Despite this blog being a ‘bit late’, something that started
in early March is still active as I type and is one of the reasons for the
delay – aspens! As mentioned in the last
blog, funding was becoming available to undertake more work to ensure the
future of a tiny proportion of some of our aspen stands and, to this end, I
finally managed to get the members of the aspen group out, on site, to see the trees
and the work done so far in the Tulloch aspens.
This visit couldn’t have been more timely and as we wandered up the
track towards the deer fenced plot John, the other main person active on
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| May look like leaves but this is a tree full of male catkins |
the
ground, noticed one of the aspens was ‘flowering’. Checking the catkins confirmed that this was
a male tree, trees are either male or female (dioecious), and the catkins were
displaying their bright red anthers, the easiest way to confirm male trees when
the catkins are young and fresh. Male
trees also tend to flower earlier than females and, as the catkins grow, they
hang quite floppily from the twigs blowing freely in any breeze. Despite checking a few more trees as we
wandered the aspen wood we didn’t see anything that looked like female trees though
a couple more males were found. It would
be a few days later that I would catch up with my first female. The site visit was arranged to
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| Male aspen anthers whole catkin at the top |
discuss the
possible funding package that would be needed to fence off another section of
the aspen wood to add to the couple of hectares fence two years ago. However, to generate enough funds to do the
work a fresh application would have to be made to bid for part of the funding
being made available via an SNH Challenge Fund where several projects would be
considered by merit and ecological value and supported if the criteria were
met. Fingers crossed. On the way back to the aspen group meeting in
the local hotel, a quick visit was made to the other aspen stand where an
electric fence had been installed during last winter and where a fallen aspen
had small notices attached, with the owner’s permission, to say the tree was
valuable habitat for the aspen hoverfly (Hammerschmidtia ferruginea), and
shouldn’t be removed.
After the meeting an email was circulated asking interested folk
to keep their eyes open for flowering aspens and, as records started to come in
it was obvious that this was going to be an ‘aspen flowering year’, the first on
a big scale since 1996. As with this
year, 1996 followed a long, hot and dry summer and for the first time in just
over twenty years, the aspens were responding to our long, hot summer of
2018. The last time I saw a flowering
female aspen was in May/June in 2014 when I photographed the unusual fungus Taphrina
johansonii, which grows from the female catkin ovaries. However, I didn’t really have the obvious
differences between male and female catkins in my head, so I was extremely
grateful when an email arrived from Andy telling me there was a heavily
flowering female tree just by the B970 less than half a mile from Firwood. On this tree the catkins
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| Female aspen catkin top and close up of ovaries with red styles |
had only just
appeared and it wasn’t that easy to see the main female characteristics, the
yellow/green ovaries with distinct red styles, so a small twig with a few
catkins was collected to take home and put in a glass of water to encourage
rapid development. Within a couple of
days all the features were visible and, when checking the roadside tree, it was
easy to see that the female catkins were a lot ‘firmer’, not hanging like the
males and certainly not waving about in the light breeze. One problem though was becoming apparent,
both male and female trees visited so far had low branches where the catkins
could be viewed at head height, it was going to be a lot more difficult when
catkins were high to very high up on trees and only viewable with binoculars. To try and help collect catkins that were on
lower branches I adapted and extendable ‘pole’ used for cleaning windows and at
a few sites this worked but it was obvious that I needed something that could
extend much higher and was also capable of cutting off a small twig so the
catkins could be checked properly. Many
years ago, I bought a Wolf-Garten anvil tree lopper/saw which to this day
remains sharp and very effective for removing tree branches. Checking their website led me towards their Wolf
Garten handle and tree lopper capable of extending to four metres with a cord
which allowed the cutter blades to close and snip off the branch. As I was planning to visit as many of the
important stands of aspens where rare lichen and moss populations were known to
be present to try and identify the sex of the stand, this was a rather
expensive but necessary bit of equipment, of which one was ordered. The extending handle was also capable of
allowing my earlier saw purchase to be attached so that bigger branches
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| Trying to reach aspen catkins with the window cleaning 'pole' |
around
the garden etc, could be dealt with safely.
