Janet was still in Lancashire visiting her mum when our
chalet guests reported that the pink berry-flavour suet cake I’d left out on
the ground had disappeared overnight.
Neighbour Rita had been given two packs of these suet cakes and, like
me, didn’t have the wire framed holder to put them in to hang from a tree
branch, so had been putting one out occasionally on the ground for the
blackbirds and members of the tit family to feast on. Rita kindly let me have one of the packs and
the birds had been enjoying them over many days. For some reason I had left the
pink one on the lawn in front of
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| Badger tracks in snow after visit |
the chalet.
Next morning the whole cake had gone, probably too big for the visiting
pine martens to carry away and not really something the visiting cats would
feast on. Last winter there was evidence
that badgers might have been visiting the wood at the back of the chalet, so
the finger pointed at this being he likely culprit. A couple of nights later at about 9pm I just
happened to check the outside temperature on the Oregon wireless weather
station and was surprised to see two people with torches in the garden! Our chalet guests had been watching the dish
of raisins and peanuts just outside the chalet window in the hope of seeing a
pine marten but instead had seen a badger wander past probably looking for more
suet cakes or having a drink from the birds’ water dish. After it had disappeared into the beech hedge
they quietly ventured out to try and catch another glimpse which is when I just
happened to be checking the temperature!
Right at the end of February I heard what I
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| Welcome back Janet |
thought was mice in the
house cavity wall at 4.30 in the morning and got up to investigate. When I got downstairs I was just in time to
see a badger wandering about on the lawn looking for any left-over bird food,
probably apple stumps thrown out for the blackbirds, but before I could get the
camera out it disappeared off into the wood.
So, quite a nice addition to the garden list but I do get the feeling
that it, or they, are not regular visitors.
On the 3rd Janet arrived back home on the Virgin train from
York to Inverness just in time to say cheerio the next day to our chalet guests
who, despite lots of dedicated watching failed to catch up with a pine marten,
but did add a new species to our
garden list, thank you. The same day saw us experience a slightly
warmer day (+40C) and this produced quite a bit of bird song from
mainly robins, coal and great tits. It
didn’t last and a couple of days later the snow returned and the temperature
plummeted to -70C. Overall
the Strathspey Weather website gave the following information for February:
average minimum and maximum temperature were -3.10C and 4.40C
respectively, so once again another month with a frost just about every night.
My work on the modified fence for a new aspen wood ran
through to mid-month with eight visits needed to add the wires, droppers and
join up some of the broken/damaged wires.
Fencers Davie and Danny were kind enough to let me buy, at a reduced
price, some surplus wood they had to make up the droppers (additional thinner
pieces of wood) which would be used to provide support for wires in
between the
deer height posts they had installed. In
a couple of places new posts that were a bit loose had to be moved and re-installed
where there was a bit of support from the original stock fence. This involved a bit of fun whilst balancing
on a set of step ladders. The last job
was to make a small gate and install it to allow pedestrian access for the folk
planting and tending to the young trees, though I still await delivery and
installation of 300 pieces of lightweight wood to make the fence visible to
flying birds, particularly black grouse and possible capercaillie, the woodland
grouse. This new aspen wood is hugely
important at this location because an existing small stand of old aspens close
by on the RSPB Abernethy Reserve is rapidly dying out as a wood as the old
trees continue to fall over. With
regular snow and frosts few birds have been heard whilst working, probably
linked to the site being 370m (1214') asl.
The main reason for increasing the height of this fence is to exclude
red and roe deer, both species making light work of hopping over the stock
height fence, and the reason why no young trees have become established in the
last ten or so years since it was installed.
Even with most of my wires rolled out and loosely attached to the posts
there were red deer tracks in the snow inside the plot one day.
At the time the fence was completed I made another trip to “The
amazing River Findhorn” from the last blog.
The aspen stand on this visit was quite a way from the others visited
and, when surveyed by the expert bryologist, didn’t have either of the two rare
Orthotrichum mosses. Having left my car
by a minor road I headed down towards the river via a couple of fields and just
below the second field I could see the top of a single, old aspen. This tree took me away from the route I had
thought would get me to the riverside aspens which was just as well because it
was growing at the top of a very steep and rocky slope. Inadvertently it was also heading me towards
one of the most important
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| Lobaria amplissima, dry top and wet below |
lichen finds in this general area. I carefully worked my way around the aspen,
taking care not to slide off down the slope, recording some of the regular
lichens like Degelia plumbea, Lobaria pulmonaria, Nephroma laevigata, a local
rarity Fuscopannaria mediterranea, one of the crustose species, and an almost
white one which had me puzzled for a while.
