2002, did you stay up to watch it?

With a holiday planned in Lancashire early in the month I thought it was worth making one last visit to Loch an Eilein on Rothiemurchus Estate to see if there were any elusive tooth fungi. To avoid paying the car parking fee I parked just down the road from the car park, walked in and found a couple of morels by the name of elphin saddle (Helvella lacunose) right by the road (left). This is one of the easier morels to identify with its black cap and ridges and grooves running the length of the stem. My aim for the morning was to check out any old borrow pits by the track running round the loch in the hope of finding a few tooth fungi and with everything crossed in the hope of finding Hydnellum gracilipes for the first time outside Abernethy. I set off round the loch clock-wise which meant the first few borrow pits were in the full glare of the sun though pine trees gave quite a bit of shade. I have never found the fungus in this type of location but the quarries were checked out anyway. I should really have had a couple of ‘road works ahead’ type signs warning visitors that they might encounter a man kneeling or possibly lying down in the little quarries around the track – and not to worry, he’s harmless! Sure enough, the first folk to be a little surprised by my “hello” from within one of the quarries became quite interested in what I was up to. As I got to the far end of the loch conditions improved as the south slope of the hill was north facing and, with reasonable tree cover there might be a chance. Not many borrow pits though! A wee gully looked promising but nothing was found and a wee hollow by the track looked equally unpromising. Just as a couple with a huge dog happened upon me I was parting a curtain of heather to reveal something slightly pink behind the vegetation (right). To their question of “What are you looking for?” I was able to reply that they were just in time to see something quite historical, the first site for Hydnellum gracilipes in the UK outside Abernethy. Lots of explaining about fungi with teeth and fungi with gills and they left me to take a few photographs. It was as I was lying on my side, eye to my camera viewfinder, that a group of secondary school pupils passed me by. However, a couple of the pupils came back along the track with one of their leaders to ask what I was up to and I was able to tell them all about my find and its importance. As I would need to take a small sample to be sent off to Martyn at Kew I asked them to wait a minute so they could see the actual fungus. By the time I had my sample the whole group had returned to see what was happening and with lots of exclamations of “cool” I was able to tell the group that they were the 10th to 20th people to see this fungus as a live specimen, within the UK. I was even more “cool” now than before but who knows, I might just have sparked an interest that could last a lifetime. Really cool! I had to make sure though that no one was looking when I posed for the picture left, a perfect end to the tooth fungi season. Eventually all my tooth fungi data from Abernethy was entered into a spreadsheet and this allowed the table right to be created showing how 2011 compared to my previous years.

The following day was Farmers Market day in Grantown on Spey and we were all there bright an early to erect the tents and get all the goods on display. The effects of the car bump nine days earlier though were making themselves felt and with sore hips and back I was unable to help with the tent erection and had to apologise and leave the rest of the folk to it. A first for the Market was the arrival of a pair of alpacas penned by the side of their owners stall and quite an attraction they proved to be. Also new to Janet’s stall was a basket of “Dammit Janet” stress relieving dolls proving just as popular with the buyers as the exclusive tweed bags, coffee cosies and make up bags. The poem which accompanies the doll is given below!

“DAMMIT JANET”

Stress relieving doll ~ contains lavender to calm frayed nerves.

When you want to throw the phone
Or kick a chair and shout
Here’s a little Dammit Doll
You cannot do without
Just grasp it firmly by the legs
And find a place to slam it
And as you whack the stuffing out
Yell,
“Dammit,
Dammit,
DAMMIT!”

Lots of work needed on Janet’s part for a two day craft fair at Haddo House in the first days of November.