So, from the first week of March my survey started, though I was looked
at rather oddly when passing folk with my collapsed but still two-metre-long
pole! The reason for undertaking this
task was this one-off opportunity, probably in the rest of my lifetime, to know
the sex of many local aspen stands so that in the future male or female trees
could be introduced into stands to ensure cross-fertilisation takes place when
flowering occurs. Collecting seed would
also be important as the female catkins mature in May, as this could be a once
in 20-odd years that seed could be collected, in quantity, and banked to
provide aspen trees for the future.
However, collecting seed doesn’t allow you to know which sex of tree is
growing in the nursery so if male or female trees are required to be introduced
into purely male or female stands, then root suckers could be collected and
grown on for transplanting.
The 10 March saw me starting to visit aspen stands to stare
up through my binoculars at the branches to see if any catkins could be
seen. I started off with the stand near
Spey Bridge in Grantown where lots of root suckers adorn the roadside
verges. A fallen aspen was checked as a
possible site for the
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| Encoelia fascicularis |
aspen hoverfly later in the year and as I wandered along
the trunk a familiar fungus came into view, Encoelia fascicularis, a fungus
first found in February 2013 but not seen for a couple of years. A good start.
The small group of aspens I was visiting though didn’t have any catkins
until I got to the last tree and here the tree was hanging thick with female
catkins and many at just head height. At
this stage I wasn’t aware of how common or not female flowering trees were so I
contacted the Factor for the estate to ask if it would be possible to collect a
few root suckers with young tree growth present,
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| Digging and finding aspen roots with young suckers |
and he said this would be
okay. I returned the next day with spade
and hand fork to dig down around areas of new growth and in the end collected
half a dozen specimens which I took home and potted up in the hope of finding
locations where they could be planted in the future. A couple were kept well-watered and taken to
one of the Tulloch woods and planted in an area of mainly male trees. With the dry weather of winter continuing
into March I then had to make regular visits to water them to ensure the ground
was wet enough to get new roots to grow and the young trees survive. I thought I’d finished with watering aspens
after last years efforts with the newly planted trees in Abernethy.
As the last blog was finished, the public inquiry into plans
for an 18-hole golf course on the heavily designated Coul Links dune system
near Dornoch, was just getting underway on the 26 February. I had hoped to attend the inquiry when
Butterfly Conservation et al were being quizzed by the developer’s team but
couldn’t make it. I did though manage to
travel north on the 14 March when Dr Brian Coppins was in the hot seat (supported
by Sandy his wife) giving evidence about the importance of the dune system for
lichens, and also being quizzed by the developers QC. Over the couple of hours Brian did a good job
but you do wonder what difference all the conservation
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| Brian being questioned and giving evidence at the inquiry |
organisations site
visits, surveys and evidence will make when you think what happened to the
Menie dunes in Aberdeenshire even after the local planners had turned down the
application. The inquiry ended on 22
March. Sadly, on the day I attended I
forgot to take my camera (idiot!) so failed to get photos of the sheer amount
of paper/documents stacked up in boxes behind the applicants legal team at a
huge cost to the environment. The inquiry
proceedings were videoed live on the internet each day, something I tried to
follow on catch up each evening, just to see who was saying what.
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| Peltigera malacea |
Goodness knows what the cost of the inquiry
will be, and the work goes on as the two Scottish Government Reporters retired
back to Edinburgh to work through all that was said and presented over the four
weeks. The day up north though ended
quite nicely as after Brian had given his evidence, we met up with Dave Genney
from SNH and spent a relaxing hour in the Cuthill Links dune system next to the
Dornoch Bridge searching out a few patches of Peltigera malacea.
