A chance meeting with Gabrielle Flinn late in the month
determined the outings for the rest of April.
Gabrielle is the Project Officer for the Rare Invertebrates in the
Cairngorms project and when I met her at the Nethy Bridge post office she asked
if I would be interested in looking for the Kentish glory moth (Endromis
versicolora) with the help of a pheromone.
She showed me a small glass phial filled with something that looked like
white polystyrene but was really a material that held the scent (pheromone) of
a female Kentish glory moth when she was looking for a male to mate with. To go around potentially suitable sites for
the moth with a night-time operated moth traps or to physically look for the
day-flying males would be hugely time-consuming undertaking. Using the pheromone in comparison required
the volunteer (me and many others) to select a suitable looking area of birch
woodland, ideally with an element of young trees, hang the glass phial from a
birch branch with a length of string, and sit back and wait for 20-30
minutes. It has been calculated that the
males can sense the pheromone from up to 1 km away and, with an opportunity to
mate, the males home in on the phial. I
first encountered this moth via my moth trap (non-killing) when first arriving
at the Loch Garten Reserve in 1976. The
trap was operated almost daily during the April to October period on the edge
of Tulloch Moor and in an area where birch was the main tree species. During all those trapping nights the Kentish
glory moth was only recorded as follows: 1976 x2, 1977 x2, 1978 x4, 1979 x2 and
1980 x1. Between 1981 and 2009 (the last
record during my employment) the moth was recorded just four times. I was therefore very interested to see how
the pheromone would perform. My first
outing was on a bit of a breezy day but quite warm and in the area of woodland
close to where I previously ran the moth trap.
The three 25-minute sessions failed to attract any males but at
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| Pheromone (small white tube) on string with visiting Kentish Glory |
least I
had decided the best set up for hanging the phial – directly on the string
rather than in a mesh bag. Two days
later I was back in the same area but with nothing recorded during the first
two sessions. At the third location I
had just hung the pheromone and unscrewed the lid when I was aware of something
whizzing past me, orange being the main colour I picked up and was fairly
certain that this was a male Kentish glory.
I needn’t have worried because within a couple of minutes it was back
and was circling the pheromone, almost, but not quite, landing on it. Amazing, and my first contact with the moth
in decades. Two more sessions failed to find anymore but at least I was happy
that the methodology worked. I made two
more outing by the end of the month and again I had a male appearing within
minutes of setting up the pheromone with this one actually landing on the lure
but not trying to mate with it. Via the
six sessions a male was recorded twice and, unusually, it was found in damp to
slightly boggy birch woodland. My last
outing on the 30th had me wondering what was flying close to my
first couple of locations and I was fairly certain these were day-flying
emperor moths. From the five locations
the moth was recorded just once actually visiting the lure as I was taking it
down. It will be interesting to see what
turns up in May, but what an interesting wee recording project so well-done
Butterfly Conservation Scotland and Canterbury University for working to
produce such an effective pheromone.
Searching of old locations of Wilson’s filmy-fern continued
with two outings taking me toward Loch Ness.
Without the use of GPS location technology way back in the 1970s both of
these old locations (1971 and 1975) only had their 6-figure grid references,
giving a potential search area of 100 metres square. Not a big search area but with both old sites
being on the side of rocky outcrops the search outings could have provided a
bit of fun! The amazing Pass of Inverfarigaig
was the first location visited where trees on both sides of the single-track
road were hanging thick with lichens, some in the rare UK category. The fern prefers to grow on the north, shady
side of rocky sites so, once parked up, the slow wandering up and down the
steep rocky ground started. A funny
‘growth’ seemingly
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| The 'odd' plant a young herb robert! |
growing from the mossy covering on top of a boulder had me
puzzled – was it part of the moss itself, a liverwort or a plant? Photos taken, a small sample was removed to
check once home and by keeping the moss moist a little more growth was
achieved. The hairy leaf led me towards
it being a plant and when out and about I was fairly certain that I had found a
seedling herb robert (Geranium robertianum) and this was confirmed when I
re-visited the location a few weeks later.
Likely looking rock ledges higher up from the road failed to produce the
fern and, assuming the original finder of the plant, the great botanist Mary
McCallum Webster, wasn’t a rock-climber, I continued to check the rock faces
and ledges that were reasonably accessible.
After a couple of hours, I was beginning to think this wasn’t to be a
‘re-find’ day and after a quick bite of lunch thought I would check out one
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| Wilson's filmy fern, plant with single sori bottom photo |
damp rock face not too far from the road.
Once or twice a similar looking moss had me fooled and it was whilst
trying to decide whether what I was looking at this time was a fern or a moss
(having only seen the fern once before) I spotted something that dispelled all
doubt – a distinctive spore bearing sori.