Phoning and messing about re the car saga from the last diary resulted in a new (well second-hand) car joining the family. A visit to Inverness located a couple of suitable cars and after much to-ing and fro-ing a Fiesta at Macrae & Dicks won out. Part of the purchase process means going through various added value offers as well as extended warranty options. Craig did his bit and the papers were signed and then Fiona arrived to explain the benefits of the warranty options. She gave me her card whilst she went off to collect some photocopies I needed and I noticed that this young lady was Fiona Macdonald MBE. Looking to be no more than in her mid-thirties I asked Fiona on her return what her MBE had been for and she replied – curling! Of course, two members of a very famous curling team did come from Inverness and this was one of them, in person. Twice I have stayed up late to watch finals in the Olympic Games, once was the hugely emotional middle of the night effort to watch Sir Steve Redgrave win his fourth gold medal as a rower and the last time was the Winter Olympics in 2002 when the British (all Scottish) Women’s Curling team took on Switzerland in the final. In the very late evening the British ladies battled away until in the final end, with the scores tied at 3-3, and with 15 of the 16 stones played, Switzerland were in the gold medal position with their red stone resting on the line of the inner-centre circle. Rhona Martin had the final “hammer” stone and could only win the end by playing an inch perfect stone that would just nudge the Swiss stone away from the centre circle whilst leaving her stone in its place or, better still, in the centre-circle. In what seemed like ultra-slow motion, Rhona’s stone travelled down the ice, made its way round the Swiss “guard” stone ahead of the circles and, with a gentle but perfect nudge, pushed the Swiss stone away leaving Rhona’s stone right on the “button”. A brilliant stone, played under extreme pressure and the gold medals went to the 5 members of the British team. I was sitting opposite and talking to an Olympic gold medal winner! I mentioned my monthly diary and asked if it would be possible to see her gold medal when I returned to pick up the car in a few days time. Of course came the reply and so, a few days later, Janet and myself came face to face with an Olympic gold medal along with its proud owner. Thank you Fiona. To see the winning stone go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/winterolympics2002/hi/english/curling/newsid_1835000/1835582.stm

And then it was off to Lancashire for a week’s holiday in a brilliant farm barn conversion in Newton with Laura and Ruth and the boys. The first day saw a gathering of four generations as Grandma Holden joined us to celebrate Archie’s second birthday, a party which carried on into the evening when we were joined by all the members of the Taylor clan. Good food, good games and a great gathering. The farm had friendly sheep, hens, geese and young pigs which went down well with Finlay and Archie, despite the regular rain. With many villages on our doorstep we were obliged to try several for lunch-time outings, the one to Hurst Green lead us on to the grand avenue leading to Stoneyhurst College. Despite the waterlogged ground rugby matches were being played and, having come prepared with a bag of stale bread the boys had great fun feeding the mallard and a fairly aggressive white goose. All too soon the last day arrived and we finally found time to have a lazy day in Newton, eyeing a couple of impressive houses currently on the market, but with price tags of £700,000 and £1 million, we hurried on by. Lunch was in the wonderfully named Hark to Bounty in Slaidburn and as we wandered on to the village church it was nice to catch up with a couple of nuthatches and a late chiffchaff calling nearby. The best weather of the trip was on the day we drove home!

Back home, a visit to Tulloch Moor reminded me of the query left at the end of the last diary – the small warty looking ball. The reply to my iSpot query suggested I cut the ball/fungus in half and check the inside, but, having left the fungus in situ, my visit to Tulloch was to try and find another specimen. This time though, it would be a little more difficult. The fungus in the last diary was lying on the surface of the forest floor whereas normally they would be buried underground – the fungus we are dealing with is a truffle, the false truffle one of two species of Elaphomyces. The way to find the truffle short of having a truffle hound or boar is to look for the fruiting bodies of another fungus which is a parasite of the truffle. The parasite has the wonderful name of snaketongue truffleclub or Cordyceps ophioglossoides and can be found as a black finger-like fungus emerging from the soil. As I entered the Tulloch birches I found the parasite quite easily and, with penknife in hand, dug gently down to see if I could find the truffle, and found not just one but several with the tell-tale yellow mycelium linking parasite to truffle. This time one was cut in half and again the photo sent to iSpot and the positive result this time told me that I had found Elaphomyces muricatus.

