started to snow, not much, but enough to slow us down as we drove to the church hall where the fair was being held. I had spent that day in the forest at Glenmore and after mooching about in a patch of Norway spruce for four hours I was totally frozen and glad of the half hour walk back to the car to warm up. There had been a threat of snow all day and finally at 6pm it arrived. As we drove back from the church hall the snow had stopped but I was cursing because I had another days work in 
Glenmore to complete and the light dusting of snow might make that impossible, but more about that later. The following morning there was a good inch of snow lying and really it has been a story of snow and frost ever since. 6” had fallen by the time we packed everything up at the craft fair on the 19th and I seem to have done nothing but clear snow from around the house ever since. Travel to work for the last few days before Christmas reverted to Janet dropping me off at the end of the Forest Lodge track and walking in and out from the office, and even this became impossible on 23rd when another 6” of snow was dumped all around. Laura and Douglas just about got to the house from Aberdeenshire on Christmas-eve and, when another 7” of snow greeted us on Christmas morning we were quite worried that Ruth, Sean and the boys w
ouldn’t be able to get to us for Christmas dinner and present opening. The house drive was cleared of snow yet again and at 11.30am Ruth’s car appeared in the drive to a big cheer and present opening could begin. Phew! Janet produced a brilliant meal and Laura and Douglas some excellent bottles of champagne but all the time a wary eye was watching weather outside. A new experience was linking the Firwood gathering to family in Lancashire by “skype” as dinner was drawing to a close, a sign of things to come in the developing world of computer technology. There were lots of oh’s and ah’s as baby Archie’s turn came round to appear on screen, the first time the clan in Lancashire had seen him for “real”. Amazing.
following day. The birds feeding in the garden were hopping about on one leg, trying hard to keep the other one warm whilst pecking at the food. Since 17th December we have only managed to get the thermometer above freezing on two occasions (day or night!), the maximum being +0.5 deg C, and there doesn’t seem to be any end of the big freeze in sight. Frost and snow conspired to knock many New Years Eve events on the head, and the “happy new year” greetings have been very subdued as everyone digs snow and stops everything from freezing. Undisturbed snow on the football pitch in the village is now 18-20” deep and all around house gutters are hanging thick with icicles, many having fallen off. Trees are bending double with the weight of snow and throughout the forest trees and branches can be heard snapping. Adding up all the daily snow fall measurements at the house for the period given earlier we have a total of 40”. We have only seen one snow-plough go up the road since before Christmas the Council blaming bendy trees and branches over the road or is it really a money saving exercise! Their response to the crisis ha
s so far been pretty pathetic. Cleared heaps of snow around the house are now 4-5’ deep and we are running out of places to throw the stuff particularly when all the snow avalanched off the house roof over new year, filling the drive with 1-2’. Grandson Finlay lent a hand to clear the snow with his new tractor/digger, an eye popping present he received at Christmas. Needless to say we haven’t ventured very far from the house during the period and with only one outing into the woods since the main snow falls so lots to write about from around the house!
g used as much as when we have no snow. A couple of crested tits have been regular in amongst the 30-40 coal tits. Chaffinch numbers must be in the region of 40-50 birds and the yellowhammers show up brilliantly against the snowy background (left). Despite the cold the blackbirds, robins and dunnocks continue to fight over the food and the rook and jackdaw mafia drop in a couple of times a day to see what is available. Both species have now mastered the art of hanging on to the peanut feeders! Rarities comprise the odd greenfinch and goldfinch, the latter having forsaken our garden for Bill and Rita’s down the road with its gourmet niger seed feeder (right) where up to 18 birds have been seen. Charming! The biggest rarity has been a single brambling and the garden is visited daily by at least one sparrowhawk. It is only when the sparrowhawk goes charging through that you realise just how many birds are at the feeders or around the garden as with a great din of synchronised flapping the birds dive for cover in the surrounding trees.
