts of an existing fence, creating a map, and
using this to obtain quotes for again, increasing the height to exclude deer. At this site though, young aspens will be
planted to create a new aspen stand. Visiting
the site early in November to count the number of fence posts required I heard
what I though was a big group of whooper swans approaching overhead, so the wee
camera was hurriedly got ready until I suddenly realised they were not swans
but 50+ Canada geese! Currently, this is
still a rare bird locally, so it was a little worrying to see so many birds in
one group. There are enough problems
with increasing numbers of feral greylag geese breeding locally without yet
another introduced species adding to their numbers. With the fence information collected I spent
a couple of hours checking the adjacent unimproved grassland for waxcaps, three
species being found along with an unusually marked fly, the noon fly
(Mesembrina meridian) a dung feeder. The
high-pitched calls of a bird in the junipers had me puzzled until it popped out
next to me and it turned out to be a chiffchaff, the latest record, to date,
for Abernethy Forest.
A visit to Nairn at the start of the month saw us parking up
on the outskirts of the town, walking in to the shops for Janet to top up on
sewing threads and materials and returning along the side of the River
Nairn. A strange plant caught our eye,
and this turned out to be the oddly named ‘common fiddleneck’ (Amsinckia
micrantha) a plant linked to farmland we had seen nearby once before. Passing an amazing veg-patch we stopped to
talk to the man weeding the vegetables and after
discussing the best way to
grow various species he handed us a huge turnip, complete with polybag, to take
home! Wandering back along the side of
the river Janet spotted a heron on the far bank which was close enough to get a
decent photo. As I was firing away the
heron walked out into the river, froze, and in an instant down went its head
rising to reveal a big fish held in its beak!
We assumed this to be a ‘spent’ salmon or sea trout which, having
deposited or fertilised eggs, might have been in the dying phase something that
happens to many of these great fish after depositing eggs. Thankfully, I had the heron in my cameras
view and most of the fishing process was captured over a series of
pictures. Having caught the fish, the
heron bashed it a few times on the rocks and within just a few seconds, it disappeared
down its throat. Despite having just
swallowed the fish the heron returned to its original look-out spot possibly
looking for more. Phew!
A few years ago, I found a strange looking fungus just up
the road from the house, a group of toad’s ears (Otidea bufonia) and this year,
it was there again. As I was heading
further up the road to look for the green shield-moss, I made a note of the
grid reference and decided to return the next day to
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| Toad's ear fungus ready for checking |
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| Spore (top) and ascus with 8 spores before ejection |
photograph. The local spruce wood produced a few locations
for the moss and a roadside location of the cedarwood waxcap (Hygrocybe
russocoriacea), new to RSPB Abernethy.
As the day ended I realised I had made a huge mistake not photographing
the toad’s ear fungus as the outdoor thermometer was dropping to below
zero. Next morning the temperature was
at -50C and when I revisited the fungus site all the fruiting bodies
had turned to mush. Lesson learnt. Thankfully, I had taken a specimen to check
so was able to confirm under the microscope that I had the right name. Checking a few of the known sites for the
green shield-moss (Buxbaumia viridis) continued and the next day I visited an
area of mature Norway spruced that had been felled a few years earlier. The
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| Green shield moss capsules |
moss was here a couple of years ago and
as I searched, a few new locations were found, all close to previously known
sites. One site was very unusual in that
the moss capsules were all growing on the ground though they might have been
associated with an underground root of the nearby spruce. As it started to get darker I finally arrived
at the location where over a hundred capsules had been found
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| Blueing bracket (Postia caesia) |
previously, but,
with an increase in the moss and plant populations most of these had
disappeared and just a few capsules were found on the trunk of a fallen spruce. These could only be counted with the help of
the wee light in my hand-lens, 12 being the number. A bracket fungus pushing out of the dead
trunk looked interesting, a sort of blue colour, and once checked this turned
out to be the blueing bracket (Postia caesia) a fungus associated with decaying
spruce trees.