21 October saw a major arrival of redwings in and around Nethybridge along with a few fieldfares. However, by the next day they had gone and few have been seen since. There is a complete lack of rowan berries locally so no doubt most will have pushed on south. Whilst in Lancashire we saw many more where, all around the country lanes hawthorns were hanging thick with berries. A few days later I had my first whooper swans passing over – what a brilliant sound these graceful birds make as they fly along. With amazingly mild weather lupins in the garden continued to flower right through October and cowslips also came into flower, leaves seemed reluctant to fall from the trees and whilst checking a group of alder trees near Loch Pityoulish unsuccessfully for an unusual fungus called the alder tongue Taphrina alni, buds on a couple of rowan trees were starting to burst. A check of alders along the River Nethy a couple of days later was however more productive and several “tongues” were found protruding from several seed cones from last years crop. This unusual fungus grows from within the alder seed cone, green/red in colour on young green alder cones but turning a dark brown with age and remaining on the cones until the seeds are shed the following summer. The fungus was a new addition to the RSPB Abernethy species list when found.
The same day was a very sad one for Moto GP with the death of one of its rising starts Marco Simoncelli. One of the less serious guys on the circuit he will be sadly missed. Around the same time we were talking to Solar Power Scotland about the possibility of installing photo-voltaic panels on our roof, but more about that next month.

The month ended with two spectacular finds, the first occurring when we were invited to a friend’s house near Insh Marshes for dinner. After a brilliant meal we were all relaxing in front of the open log fire when John said “What’s that behind you on the settee?” I turned round to find a shieldbug resting right by my head and though I wasn’t able to name it, it looked different to the birch shieldbug seen occasionally in the area. Malcolm produced a tube and the bug travelled home with us. Next morning I once again checked the British Bugs website (http://www.britishbugs.org.uk/ ) and was 95% certain that the bug was an adult green shieldbug and, just to ensure I was working along the right lines, I checked the National Biodiversity Network Gateway distribution map. Oops, there wasn’t a dot for the bug in Scotland so I checked the bug website a little more carefully to make sure all the key features were present and it certainly still looked like the green shieldbug to me. Just to be sure the photo was posted on iSpot (http://www.ispot.org.uk/node/232700 )
and within half a day 5 people had agreed that my ID was correct. Amazing.

My second find came about via my link with a near neighbour who has been using his geology expertise to direct me to local outcrops of base-rich rock which, in the past, had been quarried for lime for use on local farm fields. This particular outing took me towards the TV mast on Laggan Hill near Dulnain Bridge where the remains of several small quarries are clearly visible. The first finds were fairy flax and quaking grass both plants of base-rich soils and when I descended to a couple of rock outcrops I saw something on the thin soil overlying one of the outcrops which had me thinking of a picture of the lichen Solorina spongiosa, the only member of the family described in my ID book that I hadn’t seen. So photo only and no sample but the small green collar (thallus) surrounding the red-brown apothica just a few millimetre in diameter looked like the picture I had in my head and this was confirmed when I returned home. This find wasn’t new to Scotland but it was new to Ordnance Survey square NJ, so a fairly good record.

Enjoy the read

Stewart & Janet






Second car in a month leaving the Taylor’s for the scrap heap







Rugby at Stoneyhurst College






A spidery sunset





All photos © Stewart Taylor

White van man makes his mark – ouch!

The first half of September was dominated by the ongoing survey of tooth fungi and, as data continues to be entered into the 2011 spreadsheet, it looks like it has been another good season with current total of locations entered so far topping the 700 mark. With a dozen pages of the notebook still to complete the total could be close to 1000 locations found in 2010. The biggest change was seen in the lack of fruiting bodies of Sarcodon glaucopus (green-foot tooth) with only about 10 found compared to 35 in 2010. One of the main objectives of undertaking the survey over so many years was to see what the variation in the number of fungi appearing annually would be, though whether this can be attributed to annual weather patterns or other forces will take a bit more work than my track walking survey. I continued to find new sites for the fungus re-found last year Hydnellum gracilipes, and on a few days 2-3 new sites a day were being found. As mentioned in the last diary, I was unable to help myself delving into overhanging “curtains” of heather (left) and other vegetation, mainly in old wee quarries by the tracks, and occasionally I was lucky to find a few small, pink fruiting bodies. I don’t have a final total yet but there must be between ten and twenty new sites this year, I just need to find it outside Abernethy now!