day, kept the two of us in meals and sandwiches for a further four days, made a pot of soup from the carcass, it was time to put what remained out in the garden for the birds to pick over. The blackbirds and starlings had reduced it to a scatter of bones when Janet noticed a very strange bird having a go (left). A second take and she realised that we had a new bird for the garden – a jay! Being at work on the day it appeared, I thought I had missed my chance to see this new arrival but with Janet raiding the freezer for more chicken bones and me not being able to get to work the following day we kept an eye on the new pile of meaty bones in between clearing snow and helping out our neighbours. At lunchtime it re-appeared and fed for a while before disappearing with a large chunk of meat and bone. The camera was ready and waiting for its return (right)an
d a few reasonable photos were obtained as it fed on the chicken carcass. Locally, this is quite a rare bird with a single pair known to be regularly breeding in the Craigmore section of the reserve, but with also an increasing number of winter records of individual birds around the area in the last 10 years. With the camera out and ready I had been using it to watch the squabbling starlings fighting over the fat ball lying on the packed snow. Was that a ring on one of the birds legs? A second chance to check the starling came a few minutes later and sure enough on one leg was a metal ring topped with a second, orange colour ring and with a green/white coloured ring combination on the other leg. A few minutes later a second starling was seen with a different colour combination, blue over green on its left leg. Without the big lens on the camera I would never have seen the rings so again, watching out for one thing gave a bit of information on another. A quick phone call to Keith confirmed that he had ringed them at a site about a mile away from 
Firwood, one as a juvenile from one of his nest boxes in 2009, though the colour rings were only added in January 2010, the same time that the second bird was ringed. It will be interesting to see if either of the birds turn out to be linked to the Firwood nest box this summer. In amongst the starlings a large black and white bird suddenly appeared at the fat ball – a great spotted woodpecker (left) and amazingly when both starling and woodpecker squared up to one another, it was the starling that won. With the daytime temperature down at about -8 deg C the woodpecker (a male) was as desperate as all the other birds to take on as much food as possible during the day so as to try and survive the even lower temperatures that would come with night-fall. So an interesting hour without even going any further than the window.
world of the green shield-moss. Having found so many capsules linked to Norway spruce in Abernethy during the last growing season, I was keen to test whether they would also be found in other Norway spruce stands outside Abernethy. To this end I contacted Colin (area Ecologist) at the Forestry Commission in Inverness to see if he could point me in the right direction of any semi-mature stands in the Inverness District area. A phone call from an excited Colin just before Christmas informed me that he had found two capsules growing on a recently wind-blown Norway spruce in Glenmore Forest Park (below left) and, unlike the long-dead spruces linked to the moss in Abernethy, this tree had only blown over in the last couple of years. This I had to see, and 
while Janet was attending the craft fair at Rothiemurchus, I spent the same two days in Colin’s stand of Norway spruce (above right) seeing what I could find, and it was quite mind blowing. I didn’t find Colin’s tree straight away but was drawn to a couple of piles of felled logs that hadn’t been extracted at the time of the last thinning, and straight away, there were a few capsules. There were capsules on a few stumps, capsules on root buttresses of felled spruces, and, amazingly, capsules on roots of “live” spruces, the first time I had found the moss not linked to a deadwood habitat. Not only were they growing on the roots (which are normally protruding above the ground) but also, more regularly, on the soil debris on top of the roots (left) as indicated by the white peg. A whole new world for the moss in the UK, not dependant on deadwood, and potentially an abundant habitat in many Norway spruce 
plantations in this area and also further a field, and possibly, at last, the most favoured habitat for the green shield-moss has been found. We just need the snow to melt so that a few more sites can be visited to see whether this “Taylor” theory will hold water. If correct, I don’t see any reason why the moss shouldn’t be growing in woodlands south of the Scottish border – it has yet to be recorded outside Scotland, so have a good look at the photo (left), find yourself a 60 year old stand of Norway spruce, and be the first to find it south of the border! There are still only about 20 folk who have found this moss for themselves in the UK so you would also be joining an elite band of natural history recorders. I’d be happy to receive any records from north or south of the border via the Firwood website email address.
weeks ago a leafy lichen complete with spore bearing apothecia (right) looked a little different so I set up the camera and tripod and took a decent photo which eventually found its way to Dr. Brian Coppins. Peltigera collina was the name that came back, a new species for Abernethy Forest and a first for OS Square NJ01. Not only is the lichen rare in this part of Scotland (see http://data.nbn.org.uk/interactive/map.jsp?srchSp=38026 ) but to find it with spore bearing apothecia (the black bits on the lobes) in Britain is quite rare. Again it goes to show just how special our small group of 25 aspen trees are for rare lichens.
