Indoor work for the early part of the month was completing
data entries for plants recorded during the BSBI/Cairngorms National Park (CNP)
survey covering areas of the Park with few plant records. My commitment covered 5 tetrads (2 x 2km
squares). The enjoyable bit was
wandering and recording, the slightly more tedious bit was entering the
records, but with many happy memories along the way. My five tetrads produced a total of just over
4200 records (records not plant species) with amazing habitats around Spey Dam
producing the most (1400). Overall, this
year’s survey has, so far, produced 27,000 records of 777 species, 152 of which
are on the CNP Rare Plant Register so a brilliant effort by all involved and excellently
organised by BSBI Vice County Recorder Andy Amphlett. Highlights were finding good populations of a
couple of scarce sedges locally, Carex hostiana and Carex pallescens (tawny and
pale sedge) and their Anthracoidea fungi, and getting fixed in my mind that
“molly has hairy knees” when trying to remember which is which of the two
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| 'Molly has hairy knees' |
Holcus grasses regularly encountered.
Once you get your eye in the difference between these two ‘soft’ grasses
is reasonably obvious but if in doubt look down the plant and Yorkshire fog (Holcus
lanatus) is generally softly hairy. Creeping
soft-grass (Holcus mollis) on the other hand is ‘glabrous’ (no hairs) apart
from ‘white beards at the nodes’, the swollen joints along the grasses stem. Hence the schoolboy mnemonic to distinguish
it from Yorkshire fog, ‘molly has hairy knees’!
After a morning of data entry I went for a walk in one of
the local aspen stands following up a request from Brian C to check for a
rarely recorded parasite of the lichen Physconia distorta, a species I occasionally
see on trunks of older aspen trees.
However, there were too many other distractions, the first one being a
large, orange fungus growing in grassy vegetation amongst the aspens. Long ago, when fungus expert Peter Orton used
to make his annual recording visit to Abernethy Forest, these
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| Leccinum aurantiacum |
same aspens were
visited to try and find ‘a large orange boletus’ which Peter had been involved
in describing for the first time, as a species new to science. In this same woodland there could always be
the chance of finding the commoner orange birch bolete (Leccinum versipelle)
but, having been caught out with this one once before when found growing under
aspens, (very black scales on the stem of the fungus), I was fairly certain
that the colours on the ‘stipe’ (stem) this time were pointing to something
different. The stipe however, had been
quite badly attacked by slugs, so not quite as obvious as it should have been. This group of fungi have pores under the cap
rather than gills so to help with identification, a small section of the caps
was removed to take home to check for spores.
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| Sclerophora peronella pinheads |
All the time I was looking at and photographing the fungus several small
flies were landing on it and, I assume, laying eggs in the cap, the fungus
providing a food supply for their larvae once the eggs hatched. If you want to see how many wee larvae live
and grow within a large Boletus fungus, try cutting one open to view the
inside. Having once collected several
ceps/penny buns (Boletus edulis) and popped them into a pan to make mushroom
soup, I was put off ever doing this again by the sheer number of larvae that
came floating to the top of the pan! I
digress. I got back to checking aspens,
briefly, and found a small population of the pinhead lichen Sclerophora
peronella, one of the species ‘missing’ from this particular aspen wood despite
visits by experts and checks of hundreds of aspens
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| Stump puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme) spewing spores |
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| Stump puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme) |
by myself, many with typical
sections of canker decays, the right habitat for the lichen. A large group of puffballs were the next
distraction, growing from the base of a fallen aspen, so more photos
particularly trying to capture one, of the spores being spewed out. Once home this turned out to be,
appropriately, the stump puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme), confirmed by checking
the abundant supply of spores. The
distractions continued and around the base of a standing aspen I could see a
large population of inkcaps, not as big and bold as the lawyers wig in the last
blog, but none the less
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| Coprinopsis atramentaria |
impressive as some of the caps had reached the
deliquescing (inky spore release stage).
There was decay in the aspen base and the common inkcap (Coprinopsis
atramentaria) was popping up in quantity from its typical deadwood
habitat. The big orange fungus turned
out to be not the very rare aspen fungus Leccinum albostipitatum, but its
look-alike Leccinum aurantiacum, confirmed with a little help from expert Liz.