Picking up the paper the next day from the Nethy post
office/shop informed me that sadly, one of our local, famous characters had
died, the Grantown vet George Rafferty.
George came to fame in 1980 by being the expert brought in to help
re-capture the grizzle bear, Hercules, that had escaped on Benbecula in the
Outer Hebrides whilst filming an advert for Kleenex, and had been on the loose
for three weeks. Darting the bear from a
helicopter with a powerful anaesthetic, George was then landed close to the
staggering bear, eventually managing to lasso it, and after being dragged
around a bit
before he could administer a second dose of anaesthetic, he
eventually managed to re-capture it. A
few years later George was filmed going about his vet work by BBC TV, the first
of any of the now popular vet programmes – real fame at last. We met George occasionally when we had a hand
milking cow on a croft in Tulloch and he came to check our cow and other cows
owned by the farm tenant, Miss Mac. On
one occasion George arrived to castrate one of the bull calves, croft resident
Roger and myself went out to help tie up the calf and keep it ‘calm’ whist
George did the operation. The
‘operation’ involved George cutting into the calf’s scrotum and, one by one,
removing the two testicles. Roger was at
the head end of the calf holding the rope and I was at the rear holding the
tail and as each testicle was removed George winked at me as he dropped them gently
into Rogers wellies! Roger only
discovered the testicles when we all returned to the house for a ‘wee dram’,
served up by Miss Mac as a thank you.
This was typical George, a real character, and it was sad to hear of his
passing.
Mid-month saw me heading north to Strathpeffer for the HBRG
AGM. As always when heading so far
north, I set off early to spend an hour or so checking out trees, plants etc
near Rogie Falls. I found the aspens
here had good populations of rare lichens a few years ago but on this visit I
crossed the
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| Rogie Falls (top) and Dutch rush |
bridge to see what trees were on the other side of the river. Nothing too unusual so I dropped off the
track to look for any green shield-mosses, a species that had been recorded
here on two fallen birch trees several years ago. There was a lot of fallen deadwood to check
so progress was slow but, in the distance, I could see a large patch of a green
plant which looked a bit like a rush.
Eventually I arrived at the plant and was delighted to see it was Dutch
rush or rough horsetail (Equisetum hyemale), a plant with a scattered, local
distribution. I was running out of time,
having to get back for the AGM by 10.30, so a few quick photos, a GPS grid ref,
and, just as I was about to go I noticed a strange,
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| Jelly tongue fungus (Pseudohydnum gelatinosum) |
white fungus on a fallen
spruce tree. Turning one of the fruiting
bodies over I could see lots of ‘teeth’ (not gills) hanging down, so this had
to be the jelly tongue (Pseudohydnum gelatinosum), just time for a photo before heading
off. A couple of locals who were
attending the AGM didn’t know of any Dutch rush populations locally and once
home I found that this was a new site and a new 10km square record.
As I got out of bed on the 13th I could see we
were getting our first real snow with heavy showers covering the ground. The birds were very active on the hanging
feeders as well as visiting the big, home-made fat-cake on the ground. I paused breakfast to try and get a good
photo of the blackbirds around the fat-cake but with completely black birds
against a totally white background I wasn’t having too much luck. Coat tits and great tits didn’t hang around
too long when perched on snow covered branches of various bushes with the
photos mostly blurred. Similarly, a
robin bobbing about in the veg-patch proved too elusive, but I then spotted a woodpigeon,
perched high up in one of the birch trees, and these photos looked more
promising as the bird just sat there with the snow-flakes creating a nice
feature as it was snowing. At about the
same time a red squirrel visited the peanut
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| Philip Avery and Simon McCoy with red squirrel back-drop |
feeder and as I looked for more
bird/snow photos I realised the squirrel was heading up the telegraph pole just
below the woodpigeon. From the house
window I was just about able to zoom-in and find it as it reached the top, but,
instead of leaping off into the birches and away, it decided to sit in the snow
at the top of the pole. Despite the
falling snow flakes it remained quite visible allowing a few photos to be
taken. Then it was off. When I finished my breakfast I wondered if
any of the photos of the woodpigeon or red squirrel would be suitable for
uploading to the BBC Weather Watchers site and after checking, one of each was
copied over, along with the usual temperature and air pressure details. Via the ‘photos near you’ section of the BBC
site I could see that a couple of local people had already been active with one
of them having captured a nice snowy bird table/garden scene. When I walked down to the shop for the paper
I popped in to see if neighbour Rita wanted her bird feeders topped up and
mentioned the photo I’d taken of the squirrel.