leaf-gall midge (Hartigiola annulipes left). The mind boggles at what we get up to. But of course a challenge is there to be met so, looking down at the ground for fungi, my eyes were also on the look out for beech leaves with strange wee growths on their upper surface. It didn’t take long to find some, firstly in the ancient beech woods at Rothiemurchus, and then in most of the others visited in the Strathspey area. The galls were also found in beech woods at Mar Lodge on Deeside, a first for this area. As is the case with these undertakings, we are out there looking for something that is obviously fairly common but just hasn’t been searched for before. The actual midge is very difficult to see but the gall literally “sticks out like a sore thumb” and is relatively easy to see. Before this request there was one location known in Scotland so to see what has happened over the last couple of months visit http://www.hbrg.org.uk/Frameset.html and be amazed.
ever increasing flock of feral birds locally 400+) and can now be seen on many of the cereal fields locally. The first round of BTO Winter Atlas tetrads were visited without coming across anything out of the ordinary. Our chalet guests spotted a rare species on rowan berries in the garden mid-November, a male blackcap. The same bird(?) also turned up in another garden in Nethybridge the following day but hasn’t been seen since. A turnip field close to Lurg farm on the outskirts of Nethy was starting to attract a large number of chaffinches on 15 November along with a few twite and goldfinches and a single reed bunting. A brilliant male king eider is also cu
rrently tempting birders up to Burghead where it can be seen just off-shore along with a few scoters and long-tailed ducks. Firwood garden has also seen a big increase in bird numbers recently with frosty weather turning to heavy snow over the last couple of days. As I type and the snow falls heavily, there are 30+ chaffinches, yellowhammers, coal, blue and great tits, the odd crested tit (above), collared doves, woodpigeons, house sparrows, blackbirds, dunnocks, robins, great spotted woodpecker and a couple of pheasants in the garden searching for food. A few rooks appeared yesterday and no doubt the odd sparrowhawk will have whizzed through. Up to 5 red squirrels are also around. Brrr! 
It has been a month dominated one way or another by lichens. Oliver, the Bryophyte apprentice working at Abernethy started it off by finding Lobaria scrobiculata (left growing with green Lungwort) growing on an equally rare hazel tree above the River Nethy. We thought the lichen was new to Abernethy until I checked the map on the NBN website (below left) and was intrigued to find that it had been found close to Oliver’s site in 2001. Strange I thought, because a report bringing together all known lichen records for the reserve had been compiled by Sheila & Les Street in……….. September 2000! A quick email and I find out that Sheila & Les were involved in a survey of lichens in aspen woodland stands in Strathspey in 2001, a year after the comprehensive list was compiled. During the survey with Brian Coppins, they visited a stand of just 25 ancient aspens close to the 
River Nethy on the reserve when the Lobaria was found. A report had been compiled but for some reason, I had never seen/received a copy, so attached to the email was a new copy. The report was mind-blowing, the Lobaria was a minor find compared to what else was found. The survey found 65 species of lichen on the 25 aspen trees with some spectacular finds. Lecanora populicola was thought to be extinct in Britain and hadn’t been recorded for 150 years. Caloplaca flavorubescens, now very rare in Britain was found on a third of the aspens at this site making it the most populated site in the UK for this species. Arthonia patellulata was found here and at a site but a few days earlier at Insh Marshes reserve and was new to Britain but pride of place has to go to Rinodina laevigata the first British record for this species and the first time it had been recorded in Europe outside Fennoscandia and Russia. Despite the small size of this aspen relic and its remoteness from other mature stands, the richness of its lichen flora suggests a very long history of ecological continuity. The priority now is to ensure a few more of the root suckers (young trees) appearing on the site receive protection from deer grazing to ensure the aspen stand survives and increases in size.
of some key lichen supporting trees produced another wee surprise. A strange woven cocoon was found on one of the aspens, covered in what appeared to be moth or butterfly eggs. I circulated the photo to a few experts and the answer came back that it was the cocoon of a vaperour moth. In this species the female moth is flightless so that when she emerges from the chrysalis inside the cocoon she has to stay put until a male moth finds her, mates, and she then lays her eggs on the outside of the cocoon. The female moth had long gone but she had left behind a real work of art. 
