Happy New Year.
My diary entry for the 1st
January 2014 says “not a bad day” it was fairly calm, bright and no frost, in
fact there were only 16 nights with frost according to the local weather station
during the whole of January, none reaching double digits. It has been showery but with a total of just
60mm of rain, it hasn’t been that wet either, and the snow shown on the TV
weather maps hasn’t really affected the majority of the low ground in
this part
of Scotland. Higher up is a different
story with deep snow and strong winds creating dangerous conditions on
mountain tops, allowing big cornices to develop above the cliffs. The cut off seems to be about 600-800 metres,
below that level we have had sleet and rain, above that level it has been cold
enough for snow to fall. How different
to the south of
England. It has been sad to watch and hard to believe
that as one area of low pressure has run into the south-west corner of England,
another one has been waiting in the
 |
| Willow buds |
wings, some depositing a month’s-worth
of rain in just a few days. The weather
here has been so kind of late that lots of birds are singing, snowdrops are
appearing en mass and some trees are advancing to the stage of bud-burst. Well done all those folk who are trying their
best to help people who are experiencing flooding and shame on Eric Pickles MP
for his stupid comments about those in the front line. Perhaps he should loan himself out as a
sandbag!
An email early in January, from the Warden
at RSPB Insh Marshes, informed me that several old aspens had come down in the
December gales, a few of which were in an area important for rare lichens. Making up gates for daughter Ruth’s new abode
put me in the right area for a visit so after a session of measuring and wood
sorting, I drove round to the reserve to see what habitat alterations had taken
place. I knew the grid references for
the first group of trees was in an area rich in unusual lichens and the first tree
I came across
 |
The pinhead lichen
Sclerophora pallida |
had lost half its crown, the large detached limb now lying on the
ground creating plenty of habitat for the aspen hoverfly (Hammerschmidtia
ferruginea) in a year or two’s time.
This tree I knew was important for the tiny pinhead lichen Sclerophora
pallida and with most of the population established around the bottom couple of
metres of the tree, it will safe for the foreseeable future. The falling limb though had caught another
small, insignificant looking aspen, making it lean even more than previously. This small tree has, for years, looked like
it was ready to give up the ghost and fall over. Quite a bit of the tree is dead but despite
this, it is home to a huge population of the same pinhead lichen. Pete, the Warden, had cut some of the smaller
branches from the fallen limb in the hope that the small tree would spring back
up, but this hadn’t happened so it may have a limited life-span into the
future. Nature in action so it will be
interesting to see what happens. An
adjacent tree had also lost a big section of its crown and whilst being rich in
common lichens it wasn’t one of the key trees at this location. A little further away a whole tree had blown
over and from earlier survey work undertaken by Brian and Sandy Coppins was also
known not to be one of the key lichen trees.
However, the top branches of the tree had come to rest up against one of
the key trees (with populations of Fuscopannaria ignoblis, Lobaria scrobiculata
& Pannaria conoplea)
 |
| The Collema tree 2013 |
and a decision on what to do about them would await a
visit by Brian in a couple of weeks time.
The blown over tree had also caused a problem for a small adjacent
aspen, the two trees when upright having their roots entwined under the
ground. When the gale toppled the big tree
it also caused the edge of the root plate of the smaller tree to lift, making
the already leaning tree lean even further, another key lichen aspen with a
life
 |
| The Collema tree after gale |
threatening lean. The leaning tree
has a big population of the pinhead lichen but is also the only tree locally as
home to the “gelatinous” lichen Collema nigrescens. This same lichen appeared in a Firwood Blog
in April 2013 comparing photos of when first found in January 2010 with its
condition in February 2013. Two other
aspens had also blown over in another stand about half a mile away so I went to
locate them to save time hunting around when Brian visited. Compared to the aspens at the first site
these trees had much smoother bark and probably belonged to a different “clone”
(trees in different areas being unique to that stand, originating from the same
parent via root suckers - see link below for a partial explanation) and with so
much smooth bark the lichen Lecanora populicola was likely to be very common
meaning its parasitic lichen
 |
| The smoothed barked fallen aspen |
friend Candelariella superdistans would also be
there. Sure enough, the first branch
checked found both species, and in quantity.