Over lunch Janet and myself watched the BBC news and on the Scottish
weather bulletin the bird table and snowy garden photo from just up the road,
was the presenter’s selection to highlight the snow fall. Mid-afternoon and the
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| The one that didn't make it! |
phone rings with Rita
saying the squirrel had just been on the national BBC weather report and the
presenter, Philip Avery, had said it would be on again on the next bulletin to
highlight something! Half an hour later
we were ready and prepared with camera all set, just in case it appeared
again. Not only did it appear but it was
the main backdrop as Phil was chatting with news reader Simon McCoy about the
snow and as he did the weather bulletin my squirrel photo was the lead-in to
say the cold weather was bringing in hawfinches from the continent! Amazingly, it was still popping up on the
evening bulletins and also appeared on the Scottish weather bulletin, the best
yet for Weather Watcher Hydnellum. The
phone rang again about 5pm and this was chalet guests Sid and Jenny phoning
from Braintree in Essex to say they had seen Hydnellum and Nethy Bridge on the
weather bulletin and just checking that this was me. This is about the third time they have rung
following a national weather bulletin now aware that Hydnellum leads to yours
truly!
A request from Stephen Moran at the HBRG AGM set an amazing
ball rolling. During his presentation
about the rare spruce cone beetle (Gastrodes abietum) he stopped and asked me
to stand up. On the screen was a photo
of two beetle recorders from the late 1800s and Stephen used the link between
them, me and Stephen himself to highlight that all the current Scottish records
for this beetle had been found by just these four people! My find was from earlier this year after I’d
collected fallen Norway spruce cones from the village and managed to get one
beetle to drop out. The spruce cone
beetle feeds and hibernates inside the spruce cones and Stephen was asking for
HBRG members to go out, pick up a few freshly fallen cones and tap them,
pointed end down, gently on a rock or something hard, and see if any beetles
fall out. About a week after the request
I was heading for a group of aspens by the River Spey at Grantown when I
spotted a small plantation of Norway spruces,
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| Fluted bird's nest fungus (Cyathus striatus) |
so just had to pay them a
visit. I was looking for the fallen, but
current seasons cones and, with few places to tap them easily available, I
popped 20-30 in a couple of poly bags and took them home for checking later.
Back on the path by the Spey a small stack of logs attracted my attention
because I thought I could see candlesnuff fungi (Xylaria hypoxylon) popping
up. Sure enough they were there but at
the start of one of the long-dead logs I could see something that I had long
hoped to see – one of the bird’s nest fungi.
There must have been about 50 of the cup-shaped growths with the spore
bearing ‘eggs’ clearly visible inside them, the grooved shape of the cup
leading me to think of the fluted bird’s nest fungus (Cyathus striatus). An individual fungus was about 10mm high and
about 8mm diameter at the top. To ensure
I was able to correctly identify the species a few of the fungi were collected
to check later. It was only when I
checked later that I realised what a complex fungus
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| A single 'egg'- peridiole (top) and spores x1000 oil (bottom). Spores measure 12-21 x 7-12 microns |
this is. In Britain 4 species of bird’s nest fungus
have been recorded with the one I’d found being the most common with over 800
records. Worldwide, just over 50 species
have been recorded. The one thing they
all have in common is the ‘eggs’ (peridioles) are
the reproductive part of the fungus, but this is where it starts to get quite
technical and also amazing. Despite the peridioles
looking round, they are actually disc-shaped, measuring about 1.5mm across and
within are the spores. They are attached
to the ‘nest’ part of the fungus with a short stalk within which is a long but
coiled cord which is attached to the peridiole.