ver’s find also inspired me to revisit a steep wooded gorge near Kingussie where I had found lungwort lichens (Lobaria pulmonaria) way back in January whilst looking for green shield-moss capsules. If lungwort was there there was always the possibility of other localised species and perhaps L. scrobiculata, a lichen quite rare this far east, and anyway, an accurate count of the trees with lungwort needed to be made. This gorge (left) doesn’t have too big a stream running through it but the sides are quite steep and a bit slippery particularly when there had been a hard frost the night before. Thankfully Janet only sees the pictures of where I get too! The first patch of lungwort was found growing on an old willow and when it was time to head homeward, six willows had been found with good populations of the lichen. 
dling across the stream to the other side and there in all its bright green livery was Petligera britannica, the one lichen I was hoping would turn up. 
Janet has also been very busy on the Harris tweed craft front with many amazing creations coming from her sewing machine along with cards of local scenes. A full day sale of local crafts at friend Sally’s house in aid of charity in November depleted her stoc
k so another busy period ensued to make more stock for another craft sale at Rothiemurchus in aid of Trees for Life. Craft-work may have to play an important part of her life after Christmas after having had to make a life changing decision recently. Loss of pension rights since going part-time at Grantown Grammar School a couple of years ago means that she will be giving up her job early in the new year, much to the horror of the pupils she supports in the Learning Support Department. So a new year and a new dawn in her life. Watch this space.
I
t has been a busy year at Firwood and we would like to take this opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to all those visitors who have made the journey to Firwood Chalet in Nethybridge. It was nice to welcome those making their first visit and also great to welcome back so many regulars, now friends.
We wish you all a Happy Christmas and send our best wishes for 2010.
Janet & Stewart
Frosty sunset Loch Garten
All photos © Stewart Taylor
Red admirals hung on for the whole month, enjoying a bit of an Indian summer mid-month. The lights were dusted off, charged and attached to the bike again preparing for the misery of pedalling up the road in the dark and descending again at the end of the day in even blacker dark. To assist with lighting the way down the track after work the bike has a set of twin headlamps, a massive 10 watt one for lighting everything up and a 5 watt one for finding the edge of the track and the major potholes. Two lamps also confuses the rare motorist approaching me on my descent – wondering why such a thin car is heading his or her way. I suppose the orange reflectors on the pedals give it away, a thin car, twin headlights and funny orange yo-yos going up and down on either side. It works though, and all the motorists slow down a bit and thankfully dip their headlights. The lighting set was new last winter after my trusty Vistalite set, which had served me well for ten years, final packed up. £70 the new set cost, half the price of the Vistalites of ten years ago, and not quite as good. The clocks went back and the lights were needed for the descent but one was off as much as it was on, thankfully there was the second one. Back to the shop went the faulty one along with the original box which had all the information and receipts inside as proof of purchase. Jenny, at Cyclelife in Aviemore looked at the box and said “You got a bargain there, those lights retail at £110!” Taylor had managed to get two for the price of one. “That’s alright then” I said “cos only one of them is working!” Water during last winter had got into the lamp and caused its failure, so it’s back off to the makers to see why something that sits on a bikes handlebars, out in the open, had packed up so quickly because of damp.