As I found more a major clue was found that allowed me to provide the
name Lobaria amplissima a lichen given the vernacular name of parchment lichen. The clue came via the dark brown to blackish
coralloid growths, known as cephalodia, on the thallus of the lichen. Once I saw these I knew I was looking at a
species very rare in our area, Lobaria amplissima a species I had only seen at
two sites previously. When dry this
lichen is almost white but when wet it changes to green and to enjoy this
change I nipped over to a small burn, filled one of my collecting boxes and
returned to pour the water over the lichen, watching the colour change
develop. However, this was just the
start. As I looked around from the aspen
I could see a fence running down the steep slope and, on my side of the fence I
could see lots of very old hazels so I had found a safe way down and with what
looked like some interesting hazels to check along the way. As I visited each tree interesting was
obviously the wrong description, phenomenal
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| Fertile Lobaria amplissima (orange 'cups') |
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| A rare group of lichens, Lobaria amplissima (top), Lobaria pulmonaria (bottom) and Pannaria rubiginosa (dark blue middle). |
would be much better as many of the
trees had small to huge populations of the Lobaria amplissima some of which
were fertile. Link these to the big
populations of Lobaria pulmonaria (lungwort) and many of the other lichens
found on the nearby aspens turns these trees into something of national
importance. Populations of this group of
lichens (the Lobarian) are much commoner as you head west and the size of the
L. amplissima population at this location might be the biggest yet found away
from the west of Scotland. Eventually I
dropped down to the river and the aspens but found that many of these were
growing from rocky ground and were mostly inaccessible without a bit of risky
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| Black spleenwort, shiny upper surface top and sori on underside of fern bottom |
scrambling. The rocks though held
populations of black and maidenhair spleenwort ferns (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum
and Asplenium trichomanes respectively) the latter having a population of aphids
which might be Aphis fabae, the black bean aphid. Looking back up the slope towards the hazels
a small, bright green bush caught my eye and, worryingly, looked like
rhododendron! AAGGHHH! Having seen the
huge amount of damage this plant has done by invading a few woods locally but
more so further west, it is not one of my favourites. ”But it has nice flowers” doesn’t really wash
with me, and once established, is a very difficult plant to get rid of and at
huge cost. One to
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| Aphid on underside of maidenhair spleenwort leaf |
investigate and
knowing going up a steep slope is easier than going down it, I made my way
towards the bright green plant/bush.
From just below it I could see that it was a well-established patch of
ivy and whilst not as big a worry as rhododendron, with so many trees locally
carrying important lichen and moss populations, its appearance at this site was
very worrying. On a few adjacent birches
I could see the ivy was starting to spread and if this continued as seen in a
few woods locally, this could be the end of the lichens. Without ropes and at least another person
present I wouldn’t be able to do anything to remove the threat on this visit
but as I pass on details of my finds I will also raise the issue that this is a
threat that needs removing.
Between this visit and the earlier one to aspens further
down the River Findhorn I just had the feeling that there might be more hidden
away around some of the bends so another visit was planned a few days
later. Starting off in the aspens down
river I worked my way towards the hazels/aspens about a mile away. Initially, I made my way through a positive
bit of management by the estate where dense sitka spruce had been cleared back
from the river as now recommended by the Forestry Commission to lessen the
possibility of acidification of river waters.
Native woodland though can be encouraged along riverbanks as a way of
creating natural shade for fish and invertebrates and reducing the possibility
of bank erosion. As I checked out some
river rocks for plants and lichens round the corner I could see the tell-tale
‘punk’ hairstyles of another group of aspens, so my hunch had been right and
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| Leptogium saturninum |
the work for the next few hours would be working my way through the trees
checking as many as possible for lichens and mosses. This was a mixed age aspen stand and though
not as heavily populated as the down-river trees, some of the regular lichens
were present and, once again, a lichen not found in the other stands started to
appear quite regularly - Leptogium saturninum, with the wonderful common name -
bearded jelly-skin lichen. The common
name reflects the way the lichen reacts to wet and dry weather conditions, dark
and grey when dry and swelling a little and slightly shiny when wet. The bearded part of the name is probably linked
to the white “tomentose” hair-like underside of the leaf-like growths. On one aspen trunk I spotted quite a large
moth resting and though I thought I knew its name I took a few photos to
confirm once home that I had found a pale brindled beauty (Phigalia pilosaria)
a moth that in 1974 when living on the Isle of Rum, got me into moth recording
when we found one in our house one evening.
This is an early emerging moth with
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| Pale brindled beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) |
dates across the UK ranging from
January to March. The moth photographed
had to be a male because the females are wingless and the males hunt around on
the trees to find the flightless females to mate with. A species found typically in deciduous woodland
where the caterpillars feed on a variety of tree species. A big hole in the ground had me wondering if
I had found a fox or badger hole so both were listed in my notebook but a few
hundred metres further on I was able to cross out fox and record that there
were quite a few active badger setts with fresh diggings and possible dragging
in bedding material. The badger setts
lead me into an area of ancient hazels but with time running out I decided to
head back to the car and leave these trees for another visit, just in case they
needed lots of time to search just like the others mentioned earlier.