Early in the month Janet and myself drove up to Huntly to
see the monthly farmers market and meet up with daughter Laura and Douglas. We were tempted to buy unusually flavoured
sausages after trying the free samples along with a bit of fresh meat. Stocked
up with sausage rolls for lunch we
had a very pleasant walk out to Huntly
Castle passing areas of multi-coloured crocuses and early leaves of ramsons or
wild garlic. Once back in the town
centre we visited one of the nice wee cafés for afternoon tea and cakes
followed by visits to some of the very good charity shops. As we got back to the cars to head off home I
was presented with my birthday present from the family – a trail camera,
something I’ve often thought about but not actually invested in. A perfect end to the day out.
The Logie Steading café and Randolph’s Leap on the River
Findhorn have featured a couple of times this month. After lunch on the first visit we followed
the paths past the fields with the amazing longhorn cattle, past the junction
of the Rivers Divie and Findhorn and over the Bridge of Logie. The path then takes you along the most
amazing, steep-sided section of the River Findhorn, the narrowed down river
rushing below and then on to Randolph’s Leap.
Once there I remembered to GPS the
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| Peltigera leucophlebia, apothecia and spore |
leaning sweet chestnut tree with its
amazing mix of lichens before wandering down the rocks to the narrow river
gully where the ‘leap’ took place in the 14th century, not by someone with the
name Randolph but by one Alexander Cummings and three companions as they were
being pursued by Earl Randolph’s men. As
I scrambled about on the rocks by the ‘leap’ I came across a fertile population
of Peltigera leucophlebia (ruffled freckled pelt) which was surviving despite
the number of feet that must descend and clamber over the rocks. Back on the path Janet spotted a bee digging
a hole so photos were taken as it backed out of its hole, and I then spotted
another two doing the same. Bee expert
Murdo provided the name Clarke's mining bee (Andrena clarkella) one of the
earlier mining bees active from late February and early March. Our second visit was later in March when
brother Peter and wife Paula came to stay for a few days when again we said
hello to the cattle but also saw several canoeists heading down the Findhorn,
possibly having negotiated Randolph’s Leap along their way! Now that would be something to see. On a day out to the Findhorn Bay area Peter
and
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| Andrena clarkella |
Paula came back with something that was quite unusual – a sponge! Not one like you might have in the bath but quite
a hard, coral like structure attached to a large whelk shell. I sent a photo to a member of the Highland
Biological Recording Group who suggested the name Suberites ficus, but that he
would need to check under the microscope but that “I will confess I haven’t
done ID from spicules since my University days”. So, I typed in sponge spicules into Google to
find that the name
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| Logie Steading outing |
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| Whelk and sponge, orangey deposit and spicule possibly Suberites ficus |
refers to the skeleton of the sponge and one site actually
said that you can see the spicules if you dissolve a bit of the sponge in
bleach, and this is what I did. Over
about ten minutes I could see the section of sponge disappear and a slightly
orangey deposit appear at the bottom of the glass tube and after carefully
washing the deposit in water to remove the bleach I popped a bit under the microscope
to reveal an amazing set of spicules.
However, I’m still at the name Suberites ficus but have yet to
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| x2 badgers |
find
someone who can confirm 100% though two people have now given me the same name. You learn something new every day! During their visit they were also very lucky
on the badger front and for the only time to date two badgers were seen feeding
on the deck just about captured by my new TRAIL CAMERA!
A request also arrived via email asking HBRG members to look
out for the beetle Silpha atrata also known as Phosphuga
atrata, a carrion beetle that feeds on live snails, insects and earthworms, as
well as on carrion. A few specimens of
this common beetle were needed by staff at the National Museums of Scotland to
help their Czech colleagues with a study they were doing. This wasn’t a beetle I knew but was aware it
could be found below bark on fallen trees so off I went. I do not like taking large
sections of bark
off fallen trees so limited myself to small section on dead trees that I came
across. Quite a few Scots pines were
checked without any luck and, just as I was about to give up, I came across a
small, fallen birch tree and under the bark were five beetles that looked like
their photo. Three were collected and
taken home with a bit of damp moss and next day they were in the post heading
off to Edinburgh where the species was confirmed as Silpha atrata, a beetle
with quite a few records in Abernethy Forest.