ossibly the longest time I have been away from work since we took the children to France before the eldest started school about 20 years ago. Time off had been planned to be available to help out Ruth following the birth of Archie, and well, it was kind of hard to get back into the work mode! Anyway, looking after Finlay for a few days was great fun and I have to blame Finlay for a major bit of recording work that developed during October. On the day when Finlay was practising his camera skills (see earlier diary and photo left) on an outing to the Craigellachie NNR at Aviemore we found a strange ochre coloured, thin pencil shaped fungus growing in the grass by the path. I remembered seeing one about 15 years ago when the late Peter Orton was at Abernethy recording fungi. A photo emailed to Liz (see http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/planning/inquiry/env_FungiReportPt2BlairtonLinks.pdf for a sample of her excellent work) confirmed that it was indeed Macr
otyphula fistulousus var. fistulosus, the pipe club fungus (right) and that though Roger Philips Fungi guide says it is rare, Liz suggested that it was probably overlooked and under-recorded. This appeared to be possibly the case when returning from a search of one of the bogs by the osprey nest site for Dicranum mosses, I found 3 groups of the fungus growing under birches on the Osprey Centre car park. The next day I popped into four birch woods along the A9 and it was in all of them, and a visit to similar woodland on Tulloch Moor produced the same results. Aviemore, Kingussie, Loch an Eilean visits produced more records and a hop over the boundary into Moray produced what appear to be the first records from that county. Amazing, Liz was right. A brilliant bit of mixed hazel, birch aspen wood in Tulloch produced so many records that I re-visited the site in the hope that a much rare relative M. fistulosus var. contorta might be there, and after half an hour of searching there it was, growing, just as the books say, from a one inch diameter hazel 
twig half buried in the ground (left). Its commoner relative grows in the same way but usually from small twigs of broadleaved trees that are fully buried in the ground, though a few can be found growing from twigs on the surface. Thanks Finlay. A bonus of this search was an amazing meeting with a none too worried roe deer which, for a few camera grabbing seconds, didn't seem to think I was so close. With fieldfares cacking over head I took off my rucksac, got out my camera and managed to take a quick photo of our brief encounter.
The warmer weather mid-October saw many of the late summer dragonflies still on the wing. At the dragonfly viewing deck by the Speyside Way Sympetrum danae the black darter and Aeshna juncea the common hawker were still on the wing on the 17 October and a few days earlier a single Sympetrum nigrescens the Highland darter was regularly resting on the decking hand-rail. The latter has been a rare beast on the reserve 
and something I have searched for in some of its previously recorded haunts. It would appear though, that the Highlands and Islands has lost one of its local species because the Highland darter has been subsumed into the family of Sympetrum striolatum, the common darter. It has been deemed therefore that the Highland darter is not a separate species as decreed by A. E. Gardner way back in 1955, but was, as some Odonata experts had suggested for a while, just a variety of its commoner relative. Whatever, it still remains a rare beast within Abernethy, the red males adding colour to our dragonfly fauna.
It’s October so time for an 800m high outing, not Bynack Mor this year but the Shepherds Hill above Glen More. Major engineering works a couple of years ago by the Forestry Commission created a new path from the Ryvoan Bothy almost to the summit and then from just over the summit back to Glen More. The sheer numbers of people ascending the hill on the old path was causing so much erosion that something had to be done. The old path had never been a maintained / managed path, and followed a few lines that added to the erosion problem, too steep, boggy ground etc, and whilst the new path looks new and a bit of an intrusion on the landscape, with time is should vegetate over and blend more into the hillside. I digress. This trip was to enjoy one of the best views over Abernethy and the surrounding lands from the summit hence the name Shepherds Hill or Meall a’ Bhuachaille and also to have a look for quite a rare lichen for which the hill is one of the main sites. It was a glorious day and on the way up the hill I passed about a dozen people who were making their way down. Messing about taking photos near the top it was amazing how the wind had increased and the temperature had dropped markedly so on went the light-weight gloves, woolly hat and waterproofs. But there it was, Alectoria ochroleuca (Alpine sulphur-tresses) growing out of the wind-clipped vegetation in amongst other commoner Cladonia type lichens (below). This is a lichen that is only found above 750m asl. and is mostly found in the Cairngorms. If you check the distribution map at http://data.nbn.org.uk/gridMap/gridMap.jsp?allDs=1&srchSpKey=NBNSYS0000018168 you will see it is a lichen we share with a site on St. Kilda.