Both species have appeared in earlier blogs, but the populations of both
species on this one tree has to be the biggest I have found to date. Brian Coppins
was keen to visit these fallen trees with the opportunity to search the upper
branches rather than just the first couple of metres of the trunk of a standing
tree and we managed to spend a day there at the end of the month. With so many unusual lichens
 |
Lecanora populicola (white) & Candelariella superdistans
(pale yellow) on bark of fallen aspen |
present on the
lower aspen trunks it was hoped that more, or other unusual species might be
found higher up. Some finds were made
that required time with the microscope before identification could be
confirmed, but less was found than possibly expected. However, we were able to remove the problem
branches in contact with the key tree above, and suggestions made about
trialling “propping” of one or two of the leaning trees to try and ensure that
some of the roots kept the tree alive for as long as possible. Having been “stressed” by the disturbance
some of the aspen might produce flowers (a rare event in aspens) but this was
 |
| Orthotrichum obtusifolium |
something members of the Highland Aspen Group would monitor to gain more information
on flowering and seed production by our local aspens. I pointed a moss out to Brian that might be
quite rare, it looked short-leaved, lacked capsules and lead me to think it was
one of the Orthotrichum mosses, probably O. obtusifolium. This was later confirmed by local expert Andy
though it was possible this tree and its population was known about. It was just nice to know I had spotted the moss
and that the characteristics of a few were starting to stick in my increasingly
leaky brain!
On my earlier visit the first tree I
checked also had a tiny fungus growing amongst the mosses on the bark close to
the pinhead lichens. To me it looked
like a Mycena so photos were taken along with a couple of fruiting bodies to
check at home. The same fungus was seen
on some of the other aspens checked, a tiny
 |
Mycena hiemalis & note
the pinhead lichen! |
fungus 20mm tall, growing out in
the open, in the coldest months of the years
In fact the two fruiting bodies collected for checking, were actually
frozen! Whether too young or affected by
being frozen, spores were very difficult to find but by working my way through
the on-line guide to Norwegian Mycenas, I settled on Mycena olida but thought
it time to contact local expert Ern. Ern
was the man I turned to in November 2012 when I found a bonny, pink Mycena
growing on decaying oak leaves. I managed
to get very good photos in the field at the time of the find and the spores etc
pointed to Mycena smithiana, but when trying to dry the specimens something
happened and they turned to mush so Ern had to make the identification from the
photo evidence. He did though ask that I
try and re-find the fungus in 2013 so that he could be 100% happy with the
identification. I searched and searched
until just after Christmas when a few fruiting bodies were found and, whilst
fresh, transported to Ern on 2 January when the species was confirmed. Phew!
So, photos were sent of my find on the Insh aspen and, because
 |
| Ern collecting Mycena sample |
Ern lives
near the reserve, he said he would be happy to see the fungus in situ and would
be able to collect a fresh specimen to check. Believe it or not, a day after Ern had a
cataract operation, we met up and visited the aspen and new specimens were
collected. A few days later the name of
Mycena hiemalis (easily confused with M. olida) arrived via email with a
request that if I found any more “Mycena” like fungi, he would be happy to
check. Over the next few days whilst
searching old willows, alder and rowan for “other” things, I spied a few
Mycenas which were sent off asap to Ern.
The willow and rowan specimens turned out to be Mycena speirea, and the
one from the old alder, Mycena pseudocorticola.
Because most of the fungus recording in Abernethy with Peter Orton took
place in September these finds from so late in the year turned out to be new to
the Abernethy list.
Mid-month brother John said that he had the
possibility of a lift up to Firwood from a friend who was on his way to do
maintenance work at RAF Lossiemouth, and would be able to stay for just three
nights with the possibility of two days to wander the area. The one full day out proved to be quite
interesting. A couple of
 |
| Xylaria carpophila on beechmast |
weeks earlier
Janet and myself had ventured into woodland surrounding Castle Grant. This impressive castle, dating from the
around the 15th century became the main residence of the Clan Grants,
one of whom was responsible for planning and building the town of Grantown on
Spey. The policy woodlands surrounding
the castle look old enough to have originated from about the same time as the
castle with ancient elms, beeches, Scots pines, willows and sycamores. As we walked it dawned on me that I hadn’t
really explored some of these ancient trees and thought this would be a good
area to visit whilst John was with us. The
two of us drove to Grantown, parked the car by the entrance to the main drive,
complete with gate house, and made our way up the drive with its now out of
control verge-side rhododendron bushes.
We
 |
| Castle Grant |
visited a recently found patch of twinflower and as the avenue of
trees turned into mainly beech trees we made a quick search amongst the fallen
leaves for the beechmast candlesnuff fungus which featured last month. Several were found quite quickly and one,
with fungus, a split mast and nut still inside, just had to be
photographed. We checked large,
wind-blown conifers, unsuccessfully for the green shield moss, but did find the
ideal spot for good photos of the castle.