Way back in April, as I was undertaking the aspen ground truthing
work, I came across a group of very big poplars close to the A9 whose catkins
didn’t look right for the tree often just listed as Balsam poplar a species
often found in the Firwood blogs. The
twigs were also covered with the tiny pinhead lichen Phaeocalicium populneum so
I was keen to correctly identify the tree in case it was a
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| Phaeocalicium populneum pinhead |
new host. At the time there were just catkins but none
of the all-important leaves and little of the strong Balsam scent, so, on the
way back from daughter Ruth’s I pulled off the A9 and wandered over to collect
a twig with a few leaves. Little did I
know what I was starting! I was
suspicious back in April that I was dealing with a hybrid black poplar (Populus
x canadensis) but on checking the leaves in front of me I wasn’t too sure. Hybrid black poplar leaves are green on both
sides, lack any hairs and the leaf stem (petiole) is flat in section. It was obviously not that species and as I
looked at twig and leaves I noticed what looked like a bit of twig attached to
a leaf, which I tried to remove. I
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| Peppered moth larva (Biston betularia) |
then
realised the ‘twig’ was alive, and was a big caterpillar mimicking brilliantly
the leaf stems and twigs around it, so more photos to help identify the species
once home before carefully removing it and re-attaching to twigs on a low
branch. The caterpillar turned out (with
the help of Mike) to be the larva of the peppered moth (Biston betularia), if
only the poplar had been as easy to identify.
Confused by the contradicting information on the key features of the
leaves of the Balsam poplar group, I passed the leaves on to BSBI expert Andy,
who responded by providing an identification key. However, leaf shape, presence or absence of
hairs again didn’t always seem to correspond with what I had collected and so
started a month of poplar leaf collecting and with Andy’s logic, measuring and
leaf scanning, a picture started to develop for the species of Balsam poplars
we were seeing. All Balsam poplars have
been introduced and have probably proved popular because of their wonderful
display of heavily scented catkins in spring and with much showier leaves than
our native aspen, Populus tremula. They
are also quite large, fast growing trees.
The books list 4 regular
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| Populus tricocarpa leaf |
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| Two lengths of hairs on leaf stem of Populus 'Balsam Spire' |
species of Balsam poplars, - Eastern
Balsam-poplar (Populus balsamifera) the one always casually listed as Balsam
poplar when found, Western Balsam-poplar (Populus trichocarpa), and two hybrids
Populus 'Balsam Spire' (a hybrid between P. balsamifera and P. trichocarpa) and
Populus x jackii (a hybrid between P. balsamifera and Populus deltoids a hybrid
black poplar). All the trees have their
origins in America or Canada. As Andy
and I collected leaves he worked at linking the leaf sizes, shapes and stem
(petiole) hairs to those described in the books. The best guidance came from the “New Flora of
the British Isles by Clive Stace” who seemed to have followed exactly the same
method as Andy and gradually leaves from the four species of trees listed
earlier were found. Interestingly, the
tree we casually listed previously has turned out to be the rarest. As the correct species became clearer a big
effort was made to re-visit all the sites where our “Balsam poplar” records had
originated whilst collecting leaves from any new sites along the way. Because I had been visiting these trees to
look for the tiny pinhead lichen I had quite a list of locations and the
conversion from Balsam poplar to the correct species, has, so far produced Western
Balsam-poplar x14 locations, Populus 'Balsam Spire'x5, Populus x jackii x3 and Eastern
Balsam-poplar x2. In addition, leaves I
collected from a site near Aviemore could be yet another species, but much more
information on key
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| A Balsam Poplar yet to be identified |
tree and leaf features will be needed to complete the
task. At the end of the day the
identifications were made on the shape of the leaves, whether heart-shaped or
triangular and where the leaf was widest and, possibly less problematic,
whether there were any hairs on the petiole and whether all were short, sparse
or of two different lengths. Possibly
the easiest to identify was Populus x jackii with leaf and petiole so hairy the
whole thing felt downy. Andy also became
quite proficient at identifying the trees from branch angles and shape of
crown. Interestingly, the tiny
Phaeocalicium populneum pinhead lichen that started the whole project has been
found on twigs of at least one of the trees of each species identified, and the
tree that started the whole thing is one of the Western Balsam-poplar records. Phew!
There has also been follow up work with the bladder ferns (Cystopteris
species) following the finds mentioned in the last blog. There are two species, the commoner brittle
bladder fern and the rare Dickie’s bladder fern. At one site where I recorded brittle bladder
fern (Cystopteris fragilis) in the past a check by Andy showed the fern to be
the rarer Dickie’s bladder fern (Cystopteris dickieana).