The 18th October was quite a good day, Jensen Button became F1 World Champion and Beth Tweddle became a world champion gymnast and guess who the Prime Minister didn’t ring to say well done?. In the local home Derby in Lancashire it was Blackburn 3 – Burnley 2, 17 years since the two teams last met in the league. Thankfully there were no riots! The following day I fancied a wee wander on one of Abernethy’s smaller but very interesting bogs in the hope of finding a new location for the rare Dircranum bergeri moss. There were a few hummocks of Sphagnum austinii and the straggling runners of berryless cranberry, but no bergeri. It was starting to get a little dark as I left the bog and I have often thought I should devote a bit of time to checking the stumps of felled Norway and sitka spruce along the edge of the bog for the green shield-moss. I had to pass a couple of sitka stumps as I made my way ba
ck to the track and I couldn’t help myself and I bent down to have a quick look. Nothing on the first one but another nearby looked a more likely site, and sure enough there were a couple of capsules from the last growing season. I wouldn’t have mentioned this find but felt I had to due to its significance. In the last diary I mentioned a find by Oliver on a wood ant nest, which, a couple of weeks later, turned out to be the brown shield-moss and not the 100th new site for its close relative for last season. So here, at my feet, was the 100th new site for Abernethy (right) to conclude a year of searching, and on the stump next door was the 101st! Stop! Despite missing out on the 100th site Oliver’s find was however significant and a visit to the site last week showed that there were 18 brown shield-moss capsules on the ant nest, the biggest single group that has been found in the last few decades.
Way back in May I took a photo of a group of rowan trees so heavy in flower that they looked like trees covered in snow. The weather was quite kind at the time and it looked like the bees were getting on well with the job of pollination. By August I had to trim a couple of branches on the rowan in front of the chalet because the weight of the berries was bending the branches so much that you couldn’t see the bird feeders. Amazingly, none of the branches snapped under the weight and I started to look forward to the invasion of thrushes to devour the crop. The first few redwings arrived on 9 October followed on 12th by a few fieldfares but li
ttle happened in the rowans. As Julie and Neil were leaving the chalet on 30 October they reported a few of both species had been eating the berries along with a couple of bullfinches (left), but it wasn’t until a few days later that main invasion occurred. There had been a lot of fieldfares in nearby Tulloch from about the 20th but suddenly on 4 November tens of thousands of fieldfares arrived in the area and within a day the rowan tree in front of Firwood had been stripped bare and a lot of bi
rds were starting to feed in the tree in front of the chalet. Getting my bike from the shed at 7.30am on 5th, 200-300 fieldfares (right), a few redwings and blackbirds erupted from the garden and the cack-cack-cack of fieldfares was everywhere. Getting my bike from the shed at 7.30am on 6th, nothing and the chalet rowan was still quite heavily laden with berries! Even in the wider area few birds were to be found. Why the sudden mass departure, particularly with so much food still available? Even as I type, the chalet rowan has still lots of withering berries.
All photos © Stewart Taylor
apples from a local tree, originally planted by yours truly and a huge crop of Bramley types from the old tree in the garden. The spuds only required a fork to lift them but the apples took a bit of tree climbing and a small amount of tree pruning to gather the crops. In an instant the garden apples were converted into apple pies and the crab apples into apple and rowan jelly. It’s a pity you can’t lick the screen to have a virtual taste 
but the jelly is a real winner, some of which has been served up with the scones for the incoming chalet guests. Mmmmm.
he end of August with more than a thousand bikes and their passengers involved. The drive past at the end of the road lasted for about half an hour as all the bikes made their way to Grantown for a rally. The high street in Grantown was closed to vehicles as the bikes were parked up for all the visitors to see and at about 3pm the bikes and riders started to make their way, in small groups, back to Aviemore for 
the evening dance and music. I had Finlay our grandson with me and he spent most of the afternoon waving to the passing bikes. An amazing spectacle involving quite a few “aging rockers”, lady riders and families on three-wheeled bikes, but probably not the best event when trying to save the planet!
every available day to ensure most areas were visited before the fruiting bodies started to decay and become less easy to identify. It became apparent during the first week that some species were having a good season, particularly Sarcodon glaucopus (greenfoot tooth) a species first recorded in Britain at Abernethy in 1990 by myself and the late Peter Orton. On one track I was finding groups of 10-20 fruiting bodies every few hundred metres but couldn’t find anything at the original 1990 location, now much overgrown with deep heather. The photo left shows the two Sarcodon's found during the survey with S. squamosus left and the rarer S. glaucopus right. It is still a puzzle to me why we didn’t find this fungus before 1990 when it has turned up in many locations in Abernethy since then. An efficient coloniser? The surveys up to 1990 were quite restricted so it could have been missed, but I don’t think so.