I continued to check local spruce woods for the rare Bankera violascens but without luck, but was rewarded by finding a few other unusual fungi like this shaggy parasol (Lepiota rhacodes right) and a small morel like fungus which turned out not to be a morel at all but a fungus from the same Ascomycete family (a large class of higher fungi distinguished by having their spores formed in asci, or spore sacs; the sac fungi, and comprising many orders, among which are the yeasts, moulds, mildews, truffles, morels, etc) by the name of Cudonia circinans (left). A couple of fungi experts visiting to see H. gracilipes, helped with this one, otherwise I would have been stumped. The bog on the butterfly transect that gave me a soaking also produced a very strange fungus on one September walk. Avoiding the deep hole from the last diary, I took a more usual route and was amazed to find what looked like a fungus growing in completely waterlogged sphagnum. There were several fruiting bodies so I lifted one out for a closer look and yes, it did look like a fungus, again, probably from the Ascomycete family. A little light lit up in my head as I remembered finding something similar when out with the Orton team several years ago (1994) in sphagnum on the edge of a lochan. Thankfully, the visiting experts also helped provide a name which sure enough popped up on the Orton list as Sarcoleotia turficola (right). Amazing.

The last few weeks of the butterfly transect provided some of the best weather of the survey period with some sun but without the strong winds which seemed to accompany most of the other sunny transect days. The big problem was that there weren’t many butterflies on the wing in September but it did give the Scotch argus an extended flight period, a last emergence for a few green-veined whites and the only red admiral of the year. So, for a survey that started on the 1 April and ended on the 28 September, walks were managed on 21 weeks with 3 visits having to be repeated after walks were aborted due to poor weather. The table left gives a comparison year by year of the species and numbers seen. September always seems a long way off when the walks start in April but it is amazing how the weeks fly by. Let’s hope for better weather in 2012.

The transect again provided something new for Abernethy – a wee shieldbug. The new camera was put to use to capture a good image of the beastie resting on a fallen birch leaf but just in case more identification information would be needed, it accompanied me home until I could carry out a check on the brilliant bugs website (http://www.britishbugs.org.uk/ ). Its size was slightly smaller than the regularly encountered birch shieldbug but a bit of searching took me towards it being Picromerus bidens due to the very prominent spike like projections on its pronotum, but just to be sure I loaded a photo onto iSpot (http://www.ispot.org.uk/node/217256t.org.uk/node/217256ot.org.uk/node/217256 ) where 4 people agreed with my identification. Once my check had been completed the bug was returned to Tulloch Moor, close to where it was found. The following day we had a frost and the first pink footed geese were passing overhead.

With the Abernethy tooth fungi field work completed I made a visit to Rothiemurchus to look for Hydnellum gracilipes. The walk out to the edge of the Lairig Ghru was enjoyable but nothing was found. A similar outing to the pinewood on the edge of the Nethy golf course was unsuccessful but provided me with one of the biggest bird surprises I have had in recent years. Having walked a couple of tracks I decided to follow a sort of unofficial path running by the fence on the edge of the golf course back to the car. A large brown shape caught my eye close by the fence and when I realised what it was, the camera was out in an instance to capture a photo just in case the GREAT SKUA should fly away! I needn’t have worried, the bird was obviously hungry and very tired and I was able to take off my jumper and wrap it round it and take it home. Initially I wasn’t 100% sure that what I had caught was a great skua so I called on the help of local bird ringer Keith and between us and by checking measurements with those in the Handbook of the Birds of Europe, we were happy that the identification was correct. With Janet’s help the bird was fed and watered, cat food followed by expensive slices of best haddock, and placed in a large box for the night. More food and water during the following morning and it was time for the bird to take its chance again in the big wide world. It was released at Broomhill Bridge on the River Spey. A bonny bird and probably a casualty of the tail end of Hurricane Katia which battered the west of Scotland with winds of 70+ mph. See Liam Dutton’s weather broadcast at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-14879075 to see where the bird’s problem might have started. According to the Bird’s of Badenoch and Strathspey this is possibly only the 4th record for the area of this “pirate of the seas”.