The peridioles are ejected by raindrops splashing into the ‘nest’
shattering the short stalk but releasing the coiled cord which stretches out,
often wrapping itself around adjacent grass stems or other plant material. It is thought that the peridiole containing
the spores is then ingested by grazing animals with the spores passing,
unharmed through the animal to be deposited in their dung elsewhere! It’s worth clicking on the Wikipedia link
below to see
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| Norway spruce cone (top) spruce cone beetle (middle), snake fly larva (bottom) & distribution map below |
drawings of this structure.
Our local Badenoch and Strathspey Herald carried a half-page article I
wrote about this amazing wee fungus. The
spruce cones didn’t disappoint either and once home I tapped the cones as
advised and 3 beetles dropped out of one cone and 1 more from another providing
Stephen with another location. The
beetles were returned, along with the cones to the wood where they were
found. Interestingly, a couple of larval
stage snake flies also dropped out along with a pseudo-scorpion and a common
flower bug (Anthocoris nemorum).
Searches in two other Norway spruce woods failed to find any more so the
search goes on.
An early morning outing to try and see Venus and Jupiter
close together failed miserably. When
the experts said they would be very low and close to the horizon, they weren’t
joking. I went to my usual sky viewing site
near Broomhill Steam Railway Station and sat a little while to see if there was
anything obvious close to the horizon. I
then started to realise that the area of the sky where they might be visible
was hidden behind one of the low hills so I guessed there would be little
chance of them appearing, particularly as they disappeared below the horizon at
around dawn. Sadly, when I
got to my
viewing location I didn’t set up my camera and tripod straight away, because,
as I looked up I could see the Space Station gliding overhead and though I couldn’t
have got a photo of it, a long exposure would have let a white line
intriguingly appear across my photo.
However, there was a partial moon so I fired a few shots off at it as
well and the council gritting lorry, driving through Nethy Bridge with its
orange lights flashing – just an orange line on my photo. A couple of days later and it was grandson
Finlay’s birthday. Having fun trying to
light all eleven candles using matches, without getting his fingers burnt, I
nipped out to the bike shed and dug out a couple of fir-candles, slivers of
Scots pine wood heavily impregnated with resin and something that has appeared
in an
earlier blog (April 2015). Despite
lots of smoke, they worked, and once again ancient methods came to the rescue. Janet was also busy during November with
three craft fairs in Nethy Bridge, Aviemore and Grantown, so lots of sewing to
keep up with and after helping Janet to set up in Nethy Bridge I managed to
catch up with checking a row of aspens by the River Spey, trees I’ve driven
past for years. Nothing too unusual but
interesting to see lupins (wild) still in flower, a stonefly which, going
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| Pipe club fungus (top) and contorted pipe club (bottom) |
off photos
of its wings, was Leuctra fusca, the late needle fly. Despite it being November I also came across
a couple of pipe club fungus (Macrotyphula fistulosa) growing from buried
deadwood in the grass but then followed that up by finding its tree growing
variety contorted pipe club (Macrotyphula fistulosa var. contorta). The Latin name for this fungus is ‘just what
it says on the tin’. Macro = large and
typhula = smoky, fistula = pipe or tube and contorta = tangled/complicated.
As I type, thankfully the winter solstice and the shortest
day is past, I can see why people now, and in the past, danced around standing
stones to celebrate!
Enjoyed the read and all the best for Christmas and 2018.
Stewart and Janet
Common fiddleneck
Blueing bracket
Calf castration
Rogie Falls
Fluted bird’s nest fungus (Cyathus striatus)
Blog April 2015
Parkswatch
Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group
Mapmate recording database
Fungal Records Database of Britain and Ireland (FRDBI)
BSBI – Botanical Society of the British Isles
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| Singing dipper on the River Spey |
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| Spey lupins still in flower |
Photos © Stewart Taylor