This was a small population, lacking the masses of sori seen during last
months outing, but the dark leaf veins were present as were the leaf edge teeth
so all I needed to do now was use modern technology and GPS the location. However, with the location being on the side
of a rock outcrop and also being in the bottom area of ‘The Pass’ the GPS was
only giving an accuracy of +/- 25 metres so a description of the ledge location
was also made. One down, one to go.
Just a few days later I was back in the same general area
but this time a little further north at Creag nan Clag, a very impressive
conglomerate rock outcrop. This type of
‘rock’ is made up of rounded fragments comprising small pebbles to large boulders
bound together in a finer particle ‘cement’, usually silt and clay known as a
matrix. At home the weather had warmed
up a little, so much so that I was fooled into making this outing a little
under-dressed. At the site the wind was
quite strong and
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| The conglomerate type rock/boulders |
from a north-easterly direction meaning the higher I climbed the
colder it became, particularly as the gully I was walking into was facing the
wind. My lightweight waterproof jacket
would have been an ideal companion on this particular outing! Walking into the gully the rock face to my
left was
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| Green spleenwort top and fertile Wilson's filmy fern bottom |
checked but with very little plant life apart from along the base of
the conglomerate. Maidenhair spleenwort
(Asplenium trichomanes) was quite regular but also a single clump of green
spleenwort (Asplenium viride) with its characteristic green stem/all green
appearance. An odd-looking lichen turned
out to be Leptogium gelatinosum.
Eventually a damper section of rock was reached and without too much
searching there was Wilson’s filmy-fern with 5 distinct small populations many
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| Alectoria sarmentosa subs sarmentosa |
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| Purple saxifrage |
displaying lots of sori. By now I was
just about frozen, despite there being sun outside the gully so time to head
down to try and warm up. Along the main
rock face it was nice to see lots of the early flowering purple saxifrage along
with Peltigera britannica and, the lichen this rock-face is famous for, Alectoria
sarmentosa subspecies sarmentosa, hanging down from just one section of the
rock-face. There was also lots of purple saxifrage all nicely in flower.
Mid-month there was a reminder that spring/summer was on its
way. Whilst out in the garden a light
buzzing sound around my head led me to automatically swat whatever it was and
found a nicely flattened fly stuck to my hand.
To me this looked like a mosquito but thought this was a little early
for them to be on the wing, so I took it into the house to have a closer look
under the microscope. All the features
indicated a mozzie so I sent off a couple of photo to expert Stephen who
informed me
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| The banded house mosquito |
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| First small tortoiseshell in the garden |
that yes, it was a mozzie going by the name Culiseta annulate, the
banded house mosquito. Interestingly, I
also found out that this mosquito is on the wing from spring to autumn and then
the adults hibernate in building, caves or hollow trees and is one of 33
species occurring in Britain. That other
horror of the spring to autumn months also put in its first appearance – the
tick, with two found on my body on the 15th. Time to dig out the tweezers and bottle of
TCP. The first small tortoiseshell
butterfly was in the garden on the 11th, a willow warbler on the 20th
and a local tree pipit on the 22nd.
A little time was spent checking out a couple of important
known sites for the green shield-moss (Buxbaumia viridis). The first one was a trip over to Deeside to
visit the NTS Mar Lodge Estate where, once again, a fallen conifer had produce
over 100 capsules. The number was down
just a little from 2017, possibly due to enrichment from rabbit droppings being
deposited on the trunk which is
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| Green shield-moss and rabbit dropping! |
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| Elgin shoot moth (Rhyacionia logaea) |
allowing moss and plant growth to develop quite
rapidly, making areas unsuitable for the moss.
It was also possible to see several capsules having been knocked over
again, possibly due to rabbits though there was also evidence of red squirrels
feeding on Scots pine cone seeds as well.
NTS staff have noticed an increase in the rabbit population in the area
of the fallen tree. Whilst counting the
capsules a green woodpecker was heard quite regularly, a rare bird in these
parts, and a small, but colourful moth which seemed quite happy to rest and
have its photo taken, turned out to be the Elgin shoot moth (Rhyacionia logaea),
a moth with just 8 UK records on the NBN Atlas.
However, local expert Mike, who helped identify it, said it was a
species that he encounters quite a lot and is obviously heavily under-recorded,
though there are two records from close to Braemar the latest being 2002. Currently though it has only been found in
conifer woodland in north-east Scotland
 |
| ST at the fallen willow top and the good population of new capsules |
where their larvae feed on buds and
shoots of Scots pine and Sitka spruce.