The 22 September was a sad day. After 100,000 miles as a companion it was time to say cheerio to our faithful wee blue Fiesta V907. With lots of work needed as well as a new engine flywheel we decided the best course of action was to scrap the car. The deed was done mid-morning when the car transporter arrived to pick it up and within minutes the car was loaded and gone. The next day we weren’t too sure this had been a good decision. Friday morning had been spent looking after grandson Archie and mid-pm we were heading home via the A9. There were lots of vehicles on the A9 and I said to Janet to watch the antics of a “white van man” behind us who was undertaking a very risky overtake particularly as there was a bus heading south on the opposite side of the road. Completing the overtake the van ended up behind us. I was certain that being in such a hurry the van would be heading for Inverness and I was very surprised to see it follow us off the A9 at the junction north of Aviemore. As we approached the slip-road junction onto the A95 I slowed to a stop to let a car from Aviemore pass when there was a very loud bang and “white van man” had managed to run into us! Thankfully the car from Aviemore missed us but we were both a bit dazed by the impact. The police were called and details taken and we were assured that the van driver was at fault. An insurance check found the chassis had been damaged along with a jammed boot and other bent panels and the car was “uneconomical to repair”, and so started several weeks of phoning and messing about to sort out some new transport. Whilst a value is given for the vehicle we have yet to find out whether a value will be given for inconvenience. White van man’s vehicle wasn’t damaged! Watch this space.

Robins started to sing again during the month and the numbers of blackbirds in the garden increased. With few berries on the rowan trees redwings have just been passing through. The visiting pine marten has continued to entertain and Sue and Clifford managed to get some excellent video footage. If I can reduce the file size I will try and add it to one of the next diary entries.
Just up the road and along the Speyside Way, Scottish and Southern Power have started to dismantle the never ever used pylon power-line running from Boat of Garten to Aberdeenshire. This is part of the package which will allow them to replace the pylon line running from Beauly to Stirlingshire (following part of the A9) with a new set of huge pylons to channel power from the less than efficient wind turbines wrecking the north of Scotland to power houses and businesses south of the border. It was amazing to see how quickly the engineers worked in releasing the cables from the pylon arms prior to the cables being wound in. The guy, bottom right, really is working from a ladder just hanging from the arm of the pylon! Once the cables have been removed the pylons will be “felled” before being airlifted to a central site for dismantling. Hopefully I can photograph a bit of this work for the next diary edition. Whilst making my way to photograph the pylon engineers I found this rather odd looking ball-like growth on the ground (left). A photo has gone off to iSpot to try and get a name, so again, watch this space. In France and Italy something similar is worth a fortune, but I think this is a poor relative although a favoured food of wild boar and badgers.

Happy reading

Stewart & Janet






Cairngorms before the snows







Aspen leaves an indication of autumn









In memory of Uncle Bill (Wee nip) who passed away this month

All photos © Stewart Taylor

A month dominated by P marten

Top marks this month go to the Fisher family for sheer persistence. A week in the chalet last year brought them to within a ceilings thickness of meeting P marten as he or she was heard bounding across the chalet roof, but this year, armed with superior basic buy Tesco jam, raisins (not sultanas) and any old bread, the scene was set. Each night all these goodies were placed on the wee shelf outside the bedroom window, and each night a vigil was undertaken but without a sighting. After one particular late night vigil the family were intent on having a lie-in until at 8.30 IN THE MORNING one of the children looked up from her book to see the elusive creature heading towards the goodie shelf. Everybody up and there in broad daylight was the pine marten, on the shelf, licking the jam off the sandwich. Camera out, souvenir photo captured, though the animal was so close it was a job to fit the whole thing in the picture, and after a leisurely feed the marten headed off towards the garden. Was the marten waiting for the next audacious move? Mum opened the bedroom window and flung out a generous handful of raisins. Within minutes the marten is back to tuck into the new supply, completely ignoring the big fat juicy sultanas left out from the night before. About the same time I was up and having breakfast when I could hear the chorus of bird alarm calls from the chalet feeders. I dashed upstairs to get a better view, but saw nothing and had to guess that the marten might have been in about. The evening before I had been to Loch Morlich to look for bog orchids and as I battled with the myriad of midges (having forgotten the midge spray) I could hear two red-throated divers calling on the loch. I must let the chalet guests know just in case there were heading that way, so, as I could see them getting ready to load up the car, I popped out to give them the news. Before I could say a word I could see that the Fisher family had something much more important to tell me! “Guess what we have seen?” said everyone in unison and one by one I heard all about the part each had played in the morning’s event with mum finally getting out the camera to show me the photo that now takes pride of place in this month diary. (I think I remembered to tell them about the divers!) From first to last photo we learned that the marten was on site for about half an hour.