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| Cystopteris dickieana spores x600 |
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| Cystopteris dickieana spores x1000 oil |
To confirm the correct species a small
sample, with spores (found on the back of the fronds) had been taken home to
check under the low-powered microscope, and when the spores lacked spines and
showed ‘cracks’ on their surface, Andy knew he had the rarer fern. So, the question raised was whether any of my
other brittle bladder sites had been incorrectly identified, and, during October
six sites were re-visited. The ferns are
mostly found on rock outcrops and, to ensure I knew what the Dickie spores
looked like, I visited the site incorrectly named by me in 2011. With most of the ferns now past their best, mostly
brown and drooping, I tapped a few fronds against a glass slide until I could
see some spores had been dislodged and then secured another glass slide on top
with blutac and packed the whole thing in one of my sealable plastic food boxes
to take home. Dickie’s bladder fern
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| Cystopteris fragilis spores x600 |
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| Cystopteris fragilis spores x1000 oil |
is
rare enough to be a protected species and a licence is required to pick or
damage the plant. A Puccinia fungal rust
was also found on the leaves of harebell flowers which has yet to be fully
identified. Back home I put the glass
slide under the microscope and for the first time was able to see Dickie’s
bladder fern spores, spineless and with the black ‘cracks’ on their
surface. One down, six to go. The Bridge of Brown site was confirmed as the
commoner fern but it was the next outing to the Craigmore section of RSPB
Abernethy NNR that produced the first, pleasant surprise. Originally
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| A typical set of bladder fern fronds (Brittle bladder fern) |
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| Bladder fern fronds late in the season |
recorded as brittle bladder fern
the small sample of frond taken home (licence not required because species not
known) turned out to be Dickie’s bladder fern, a new species for the reserve. Lesson to be learned, always take a sample
home to check, when fern first found.
The next three were all found to be the commoner version but the last
site, found during the aspen ground truthing survey earlier in the year
produced one small population of brittle but a slightly bigger population of
Dickie’s, possibly, the first time the two have been found growing on the same
crag. The rarer fern was first found by
Dr George Dickie, the same man who first found the tiny fungus on the
twinflower leaves covered in an earlier blog, so nice to link up again.
Whilst checking out the Bridge of Brown site I noticed quite
a lot of heather burning taking place on the adjacent grouse moor, possibly
with a bit more flame and smoke than the keepers would have liked. Dry weather during October has allowed lots of
heather burning with some moors looking a bit ‘over done’. I know this management isn’t very beneficial
to wildlife, destroying as it does many
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| Muir burn for red grouse |
square kilometres of upland habitat
purely aimed at artificially increasing the number of red grouse available for
shooting, mainly driven grouse shooting.
I’m not against the walked-up form of grouse shooting which supports many
jobs and with benefits to local economies, but to hear that grouse moor
management benefits all sorts of other wildlife including wading birds, just
doesn’t appear true to me when visiting these moors during breeding bird surveys. These ‘benefits’ are supposed to be delivered
because of intensive predator control but again at what costs to wildlife,
particularly our small mammals. The
sheer number of legally set funnel traps (with fen trap inside the cage), is
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| Funnel trap and fire engine |
immense and, in some places, right in your face as I have been seeing by the
road back from Bridge of Brown. I have considered
for a while stopping to photograph one of two traps set right by this road (the
A939 road between Grantown on Spey and Tomintoul) and on this day, when I saw a
fire engine parked by the same road, I just had to stop to take that
photo. The fires seen earlier had been
out of control, and the local fire brigade had been called in to help out! On other outings I have found a dead dipper
in one of these traps on Crown Estate land near the Lecht, and a thrush in one at
a site near Newtonmore where I also saw the biggest numbers of released
red-legged partridges to date.
Having handed over the reins of the Loch Garten butterfly
transect at the end of last season, I was invited to the recorders’ end of
season gathering at Forest Lodge. With
the meeting planned for early afternoon I drove up early so that I could check
a couple of sites for some of the rarer tooth fungi, one of which (Hydnellum
cumulatum) had failed to appear this year at two of its other known sites. At the first ex-quarry, parting the hanging
vegetation confirmed that Hydnellum gracilipes was still there and looking
quite healthy. At the next quarry it
took a lot more searching to find any trace of H. cumulatum, but eventually a
small amount was found hidden behind hanging vegetation rather than on the top
edge of the old quarry. The search at
this site also produced another seldom seen tiny, orange fan-shaped fungus Stereopsis
vitelline, completing a hat-trick of fungi probably not recorded
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| Hydnellum gracilipes |
close together
anywhere else in the UK this year. All
seemed to have gone well on the butterfly transect in what was a cool and
testing recording season. The meeting raised
a few queries about recording protocol which were mostly addressed. Alison’s cakes were also very good! Well done the butterfly transect recorders. Whilst looking for the fungi a tiny insect
caught my eye as it wandered across a plant, a miniature form of a
lobster. Having encountered these
amazing wee insects a couple of times before I realised I was looking at a Pseudo-scorpion,
not a scorpion at all but a member of the arachnida, the same family as
spiders. Despite their small size these
animals do look like a small scorpion, but without a sting in the tail. Amazingly, there are 27 known species of
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| Pseudo-scorpion |
pseudo-scorpions in the UK with 12 of them fairly common. The only way my specimen could be identified
was by going to be checked by an expert, so a name is currently awaited. All this tramping through the deeper
vegetation looking for ‘things’ continues to attract ticks many of which attach
themselves to my body with about ten found on one particularly bad day. Not sure why, but as autumn approaches we
seem to get many more of the bigger, brown variety of this not very welcome
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| Tick horror waiting for victim |
wee
beastie, and these take a little more effort to pull out with finger nails kept
just that little bit longer during the tick season, just for this task. Once again, the location of one removal
started to develop the dreaded red ring and another two week course of Doxycycline,
Lyme disease tablets had to be undertaken.