Turning off the main track to the castle we came across the most amazing
ancient beech tree, half of which had fallen down. Decaying branches were covered in candlesnuff
fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon) the bigger version of the beechmast version, but one
branch had something quite different, a big population of a white, jelly,
brain-like fungus, a bit of which was taken for checking. It turned out to be the white brain fungus or
Exidia thuretiana, a species regularly found on decaying beech. We stopped for lunch on a bridge over a small
burn and while John made contact with home, I wandered off to look at a big
willow by the burn. Bingo, the side of
the tree was covered with lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria) as was an adjacent ash
tree. By the track was a monster redwood
 |
| White brain fungus - Exidia thuretiana |
(
Sequoiadendron giganteum) joined with a couple of giant firs (big upright
cones) and a Douglas fir (cones with little 3-lobed bracts protruding from the
scales), all very impressive. Another
bridge was reached and this time an elm displayed a big population of lungwort
lichen. A branch on the ground had
another puzzling fungus growing from it, black and leafy in places and
disc-shaped cushion-like in others, so photos were taken for checking
later. This one turned out to be witches’
butter (
Exidia glandulosa) a strange looking
 |
| Witches' butter - Exidia glandulosa |
fungus with an even stranger
common name as it was thought that witches and trolls scattered this fungus
about when they milked cows during the night!
John’s outing was going very well and it got even better when I spotted
the tell-tale signs of runner-like stems and leaves of twinflower (
Linnaea
borealis) popping out of the track-side vegetation. Leaving the Castle Grant woodland we followed
the Cromdale road for a while before heading to return to the car via the
community owned Anagach Woods. As we got
on to the track I noticed the tops of several fence posts were covered in a
bright green moss, always worth checking,
 |
John checking the Dicranum tauracum
moss on top of fence post |
and on this occasion it turned out to
be fragile fork-moss (
Dicranum tauracum) a species often found on old fence
posts and fallen trees. Interestingly,
this was a moss I had pointed out to John once before, he remembered that if
you stroke a wet finger across the top of the moss, the tips of the leaves
break off and stick to your finger –hence “fragile”. As I looked closer I could see several capsules
sticking out above the leaves and I thought this might be unusual. Several
photos were taken for checking later. As
we got to the gate accessing the wood Juncus tenuis was found by a puddle and
on the track-side bank old flower heads of heath cudweed (
Gnaphalium
sylvaticum) were seen and counted and the location of this fast declining
 |
Fragile forked-moss (Dicranum tauracum)
& mystery capsules |
plant
noted. Having wandered along at my “stop
and search” pace it was now starting to get dark so we walked slightly quicker
getting back to the car around 5pm, well satisfied with our finds. Back home out came the moss handbook and the
entry for fragile fork-moss stated that capsules were “very rare” so I fired
off my photos to the experts and was warned that another moss could be growing
within the Dicranum cushion. First thing next morning I loaded up camera,
tripod and tweezers and headed back to the mossy fence posts. Photos taken, I carefully tried to part the
moss cushion to see if another moss was present but couldn’t find anything. Out
came the tweezers and a small samplewas pulled out complete with a capsule
 |
Microscope photo of Dicranoweisia cirrata
(left) & Dicranum tauracum (right) |
which, when checked with the hand-lens seemed to show the capsule belonged to
the Dicranum moss. Could this be one of
the few times this moss was to be found fertile in the
UK? Back home and the tiny piece of moss was put
under the microscope and, as it was teased apart it became apparent that the
capsule belonged to another moss, later identified as the common
pincushion-moss (
Dicranoweisia cirrata) thanks to Andy. A couple of days later and I made another
visit to the Castle Grant woodland and realised that on the previous visit with
John we had missed a clump of pendulous sedge (
Carex pendula) right by the
entrance track (probably a garden escape) and a wider search of the big old
trees produced more unusual lichens, so a bit more time will be needed to
complete the wider search.
The blackcap put in another appearance but
hasn’t been seen since the 6 January. Up
to 8 blackbirds regularly fight over the big fat-cakes I put out and 16 species
of birds were counted on RSPB Big Bird Count weekend including two visits by
the sparrowhawk, and the first siskins of the year appeared on the day. A search for the jackdaw and rook roost
failed to find any signs now that they seemed to have moved on from the usual
Loch Pityoulish site. Some friends
visiting though did report a big evening gathering near
 |
| Last photo of blackcap |
Loch Insh, but whether
that is just too far for the birds from the Grantown area I’m not too
sure. An Iceland gull was spotted by Richard
in one of the wet fields below Nethybridge so I made two evening visits to
Lochs Garten and Mallachie to see if it was coming in with the other gulls to
the evening roost. All very
confusing! Loch Garten has been the
traditional roost site so I stood there waiting and a dozen big gulls turned
up, departed towards Loch Mallachie and within 15 minutes had returned.They
hardly settled before they headed off to Mallachie again – so I followed. I got to Mallachie to find several hundred
gulls roosting
 |
| Too dark to see - Loch Mallachie |
along the edge of the reeds but it was now too dark to see whether
the Iceland
gull was present. The following night I
checked Loch Garten in passing but headed straight to Mallachie. 4pm and a dozen big gulls dropped in,
perfect, and with the scope and tripod ready I awaited the arrival of the
others. Wrong. The dozen birds headed off toward
Garten! More gulls started to appear,
circling around and heading off to Garten.