The birds have ticked over quite well with possibly up to a
hundred curlews in the fields between Nethy Bridge and the River Spey, enough
to attract the local bird tour folk.
Bramblings were regular visitors to the garden with both males and
females, joining the increasing numbers of siskins and
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| Curlews and bramblings |
other regulars. The sparrowhawk made regular visits causing
the usual panic and regular siskin collisions with windows though few were
fatal. Crossbill numbers also increased,
and I was surprised to see several in the old aspen stand in Abernethy
Forest. The birds might have been
feeding on new leaf buds and a pair were also seen mating, so nesting
nearby. Photos of a male on a tree top
and in the branches went off to expert Ron who confirmed that the small billed
birds I was seeing were common crossbills, arriving in the pine wood just as
the cones were opening to release their seed.
The crossbills with deeper calls were also heard but whether Scottish or
parrot I wouldn’t
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| Common crossbill in aspen tree |
be sure. Whilst in
this aspen stand a fallen, but live tree was covered in quite unusually big
catkins which I assumed were female but, thankfully, I brought a small twig
with catkins home. As they opened a
little, I could see they were actually males and a day later I found a small
caterpillar feeding on them. Whether it
was because the tree was actually dying I don’t know but the catkins failed to
develop properly and as the caterpillar grew bigger I was able to transfer it
over to other catkin collections. With a
distinctive pattern developing along it back I sent photos off to expert Mike
who
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| The brick moth caterpillar |
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| Firwood green shield-moss |
told me I had the caterpillar of the brick (Agrochola circellaris), a moth
associated with catkins and then leaves of elm and aspen. Eventually, the caterpillar was released on
an aspen with low-level catkins to allow it to grow to maturity, pupate, and
emerge hopefully as an adult in the autumn (August to October). Another unusual find was made in the Firwood
‘nature reserve’ wood at the back of the house – a green shield-moss capsule
growing on a well-rotted, fallen birch tree!
Sadly, it didn’t make it to maturity being knocked off possible by the
sparrowhawk using the tree as a plucking post, or mice or squirrels messing
about.
On the 19 March I walked the last of the BTO Winter Bird
Survey transects, much more interesting bird-wise as the breeding season was on
the horizon but no less risky and the wee burn I had to wade across was once
again in spate! Two birds were seen that
haven’t occurred on the breeding bird
surveys, dipper and red-legged partridge
and the total of 23 species is well ahead of the 9 in January and 8 in February. The survey also asks the recorders to list
mammals seen and apart from the regular roe deer and evidence of red deer and
red squirrel, it was nice to see a group of brown hares, spotted as a
stationary group but up and off before I was able to get too close as I passed
them on the road. However, after many
years of recording for the BTO and for the wider countryside butterfly
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| And they're off! |
survey
for Butterfly Conservation, this was my last outing as I’ve decided to hang up
my boots. I will complete my outings for
the BTO woodcock survey until it ends in 2020, and a local wader/wetlands
survey one of the best two hours I spend anywhere listening and recording each
summer, before finally retiring.
Checking my BTO records I find that I’ve been busy for several years:
BTO Atlas squares 1988-1991
and 2007-2011
BTO Winter Atlas 1981,
1982 and 1983
Waterways breeding birds 1998
2 x 1km squares at Creag Meagaidh
Local Breeding Bird Squares
NJ0733 2005 to 2014 with
x3 visits per year to the square
NJ0631 2010 to 2018 with
x3 visits per year to the square
Local winter bird survey
NJ0631 2018/19 single visits Dec to March
So thank you BTO for all the fun and games over so many
interesting years and for the opportunity to record other ‘things’ as I went
along looking for birds, some of which were quite interesting.
That’s it for another month, enjoy the read.
Stewart and Janet
Coul Links
Randolph’s Leap
UK Moths – The Brick
BTO Winter Bird Survey
NBN Atlas
Strathspey Weather
Parkswatch
Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group
Mapmate recording database
BSBI – Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland
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| Cairngorms |
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| Long-tailed tit |
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| Blackbird sunning itself |
Photos © Stewart Taylor