The second outing to check for capsules was to an ancient fallen, but still
mostly alive goat willow in the RSPBs Abernethy Forest. A bit like the Deeside conifer, the capsules
on this willow are to be found on several different parts of the tree. Interestingly, a new group of 20+ capsules
have appeared this year helping to boost the population to 64. The moss was first found on this willow in
2009 when the tree was still upright and has been growing there ever since.
An outing to see the green shield-moss growing on a
substrate and several tree species not previously known to support the moss
also provided other good records. In
this woodland, near to Beauly, fellow green shield-moss ‘hunter’ Sandy had
found several capsules growing on a bracket fungus
 |
| The circular Fomes bracket fungus top and the moss capsules bottom |
growing from a fallen birch
tree. Both tree and Fomes fungus were in
the mid-stages of decay and possibly the reason why the fungus was providing a
suitable growing habitat. In the same
woodland Sandy had also found the moss growing from dead sections of a hawthorn
and a whitebeam, both new tree hosts. On
my way into the wood I managed to find another location on a decaying fallen
birch tree, and close to the whitebeam, more capsules on a fallen goat willow,
so obviously a good wood for the moss. The outing also provided my first records of willow
warbler and chiffchaff for the year and another location for the small, but
distinct, larch ladybird (Aphidecta obliterate), a ladybird I often find
without a larch tree in sight. However,
it does also like Scots pine. Under the
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| The slime mould Trichia decipens as found top, and under the microscope bottom |
 |
| Slime mould spores x1000 oil |
hawthorn, I could see a distinct patch of something coloured orange and on
closer inspection found it was one of the slime moulds, but with very distinct
small, round balls on top of small stalks.
The bulk of the orange colour had been created by the mass of bodies
ejecting their spores, one to take home for checking later. Under the microscope I could see the typically
round spores of a Myxomycete (slime moulds are not actually a fungus which was
new to me) so one to check with slime mould expert Bruce who pointed me in the
direction of Trichia decipiens a slime mould linked
Work on the new
aspen wood last mentioned in the March blog continued, though a few problems
with fence posts not remaining secure caused quite a bit of extra work. Because the deer fence is within an area used
by black grouse, lots of marker ‘droppers’ had to be added to the wires to make
the top part of the fence more visible to deter the grouse from flying into the
fence. Returning one day to carry on
with the dropper installation, I was aware the fence wires on one section were
very
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| ST cutting up the fence droppers top and a cuckoo perched on the fence just after their installation |
slack and several of the droppers had been knocked off, tufts of hair
telling me that a red deer had been inside the fence and had caused the bulk of
the damage when trying to get out. I
learnt later that there were actually five red deer in the plot, goodness knows
why when the grazing available outside the fence was at least as good as that
inside. So lots more work involving a
new corner straining post installed by the fencing contractor and tightening up
the wires once again. The marker
droppers also posed a problem having given up ever getting them, two months
after ordering them. Small runs of specially
cut timber sizes usually do take longer and with time pressing to get the fence
finished I ordered 150 posts that had been made to create a wooden garden
fence. The one problem was that I needed
to cut them all in half to get them to the right size for the job they were
going to have to do. Eventually they
were taken to the fence site and I began the long job of stapling them in
place. With the time to plant the young
aspens getting ever closer it was essential to get the fence finished to deter
more deer trying to get in. This work
though was to continue into May. An easier
and more enjoyable job was planting tatties, kale and onions in the veg patch
all installed by the end of the month.
A visit to Tulloch
Moor to check old stems of bog asphodel for a common, but rarely recorded
fungus turned up something else. The
first was fresh frog spawn and on a dry knoll a nest of narrow-headed wood ants
(Formica exsecta). There were few ants
active on this cool day but the grassy structure of the nest made the
identification quite easy. Lots of
heather beetles (Lochmaea suturalis) were seen as was the fungus growing on
dead stems of bog asphodel going by the name of Microdiplodia narthecii, a new
species for the RSPB Abernethy Reserve.
In the woodland along the edge of the
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| Microdiplodia narthecii fungus top and spores bottom x1000 oil |
boggy area a large section of
deadwood caught my eye, so I thought it would be worthy of a visit. As it turned out there was little of note
until I spotted a small beetle running around which, quite helpfully, stayed
still for long enough to have its photo taken.
Once home I checked my fairly basic beetle book to see if I could
identify it from my photo but in the end I sent a copy of the photo to expert
Stephen to see if he could help with a name. It was a beetle called Lordithon
but was one of
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| The Lordithon trinotatus beetle and pine needles to aid ID |
two and the only way to sort out was by getting a reasonably
accurate measurement of the its length.
However, there wasn’t a specimen, so Stephen utilised something in the photograph
adjacent to the beetle, several Scots pine needles. Over a few minutes Stephen arrived at the
average width of a pine needle and by using this measurement worked out that
the beetle was 6-7mm in length leading him to the name Lordithon trinotatus,
another new species for the reserve.