I should keep a count of the number of ticks removed in a season just to
shock myself!
The visits to rock outcrops to check for bladder ferns also
produced other interesting sights. At several
locations beech ferns (Phegopteris connectilis) have also been present, a
little past their bright-green summer best as they change to a very subtle
shade of very pale green to almost white.
This fern is easily identified by the way the bottom two pair of
‘leaves’ (pinnae) bend down and
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| Pale leaves of beech fern (Phegopteris connectilis) |
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| Frond and sori of lemon-scented fern (Oreopteris limbosperma) |
forward a little from the other leaves. Another common fern in the damper rock
outcrop locations is lemon-scented fern (Oreopteris limbosperma). Initially this fern looks like many of the
other large ferns like male fern but turning it over to check the underside of
the leaves helps to identify it. You
will find all the spore-bearing sori run along the outside edge of the
secondary ‘leaves’ (pinnules) making identification fairly easy. At another rock outcrop it was nice to be
re-acquainted with the orange fungus growing round the stems of a group of
grasses. This is the Choke fungus (Epichloë
typhina) and one thing I noticed for the first time was that the grass stems
with the fungus didn’t have any flower-heads.
On checking sites on the internet I found that the common name is
explaining
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| Choke fungus |
what the fungus does to the grass – it chokes it, leading to the
loss of seed production, hence no flower-heads.
The fungus also makes the grass less susceptible to grazing by
herbivores, yet another mix of symbiotic relationships. There is also a fly involved in ensuring the
fungus is spread around successfully. I
also found out that the fungus might not be E. typhina, as six species of Epichloë
have been recorded in Britain. More
specimen collections needed in the future!
One of the Choke sites was found whilst checking the amazingly
productive green shield-moss site found last year, where
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| Pink feet passing over |
around 150 capsules
were found. This doesn’t appear to be a
good year for capsule production with just 10-20 capsules present this
year. However, about 50 new capsules
were found on a Norway spruce root-plate just a few metres away. Whilst out and about there were lots of
mainly pink-footed geese passing over and towards the end of the month the
first redwings were arriving.
RSPB/Community Ranger Alison also had an amazing count, 63 whooper swans
roosting on Loch Garten, the highest count to date.
Whilst looking after grandsons Finlay and Archie I decided
to take them to see the Glenmore reindeer, not at the reindeer centre but in
the enclosure by the road up to Cairngorm.
Having passed the same enclosure several times this year I had always
seen the reindeer in the area where they are
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| There they are |
fed and where visitors are taken
to see them. No problem then. We parked off the Cairngorm road and spent
the first half an hour messing about climbing on the branches of an ancient but
leaning Scots pine, well Finlay and Archie did!
After descending down to the Allt Mor burn we climbed out on the other
side and eventually arrived at the enclosure with not a reindeer to be seen,
well not within easy viewing distance.
However, looking quite a way up the path a couple of reindeer were
grazing right by the path and close by there were more inside the enclosure
fence. Phew! So, with
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| Success! |
the promise of chocolate biscuits if
we carried on up the path to where the animals were, on we walked. Because these reindeer are used to meeting
visitors the ones outside the fence just carried on grazing as we approached,
and the big snorting male inside the fence seemed determine to try and see off
the couple of males on the outside of the fence. All good fun and as we sat to munch our
biscuits I was a little surprised that the reindeer didn’t wander over to see
if we had some for them.
Whole body scans were also something new during the month
and the nurse wasn’t joking when she said for one of the scans it would be like
going into a building site! But more
about these in future blogs. Also, on
the 24th the first snows appeared on the tops but the month ended
with temperatures in the mid-teens.
Enjoy the read
Stewart and Janet
Grass structures
Dickie’s bladder fern Firwood blog October 2007
Dr George Dickie twinflower and bladder fern Firwood blog
May 2013
Mark Avery’s blog with more information about grouse moors
and hen harriers
Introduction to parts of a fern
Buglife link to pseudo-scorpions
Fungal Records Database of Britain and Ireland (FRDBI)
BSBI – Botanical Society of the British Isles
NBN
Highland Biological Recording Group
and how to join HBRG
 |
| Bonny aspen leaves |
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| Heavy rain at Loch Mallachie |
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| To complete a rainy end - rainbow over Dorback Estate |
Photos © Stewart Taylor