Saturday arrived and I recall to new arrivals Ken and Pam the successful encounter. I know from Ken’s last visit that to see a pine marten was a lifetime ambition. So the late night vigils start all over again despite me telling everyone to have a “relaxing” holiday. The jam works again and Ken and Pam have a few “after dark” encounters until one evening the marten arrives at 8.30pm with just enough light for Ken to catch everything on camera. Brilliant, and Ken’s photo also takes pride of place at the start of this diary entry. It hasn’t stopped there and all the visitors during the month managed to see the pine marten and I was even lucky enough to see P marten walking casually across the rockery on his way to sticking his head in the squirrels peanut box. So, we may have the fattest pine marten in the area also in need of dental treatment! It has been great that with a little effort, our visitors have managed to see something they though might never be possible.

August was also a busy month for craft lady (should that be person?) Janet. The first event nearly didn’t happen because of the torrential down-pour during the previous couple of days, but on a dry day the Grantown Agricultural Show went ahead. It was an early start as we headed off to help get all the tents erected for the folk selling goods at the Cairngorm Farmers Market. The attendees vary from farmers selling meat produce, to soap and candle makers and also ex-work colleague Malcolm with wife Ailsa selling some brilliant wood crafts. As the show opened there was much interest in the judging of the various sheep entries. Heftier cattle followed later in the main ring. All day long it was fun watching vans and wagons being towed through the ever deepening ruts of mud to enter and exit the show field. At all the recent craft events Janet’s own-designed bags seem to prove most popular just like the one pictured. The same day I had to dash off to the Aviemore health centre to get the troublesome knee x-rayed, showing the reason for there being almost no hill/mountain outings covered in the diary this year – osteoarthritis! Help! It still seems to work reasonably okay on the low ground though.

Two days later and we were off to the Abernethy Highland Games, tent erected the night before and daughter Laura popping over to help with sales during what turned out to be a busy day, with most of the day enjoying warn sunshine. Whilst Laura helped Janet I departed to make the most of the sun, and walk week 20 of the butterfly transect and, in the heat, it didn’t disappoint. Along the Tulloch Moor road and across the moor there were, in places, clouds of Scotch argus butterflies taking off from scabious flowers along the route, in these three sections alone 114 were counted, almost as many as would be counted in a whole season in some years. Dark-green fritillary (right), small tortoiseshell and green-veined whites were the only other species recorded. Checking back over the very crinkled weekly recording form reminds of the fun I had that day in another way. After all the rain the rivers and bogs were very full of water and on Section 11 of the transect (see http://www.ukbms.org/SiteFactsheet.aspx?siteId=51 see Species lists at bottom of page also) a short stretch of bog has to be negotiated and having been walking this route for over 30 years – not a problem. However, the normal route I take was very full of water and, knowing one tiny bit tests out the height of my wellies, I decided to take a detour to avoid the worst. All fine until I placed my foot on a nice tussock of cotton grass and down I went but ensuring the top half of my body – and my weekly recording sheet - ended up on top of the sphagnum and heather hummocks a couple feet away. As fast as I went in the bog I came out again, even though I failed to touch the bottom of the watery channel, and with pants and wellies full of water and lots of bits of sphagnum moss, I squelched my way to drier ground at the edge of the bog where I was able to tip out the water and wring out my socks. It would be interesting to know what the foreign visitors who stopped their car to ask me directions once I had reached the road said to each other as they drove off! Despite the mishap I arrived back at the Games in time for packing up the stall and tent.

