An email at the start of June asked if I would like to visit
some more aspen mapping sites because a few of them had still to be visited
mainly due to commitments not being honoured.
And so, three days were spent checking out the red dots on the last few
aspen ground truthing maps, ensuring that the next phase of the project could
be started. This, I hoped, would see key
bodies and organisations getting together to identify important stands of trees
to ensure their future by getting new trees established on the sites mainly by
natural regeneration. Planting could
also be considered to create new stands possibly linking some of the existing
important stands. This will not be easy
and will probably require money being made available to cover the cost of a
rolling programme of protecting groups of trees from grazing pressures over
possibly a couple of decades. The need
is also urgent in many of the stands (I have to call them stands because few
can, currently, be called woods) because the current trees are ancient and in
most of the stands that I visited to map, there are no new trees becoming
established. This doesn’t just apply to
aspens, few woods locally have any semblance of new saplings becoming
established. All the locations were
close to Grantown on Spey and most introduced me to stands of aspens that I
didn’t know about providing a few additional records of lungwort lichen and a
few plants and mosses. Five days later
the completed maps were returned to
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| Puccinia festucae on honeysuckle leaf |
project co-ordinator Andy, and I will need
to guarantee we move on to a positive next step following the massive effort
that went into site visits, to ensure the future of our aspens and the
important flora and fauna they support.
Visiting one site, I came across some well-established honeysuckle and
ever since my work with the wee black fungi growing on twinflower (Linnaea
borealis) leaves, I have been aware that a relative of one of the fungi lives
on honeysuckle leaves, so most bushes get a cursory glance whilst passing. This particular bush did have something
growing on its leaves, but the colour was yellow rather than black but worth
taking home to check anyway. This turned
out to be Puccinia festucae with about 50 records in UK (FRDBI). A little further on though, something dark
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| Kabatia periclymeni on honeysuckle leaf |
on
several leaves caught my eye: pale brown patches with black spots in the pale
area, could this be the fungus I’d been looking for? Again, a sample went home with me but, a
little disappointingly, turned out to be Kabatia periclymeni. Not sure why I was disappointed as there are
only 23 records currently in the above database. More of the yellow one turned up in the
Firwood garden and within days, Murdo (HBRG) had found the dark one in his
garden! Obviously, we are back in the
area of few folk looking and probably both species much under-recorded. Roll on to the end of June and
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| Fiddleneck (Amsinckia micrantha) |
Janet and
myself paid a visit to Howford Bridge near Nairn and after bacon butties, cake
and coffee at the plant nursery, we walked along the path back to Howford
Bridge. A plant by the road had us
scratching our heads but with the help of expert Andy we arrived at the amazing
name of ‘fiddleneck’ (Amsinckia micrantha), so called because the curl of the
stem bearing the flowers resembles a fiddle.
The path narrowed as it climbed over a rocky knoll and I noticed a
honeysuckle bush and this time the
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| Lasiobotrys lonicera on honeysuckle leaf |
leaf spots were black, and pimply and
probably the fungus I had been looking for.
Sure enough, it turned out to be Lasiobotrys lonicera the one that
Martyn at Kew had said to look out for.
Potentially, this is a rarer fungus than the other two with just eight UK
records and currently classed as Vulnerable / D2 (Red Data List, Evans et al.
2006). June though is a bit early for
the fungus to be ‘mature’ and I will have to wait until late July or August for
a return visit to collect another specimen to see the spores. Four of the current records are from
Scotland. The current specimen has
disappeared off to the Kew collection.
Thank you honeysuckle.
Early in June I attended another farewell gathering at
Forest Lodge (RSPB Abernethy) to join with about 40 other friends and
colleagues to say thanks and best wishes for the future to Richard Thaxton as
he departs from the Society to pursue other challenges. Richard was one of my winter contract wardens
in the early years of the fledgling Abernethy Forest NNR (the smaller Loch
Garten Reserve)
and for about the last fifteen years has been the mainstay at
the Osprey Centre and Manager of the Loch Garten section. The gathering was attended by several other
RSPB (now) staff members who spent time as the summer Osprey Centre Warden
along with staff from the wider sections of the Society. I must be getting old and bailed out at about
10.30pm leaving the rest to party on until the early hours! Richard was a
hugely faithful and conscientious work colleague who will be sadly missed by
staff, Osprey Volunteers and visitors alike.