It was too late to move so I stayed put.
4.45pm and more than a hundred gulls arrived, circled, a few landed but
took off again to join the other gulls flying overhead but then flying towards
Boat of Garten before returning to circle.
It was now too dark to see much so I left, not knowing where the gulls
roosted that night. So no current record
for Iceland
gulls roosting on the reserve, last record November 1997 and only other record
by me in April 1988.
Ahead of some planned woodland management,
thinning or removal of sitka and Norway
spruces plantation (see last Blog) I had been visiting the sites to look for
green shield moss capsules so that any areas with the moss could be
avoided. On one visit I wandered through
a stand of huge sitkas but was tempted out by a big stand of willow bushes,
probably Salix cinerea or hybrid. I made
several checks for the elusive large willow aphid one of the HBRG target
species but without luck, but many of the dead twigs were covered with another
of species of jelly fungus Exidia recisa.
The willow stand was quite extensive so I followed it uphill towards
another stand of spruce trees. As I
popped out of one of the willow bushes an
 |
| Wood small-reed |
amazing sight appeared before me a
big, dense stand of something that looks like Phragmites reed but has a much
more beautiful flower-head, even in winter.
A piece was popped onto a tube to check but I knew I was looking at the
best Abernethy Reserve stand of wood
small-reed (another brilliant name and much easier to remember than Calamagrostis
epigejos) and only the fifth location within the reserve. This isn’t a common plant in this part of the
world so it was nice to add another location to the Highland
distribution map. After leaving the
willows and this group of spruces – no green shield moss capsules found – I
made my way to the main stand of Norway spruces where the big population of
green shield moss capsules was
 |
| Grey coral fungus (Clavulina cinerea) |
found last month and on the way came across one
of the winter coral fungi called grey coral (Clavulina cinerea) growing from
the side of an old track. It looked too fat and dumpy to be that fungus when
found but a photo of fungus and spores allowed Liz to confirm the
identification. Two more locations were
found for the moss, though all that was visible was the remains of last seasons
capsules, but sites worth checking again if we get a wetter summer and autumn
than 2013 when this species struggled. A
later visit with Reserve Ecologist Andy confirmed that this area of spruce will
receive minimal management with probably occasional trees being felled to
provide potential habitat for the moss.
Checking more willows on my way back to the car provided a nice
surprise. On one of the small branches a
tiny white spot caught my eye,
 |
| Scale insects on willow branch |
particularly as it seemed to have a golden coloured
tip to one end of the oval shape. A
scale insect came to mind so out came the trusty Nikon D3100 again and after a
bit of fun with balancing and securing the GorillaPod tripod to some of the
branches, a decent enough photo was obtained to sent to Stephen to check and
hopefully provide a name. “I think you
sent me a photo of this insect once before” came the reply, and sure enough it
was the same species found on the side of an aspen tree a year earlier and was named
as Chionaspis salicis.
And finally, one to finish with. The jelly fungi have featured quite a bit
this month indicating that winter is the time to see them. These fungi rely on rain to allow them to
function properly and they are best looked for after a spell of wet
weather. Without rain many almost
disappear or are very difficult to find as they dehydrate. This was demonstrated really well when I
brought a small section of the white brain (Exidia thuretiana) home to check. I knew I had left the piece of bark with
fungus in one of my petri dishes with something else I had collected that day
(one of the pinheads) and I could find the pinheads but no sign of the
jelly! However, there was a tiny piece
of bark and when checked under the microscope I could see the grey, dehydrated
fungus almost invisible stuck to the bark.
The next series of photos show what happened when I re-wet the fungus,
from first to last taking 1 hour! Enjoy
seeing something few folk will have witnessed.
 |
| Exidia thuretiana just wetted |
 |
| Exidia thuretiana No 2 at 8 minutes |
 |
| No 3 at 16 minutes |
 |
| No 4 at 41 minutes |
 |
| No 5 at 60 minutes - amazing! |
Enjoy the read and best wishes for 2014.
Stewart and Janet
Strathspey weather
Aspen hoverfly
Aspen clone partly explained here
Highland Aspen Group
Norwegian Mycenas – an excellent ID guide
Castle Grant
Highland Biological Recording Group
and how to join HBRG
Scale insect Chionaspis salicis, scroll
down page for biology of insect