The outing to Loch Morlich, mentioned earlier, proved quite interesting. I have long wondered whether some of the Abernethy bogs would be suitable for the diminutive bog orchid (left). I have seen it growing in the trickle of a small stream in the forest but have never seen it actually in a bog, so knowing it had been found at Morlich in the past, it was worth having a look to see if it was still there. Looking for something that is no more than 20mm high at best, is a good test for both back and eyesight as you wander bent over, along the edge of the bog. After a while it becomes apparent that it is unlikely to be growing in heavily vegetated sites so the search becomes narrowed down to the slightly gravellier lightly vegetated sections, still a big task in this area of many peaty pools. Persistence pays off and eventually a group of six orchids is found, but this is certainly not a plant in the top ten for stunning beauty even though it is carrying the “orchid” tag, the beauty thing is in the fact that it is hard to find, often defeating those who go in search of it. This plant has a couple of unusual features to allow it to grow in what is a watery habitat. Large roots are virtually absent these having been reduced to root hairs which have a heavy mycorrhizal (fungal) infection to provide the plant with its nutrients. The base of the plant also has what looks like a bulb from which the flowering shoot emerges. The “bulb” is actually two pseudobulbs growing one above the other, the lower one carrying the dried remains of the previous season’s leaves and the upper is surrounded by the bases of the new leaves. Time to try and capture these unusual features with the camera, ‘try’ being the operative word as, despite me carrying the “new” Nikon P7000, I was finding that this camera suffered from the same problem as earlier versions – most of the time not focusing on the “spot” in the middle of the lense. However, this version did have a manual focus feature so with lots of messing about (can’t really lie-down in a bog) I managed to capture several in-focus pictures. Over a period of four hours the peaty pools were searched and a total of 4 sites were found though the last one was a bigger test than all the rest in that all that was growing was the bulbil section described earlier (right). These bulbils may be the new plants for next year as quite often they are found growing side by side with flowering plants. A brilliant wee plant and worthy of the time taken to find. A check of similar habitat in Abernethy a few days later failed to find anything, but this bog was ten times more complicated than the ones looked at at Loch Morlich.

The start of this month also saw the completion of the Osmia bee nest box project, well the outdoor part at least, so visits were made to all the sites and the boxes taken down. A quick check of each box failed to find any occupancy but it has been suggested that any sealed cells containing next years bees, may be further down in the tubes, so this will mean lifting out the paper tubes and holding them up to the light to check. It has been a very poor summer weather-wise for these bees (and most other insects) and I will be surprised if we find anything – but watch this space. Whilst at Culbin Forest removing the nest boxes I spent a little time wandering a few tracks to look for tooth fungi and managed to find 3 species. 90% were Hydnellum peckii (Devils tooth). Yes, it’s that time of year again and, after a quick trip to Lancashire to see Janet’s mum, it was down to the serious business of track walking to carry out this year’s survey. This will be the fifth year that the Abernethy-wide survey has been carried out by myself and after this year it is hoped that a write up of the findings over these five years can be completed. On the first few outings it was looking like Hydnellum peckii and Hydnellum caeruleum (Blue tooth - left)) were appearing early but to try and keep each years survey about the same, the same tracks were being walked on the same days as in previous years. After a few outings I was able to calm down a bit as, in general, most tooth fungi seemed to be appearing at about the same time as normal. Having re-found the rare Hydnellum gracilipes with Martyn and Alan last year it would be interesting if it re-appeared at the same sites again this year. But before I had made visits to these sites something that looked to be the same fungus was found, again under heather, way out in the forest (right). Because there have been so few confirmed records of this species (I was involved in finding the only 5 known locations in the UK last year) a small sample had to be collected and the fungus placed on a glass slide for a couple of days to drop spores (left), before being dried and the whole lot sent off to Martyn at Kew for confirmation. For this first sample the news came back that yes, it was H. gracilipes so, in addition to walking the tracks for mile after mile looking slightly sideways, I was now going to be tempted to lift bits of heather in any suitable locations. Interestingly, this first find was quite different to those found last year where on most occasions, the fungus seemed to be “stuck” to the overhanging vegetation, the lifting of the heather often damaging the fungus. On this occasion, it seemed to be self-supporting, being found by parting the vegetation on top of it. With a track most days to be walked from mid-August to mid-September, I was hoping for good weather.