An outing to Aberlour for a light lunch and walk along the
River Spey produced a couple of nice surprises.
In the café a group of people from another table mentioned to the lady
on the till that they were off to try and find some unusual species of
snowdrops and this made me ask the man with the maps if he had received a
recent email from Ian Green the BSBI Vice County recorder for Moray, to which
he replied ‘Yes’. As these are some of
the earliest splashes of colour we see locally as winter eases a little, Ian
had asked for any records to be forwarded to him, particularly of the more
unusual species which may have escaped from gardens into the wider countryside. Alan, the man with the map was off to look
for species that hadn’t been found recently in a few local locations, and one
of
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| Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) single top double below |
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| Snowflake (Leucojum vernum) |
the reasons for our visit to Aberlour was to do something similar but just
recording any snowdrops we managed to come across. Walking down to the river all the snowdrops
we saw were the common species Galanthus nivalis with both single and double
flowered types and this remained the case by the path along the Spey. There were keen fishermen fly-fishing in the
Spey and hazels and alder were showing lots of catkins. We walked towards Craigellachie along the
Speyside Way (ex-railway line) until we reached a short tunnel and with rain
showers looking imminent we turned back towards Aberlour. It was brief, but I said to Janet that I was
sure I had heard a kingfisher, a rare bird in these parts, and as we looked
down towards the river we saw the distinctive shape and colour of a bird
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| Aberlour kingfisher |
zoom
along a small burn running towards the Spey (Lobin’s Pool). Once again, I had forgotten my binoculars so
had to rely on the camera’s zoom to home in on the spot where the bird had
landed and when I zoomed into the photo on the cameras screen, there was the
kingfisher perched on a branch by the Pool.
Knowing where it was I wandered along the path to get a bit closer and
by carefully popping my head above the embankment, I was able to get a couple
of distant, but better photos of the bird.
As we reached the first houses we left the path to make our way onto the
main road through the town and by the track a larger type of snowdrop caught
our eye “That’s a snowflake flower (Leucojum vernum) not a snowdrop” came the ‘expert’ advice
from Janet – which was spot on.
Quite a bit of time was spent putting the information
together on the importance of the Flowerfield orchid site as mentioned last
month but by mid-February I’d done as much as I could, and the finished article
was sent off to the head of conservation at the Cairngorms National Park. As I knew before I started this exercise,
there is nothing to compare with its importance in the UK from the information
available so hopefully CNPA will ensure it remains safe from any development
proposals close by that might pose problems.
Time to make a start with the waxcap paper, which wouldn’t be quite as
simple to prepare but with some amazing information collected by fungus expert
Liz way
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| Lesser butterfly orchid |
back in 2010, I was able to list several important sites. Between 2007 and 2010 CNP paid an ecologist
to visit many agricultural ‘in-bye’ grasslands (mostly rough grasslands used
for winter grazing) throughout a large part of the strath from Newtonmore in
the south-west to just north-east of Grantown on Spey. This was a very basic survey that, as far as
I can get any survey information, entailed visiting fields and ticking boxes to
indicate the condition of the fields and whether orchids and fungi etc were
present. No doubt more data was
collected but so far CNP have failed to find the reports or the specific data
files which makes you wonder why the survey was undertaken in the first
place. If a few positive actions had
been initiated after the survey perhaps local landowners and farmers would have
been made aware of important fields and asked to try and manage them with
important species in mind. As with the
loss of the important ex Boy’s Brigade field in Carrbridge covered in the
October 2017 blog, other potentially important sites will also have been lost
due to agricultural intensification where bits of old fashioned rough grazing
areas will have been ploughed
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| Earth tongue top and Hygrocybe punicea below |
and fertilised to create yet more grass or even
cereal crops. Using some of the CNP
survey information, mainly numbered fields from survey maps, Liz made walk-over
visits to the 35 selected fields during the important October waxcap growing
season, making some important finds.
Across all the sites Liz found 6 species of Clavariaceae - Fairy Clubs,
21 species of Hygrocybe – Waxcaps, 3 species of Entoloma - Pink Gills and 3 species
of Geoglossaceae - Earth Tongues. 14 of
the sites had 10 or more species present, making them important in UK terms
when linked to a single walk-over type survey.