n (right). This is the fungus that I found in the woods near to Loch Mallachie in 2007 which turned out to be new to Britain, but when all the stored, dried material was checked, it was found that it had also been recorded in 2003 by Gordon Dickson of the Peter Orton team, in Abernethy Forest, near to Forest Lodge. Having found the probable original site, on the side of a small but steep-sided track-side quarry, there is every chance that I was with the Orton team and that it would have been me scrambling around the quarry that found the original specimen, passing it on to Gordon to check. Amazing. Despite the fungus being very plentiful in the woods by Loch Mallachie in 2007 and 2008, nothing appeared this year, showing the value of carrying out the wide ranging annual survey. The same fungus would also appear to be growing close to the shore of Loch an Eilean, where I first found it in 2007. I just need the experts to check the DNA of the single specimen collected to be certain. What else is there yet to be found in the tooth fungi world?
tions for all recorded species being quite a remarkable total, probably reflecting the value of re-surveying the same area over several years, and the recorder becoming more aware year by year of where species have been recorded previously.
And one final fungus for the diary. On 1st October Oliver, an apprentice Bryologist (Mosses & Liverworts) arrived at Abernethy to spend three months surveying and recording, to increase his knowledge and ID skills. See http://blogs.btcv.org.uk/natural_talent/2009/02/ Baffling Bryophytes. On his first outing he found a tiny green moss capsule on
an ants nest (sound familiar?) which could be the 100th new location for Buxbaumia viridis – the green shield-moss, in Abernethy during the 2008/09 growing season. We just need the capsules to mature a bit more to be certain which of the shield-mosses we are dealing with. I went to photograph the find and noticed three rabbit-dropping sized fungi (right) popping out of the ground next to the ant nest. These turned out to be Cordyceps ophioglossoides, a fungus that grows on a truffle fungus growing under the ground. Two for the price of one!
Walking along the Speyside Way a few weeks ago I felt a faint buzzing coming from under my boot! I stepped back and was quite amazed to see a large horsefly, still alive, on the track. Having had my size 10 boot on it the fly looked a bit dazed and didn’t seem to want to fly away so I quickly got out the camera and took its photo. The fly is 20-25mm long and thankfully doesn’t take blood from humans! Murdo at HBRG http://www.hbrg.org.uk/ looked at the photo and supplied the name Tabanus sudeticus the biggest of our horseflies
On 27 August I had a lone whimbrel passing overhead and on 30 September the first group of whooper swans went trumpeting over the forest. Winter is a-coming. Shining guest ants were found on another 2 wood ant nests putting Abernethy at the top of the league for this rare ant in Highland Region with 5 of the known 9 sites. The pine marten was back vis
iting the squirrel peanut box in the evening gloom as John and Betty were sitting outside the chalet enjoying a glass of wine. The rate of loss of peanuts from the box would hint at the marten being a more regular visitor than we think. A few hours were spent putting together a talk for a “Friends of Abernethy” evening where 60 “Friends” were present following a brilliant day out on the reserve (http://www.rspb.org.uk/supporting/campaigns/abernethy/index.asp ). It was great to meet so many enthusiastic supporters of the reserve.
Sarah’s (a friend's daughter) wedding day went brilliantly – I just need the time to sort the many photos taken at the church. The sun appeared right on cue just as bride and groom exited the church.
The lichen training day also was very enlightening though I am not sure I will ever get my head round sorting out 4 similar looking species on just six inches of a Scots pine branch. I will give it a go though with a bit more training planned in November.
Janet has also been busy with a new venture – beautifully made Harris Tweed cards. So impressed was a local lady that she asked if Janet would be willing to make some of her cards exclusively for Leukaemia Research. This she has done in the three designs as shown: the flowers are based on the Leukaemia Research logo and the wee dog is based on 'Robbie the Westie', mascot of the Badenoch and Strathspey branch. The cards measure 5" square and are blank inside for your own message. They cost £2.95 each. £1.50 from the sale of each card will be donated to Leukaemia Research. If you would like to support the charity please contact Janet at janet.taylor1@tiscali.co.uk.
Enjoy the read
Best wishes from Stewart & Janet
It's been a long season - resting by wood ant nest
All photos © Stewart Taylor