An outing with
Janet to a woodland by the River Findhorn was a real eye-opener, adding to my
list of important sites along this amazing river. The woodland walk is on the Darnaway Estate
and is known as the Dunearn Burn Walk and gives a couple of options depending
how far you want to walk. As we left the
car park I got quite excited when I found common wintergreen (Pyrola minor)
growing by the path and even more so when ancient oak trees came into view some
of which had small populations
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| Common wintergreen |
of lungwort lichen (Lobaria pulmonaria). However, all around were the remains of
felled beech trees and I had to assume that these had been removed to help the
oaks regenerate, favouring important native trees against the non-native beech,
as this tree is classed in this part of the UK.
This removal work proved even more important as the path took us into
and area of oak and ancient hazel with the hazels hanging thick with lungwort
and Pannaria rubiginosa with the strange common name of brown-eyed shingle lichen
possibly because it can also be found growing on rocks. As Janet enjoyed her packed lunch sitting
enjoying the view I was off down the steep slope (very steep in places) seeing
what else was growing on the hazels with enough promise of more interesting
lichens should I
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| Woodruff and fungus top and Puccinia punctate asci and spores bottom (x1000 oil) |
manage to return and spend the day checking more of the oaks
and hazels. Making my way back up to the
path there were primroses in flower along with a distinctive plant with
circular whorls of leaves growing up its stems – woodruff (Galium
odoratum). There were also bluebell
leaves but no flowers as yet. Some of
the woodruff plants had an obvious dark-brown fungus growing on their leaves
which turned out to be Puccinia punctate, a fungus I had only seen once before
growing on a close relative of woodruff, fen bedstraw (Galium uliginosum) and
not recorded from the Darnaway area. It
was only once home I realised that this part of the River Findhorn is
designated as The Lower River Findhorn SSSI the web-link (below) gives details
about the positive work being done to help the oaks, hazels and their dependant
flora. A site that will warrant another
visit soon.
A shout from Janet
late one evening saying “come and see this” usually makes me pick up my camera
(if working away on laptop in next room) and dash through ready to photograph
whatever might be visiting the peanuts on the deck outside. Most often it is for a pine marten, but, on
this occasion, it was a hedgehog which had climbed up on the log with
the dish of peanuts and was happily munching away. So happily was it munching that it allowed me
to quietly and slowly open
the door onto the deck, without it running
away. Flash and glass don’t go well
together so by opening the door I was able to get a decent photo of this
unusual and first time witnessed event.
The un-flustered hedgehog carried on munching as I closed the door but
then seemed a little unsure about how to get down from the log!
On my way back from my outing to look for the filmy fern I
popped in to the RSPB Loch Ruthven Reserve and, as we had seen a thawing of the
ice covering small pools and lochans needed for the frogs and toads to mate and
deposit their spawn, lots of both species were regularly seen on the
 |
| Whooper swans top and mating toads bottom at Loch Ruthven |
move. Between the car park and the bird viewing
hide the path was covered with toads making their way to the loch and also
males looking for females to mate with.
I had to warn several visitors to be careful not to tread on them as
they made their way along the path and also point out mating pairs and
singletons heading for the water. A
couple of whooper swans were also on the loch and Slavonia grebes were also in
residence but a long way from the viewing hide.
A wander up to some of the rock outcrops high above the loch failed to
find any more Wilson’s filmy fern but, overall not a bad day. However, the fun and games that day hadn’t
quite ended. It was daylight this time
when Janet shouted to “come and see this” and on the ground, under the old
apple tree, were two great tits,
 |
| Battling great tits |
locked together as they probably battled for a
female or nesting territory. One bird
was on its back and the other lying on its side with claws well attached to the
chest of the other bird. Several photos
taken I decided to venture a little closer to have a closer look and check that
the bird on its back was still alive.
They were obvious oblivious to my approach and it was only as I bent
down to try and pick them up did they become aware of my presence and break up
their fight. For quite a while
afterwards one great tit was very vocal so perhaps this was the ‘winner’?
Strange to by writing a blog for the month of April in late June but with lots on the go delays have built up. However, hope you enjoyed the read.
Stewart and Janet
Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms
Mary McCallum-Webster
More details about banded house mosquito – Culiseta annulata
Lower Findhorn SSSI information
Strathspey Weather
Parkswatch
Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group
Mapmate recording database
Fungal Records Database of Britain and Ireland (FRDBI)
BSBI – Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland
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| Lochnagar in the distance on the drive over to Deeside |
 |
| I did say it would be warmer to have lunch in the Logie cafe! |
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| Red squirrel feeding on birch sap after top was cut from tree |
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| A chilly day hunting for ferns |
Photos © Stewart Taylor