Sadly, somewhere along the way, this information wasn’t passed on to the
Park, mainly because the survey was planned and paid for by another
organisation, whether it would have been acted upon – who knows. In addition to this I extracted all the
waxcap data from my copy of Mapmate and added this to the paper with location
details, numbers of fruiting bodies etc. and early in March this was sent off
to CNP with the suggestion that, as a minimum, the fields surveyed by Liz
should be re-surveyed to see how many survive and how many have been lost. Another very interesting bit of information
was also extracted via this exercise, and this involves a large National Nature
Reserve! During the visits by UK waxcap
and fungus expert Peter Orton to Loch Garten initially, and then the larger
RSPB Abernethy NNR (1982 to 2002), 26 species of Waxcaps and 12 species of
Fairy Clubs were recorded, many being found on grasslands close to the River
Nethy. When these areas were in the land
purchased by RSPB in 1988, deer numbers were very high and
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| Hygrocybe ovina a rare waxcap 'lost' from Abernethy |
there were even
possibly sheep visiting the sites, maintaining heavy grazing on the grassland
areas. Sheep were removed and deer
numbers heavily reduced after 1990 to help natural tree regeneration become
established and, with time, the two main grasslands became rank and overgrown,
making conditions near impossible for these important fungi to grow. So, sites can be lost to ploughing (probably
for ever or a very long time) and also to a lack of grazing, where the grass
needs to be kept short to allow the fungi to fruit, something the old rough
grazing areas were perfectly managed to achieve. If seasonal grazing could be re-established
the waxcaps will return so this data has been passed on to RSPB for
information.
On a frosty but brilliantly sunny day I popped into the
infamous Curr Wood to see if any more damaging felling looked like it was being
planned (no) and also to check a few more Scots pine stumps for the wee stump
lichen (Cladonia botrytes). Looking up,
the tops of the Scots pines looked quite stunning against the deep blue sky though
there remained lack of crossbills, birds that I’ve heard little of during the
winter months. Stumps by the track
covered with lichens failed to provide any records of the stump lichen so I
wandered off track to check stumps in the more open areas of woodland. Quite a lot of work has been undertaken in
this wood, creating chainsawed holes in stumps of felled pines and one or two
that remained free of ice but held a lot of water tempted me to
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| Calicera rufa larva with distinct 'eyebrows' bottom |
check them for
hoverfly larvae. The old pines will
provide natural breeding sites for the rarest of our hoverflies, the pine
hoverfly (Blera fallax), the adult females seeking out trees that look healthy
but have the heart-rot fungus developing within them. The hoverfly manages to find access to this
damp, rotting habitat possibly via broken branches or natural cracks to lay its
eggs and this is where the larvae will live for one to three years, living on
the algae and bacteria created by the water and rotting wood inside the
trees. Creating holes in the stumps of
felled trees, and filling them with small woodchips mimics the natural fungus
processes as the holes fill with rainwater, and the female
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| Blera fallax without 'eyebrows' |
hoverflies are happy
to lay their eggs in some of the holes.
Carefully lifting out a handful of woodchips I was able to see if there
were any larvae present, and sure enough one was found in the first stump I
checked. Under my hand-lens this looked
like the less rare hoverfly Calicera rufa with distinct eyebrow-like growths on
the front of its head and a short breathing tube at the rear. A good record but not the species I was
hoping for. Close by another prepared
stump was well filled with water and in this one a different larva was found. This
time I was fairly happy that this was Blera, no ‘eyebrows’ and with a distinct
breathing tube about the same length as its body. Photos taken it was returned to the
water-filled hole and I continued looking for the stump lichen but without
success. However, a new location was
found for a tiny patch of twinflower so overall, a very worthwhile visit.
Through the latter part of February a new phrase came into
being and after days of dire warning it delivered exactly what it inferred –
“The beast from the east”. On the 26th
February we had a pleasant day by the River Nairn, walking from Nairn to Howford
Bridge and back. As I was checking the
species of snowdrops Janet saw a honeybee visiting others, the first in
2018. My
notebook says calm, bright and
sunny for the day, 00C at 8am and 5-60C during our
walk. On the 27th we awoke to
about 2” of snow but when the sun came out most of it melted. During the night 27-28th the
temperature dropped to -60C and there was light snow falling at 8am
and by 4pm there was about 6” resulting in the first serious snow clearing of
the winter. By 11pm the temperature was
down at -100C which ensured very little additional snow. It was the days that followed that lived up
to the new phrase but in this part of the UK we got off lightly when compared
to the snowy south.
Enjoy the read.
Stewart and Janet
Pale brindled beauty information
Firwood blog October 2017
Strathspey Weather
Parkswatch
Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group
Mapmate recording database
Fungal Records Database of Britain and Ireland (FRDBI)
BSBI – Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland
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| A spiders egg sac |
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| Snowy Cairngorms |
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| Oystercatcher arrival - thank goodness |
Photos © Stewart Taylor