For a change of scene, I had the opportunity to nip over to Deeside, and with the help of Liz, be able to see one of Britain’s rarest tooth fungi and the habitat it occupied – Bankera violascens (left). First found in nearby Glenmore Forest during an international mycological gathering in the early 1990s, the Deeside location is currently, the only known UK site. Sadly, the Forestry Commission weren’t aware of the importance or the location of the Glenmore site before the Norway spruce trees were felled, and, without the tree cover and the mycorrhizal tree root association, the fungus can no longer be found. Conversely, on Deeside with awareness, the Sitka spruce trees local to where the fungus grows are being left un-managed to ensure its continued presence. The weather for the run over the tops didn’t look too bad, though heavy showers were a possibility. A visit to something so rare deserves an outing for the “big” camera, so after parking the car by the Deeside road I loaded the camera bag and tripod onto my back and made my way up the hill with a calling jay not far away. Was that a distant sound of thunder? Probably not. As I reached the site about three-quarters of an hour later, light rain started to fall, so very quickly camera, tripod etc was assembled and a few photos taken of the fungus and the track bank (right) on which it was growing. By now the rain was becoming serious and the umbrella was erected and waterproofs donned. With the umbrella protecting the camera bag full of gear I had a quick look around the track and managed to find a new tooth fungi for the site Sarcodon squamosus (Scaly tooth). As the rain got heavier there was a clap of thunder right overhead – time to make a swift exit, and, to try and shelter the less-than waterproof camera-bag, I had to carry it on my front so the tiny walker’s umbrella could keep the worst of the rain away! The most thunderous welcome I have had yet on Deeside! Visits to a couple of mature local spruce woods failed to find any additional sites.

It was the next butterfly transect walk that produced the biggest surprise. Something I had seen on an earlier visit had casually been recorded as Devils tooth as I pushed on with the butterfly count. On this visit though the Devils tooth identification didn’t ring true so I took a few photos (left) and a small sample to check once home. The edge of the cap of the sample collected told me immediately that I was looking at something unusual in that it had a slight blue hue, and once home it looked like I was dealing with Hynellum concrescens, a species only recorded once before on Abernethy. Once again the identification was confirmed by Martyn, and another piece was added to the tooth fungi jig-saw puzzle as the sample was sent off for full DNA analysis.

By the end of August the Garten ospreys had departed and there were lots of swallow families whizzing about overhead. The last willow warblers, spotted flycatchers and tree pipits were recorded and as I wandered the tracks there were lots more jays around than I have ever heard before. A visit to the Garten bog to look for orchids wasn’t in vain as I came across that brilliant bog resident the raft spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus) floating on the surface of the water. Towards the end of the month I received an interesting email from BSBI County Recorder Ian, about a plant I have spent quite a bit of time looking for this summer – hairy stonecrop (left). He had spent a little time like myself, visiting the approximate location of one of the old records and he didn’t just find one or two plants like me, he found hundreds, showing, to a degree, how it may have grown in the past at the other sites. This I had to see and though the growing season for the plant was well advanced, there were a few flowers still present. So there I was, camera on tripod and bum in the air when I hear a voice behind me asking if I’m alright. Obviously someone wandering around in a slightly unusual area had got the local gamekeeper worried. He was probably more worried by what he found I was really up to!

Finally, the camera saga came to yet another end late in the month. Out of focus pictures, a fault with some of the manual settings I had had enough and, once again, the camera was returned. Quite sad really because the camera took great portraits and landscapes but, for close ups I was always cursing. So, if you take lots of close ups steer clear of the Coolpix P7000 well at least until Nikon make the spot focus work properly. The replacement this time has taken me back into the SLR world with the compromise being the Nikon D3100 coupled with their brand new 40mm macro lens (right). Almost twice the price but at least I am back in control and you can even turn that bit on the lense to focus. No doubt you will see some of the output over the next few months.

All the best
Stewart & Janet






Abernethy Highland Games sales team










A vertical SSSI in Lancashire









Loch Garten landscape via Coolpix P7000



All photos © Stewart Taylor apart from the pine martens