Now, what about that unpronounceable name in the blog
title? Hammerschmidtia ferruginea
thankfully, condenses down to the aspen hoverfly, one of the rarer species
dependant on aspen trees. Not young
trees, not old trees, but those trees that have reached the end of their lives
and fallen over. It is a saproxylic
hoverfly, an insect that depends on mainly fallen deadwood for part of its
lifecycle. This means that aspens which
fall over whether due to old age or via gales or heavy snow, need to be
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| Aspen hoverfly (Hammerschmidtia ferruginea) |
left
in-situ to help maintain the habitat required by the hoverfly. When the aspen falls over the decay process
starts and during the four or five years after the tree falls the action of
fungi and bacteria working away under the bark, creates a sort of sticky ‘soup’
and it is into this habitat/environment that the adult females lay their
eggs. The eggs hatch, and the larvae
live in this ‘soup’ for one to two years before emerging as adults to go
through the mating and egg laying process once again. I have visited, casually, many fallen aspens
during the flight period (mid-June to mid-July), looking for the hoverfly but
without luck. Photos had been sent to
the experts (mainly Ellie Rotheray – see the Research Project report at the end
of the blog) over the years to check whether I had seen the hoverfly but all
with negative replies. However, this
year, Ellie’s dad Graham, one of the UKs top diptera experts, had been visiting
the aspen hoverfly woods and reported a lot of larvae in one ancient tree
that
had fallen a couple of years ago. This
tree also happened to be one of the important pinhead lichen trees, so was well
known to me. Knowing a tree with
hoverflies due to emerge is very helpful and after local expert Hayley let me
know she had seen the first ones (I’d made two unsuccessful earlier visits), I
popped in the next day, late in the afternoon, to see my first aspen hoverfly. Male hoverflies protect small areas of the
log for their females (territories) and the females wander about the bark on
the log checking for small openings through which to access the ‘soup’ with
their eggs. On my visit I photographed
flies just wandering about and others which were obvious females,
dipping their
ovipositors (egg-laying tube) into the holes in the bark to lay their
eggs. Provided I didn’t move too quickly
the hoverflies accepted my presence and just carried on with business as usual. It was only as I left, both cards in my
camera full (738 photos in raw and basic!) that I remembered my camera was also
capable of taking video so next day, with the sun shining, I returned to the
log and spent an hour and a half videoing the females egg laying (sadly, not worth viewing full screen). A real honour to catch up with the hoverfly
at last and to watch, at close quarters, the females depositing their eggs A rare hoverfly requiring a rare habitat,
hopefully the end product of the recent mapping project will help it well into
the future.
June is also the month when orchids come to the fore, with
the annual count of the Flowerfield field undertaken near the end of the
month. However, checking whilst driving
past, and in conversation with the owners of the field, Jane and Jeremy, it was
looking like the flowers were going to be late
 |
| One of the affected lesser butterfly orchids |
this year. Overall, June in this part of the world has
been cold, not too wet, but with winds that continually blew from a northerly
direction. Even on sunny days the wind
remained cool and on days of sunshine and clear skies, night-time temperatures
dipped very low, so low that on the morning of 15th the garden
thermometer read -0.50C ensuring there would have been a ground
frost. This was apparent when I visited
Jane and Jeremy, and a walk around part of the field showed stunted lesser
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| Twayblade |
butterfly orchids, many with brown flowers (wind?) and some brown and bent
over, probably as a result of the frost.
With such affects it was decided to delay the count until the first week
of July at the earliest. Other flowers
though were counted. The twayblades by
the Nethybridge gun-club shooting grounds again produced five lots of leaves
but no flowers, but a wee marker was installed to
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| Lesser twayblade |
show their location for the
shoot on the last Sunday of the month.
Near where the aspen hoverfly was photographed is another twayblade site
(a rare plant around here) the plants first being found during an aspen
hoverfly training day several years ago.
A count on 18th found 81 plants with about half with flower
spikes. A count was also made of its
smaller cousin, lesser twayblade at a regular site near Loch Garten where about
200 flowers were seen.
The second visit was made to the potential Osmia inermis
site near Blair Atholl to install the second set of fifty ceramic plant pot
saucers with five saucers being installed at ten locations across the potential
site. A small red/pink plant at the
first location had us scratching our heads until Murdo shouted “rue-leaved
saxifrage” a plant I should have remembered from our Yorkshire holiday. Green spleenwort fern was one I was hoping to
see and it was found in a few sites on the limestone and a
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| Green spleenwort (Asplenium viride) |
hovering moth
visiting bird’s-foot trefoil flowers was a fast-flying humming-bird hawk-moth. There were lots of the small purple Pyrausta
ostrinalis micro-moths and the limestone had a good population of the trefoil
coming into flower – hopefully a sign that all could be well for the wee
bee. Three times one of the team shouted
“small bee” raising the possibility that the Osmia was present but none could
be caught to check despite lots of running around. It was a warm, sunny day, one of the bees
requirements, so it was fingers crossed.
By mid-afternoon all the saucers had been installed and we made our way
back down the hill to the car. The warm
weather was due to last for a few
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| The Osmia site |
more days and, inspired by the possibility of
the Osmia bee being on the wing, I arranged to make a return trip a few days
later. The aim would be to just wander
slowly across the site checking patches of b-f trefoil and standing and waiting
by the plant to see what turned up. The
humming-bird hawk-moth was still whizzing around and a few plants were listed
as I wandered. Hairy rockcress (Arabis hirsuta)
was a nice find along with young quaking grass plants, more rue-leaved
saxifrage, and the ferns wall rue and maidenhair spleenwort. A large day-flying moth kept whizzing by and
I had to
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| Northern oak eggar |
guess initially at northern oak eggar and as the breeze got stronger I
was able to confirm by finding one resting on the rocks. Having arrived on site at about 10am, I had
the best part of the day for bee activity but with a strengthening wind turning
things a bit cooler I was giving up hope by 3pm. Momentarily a small bee landed close by and
as it moved to another flower I could see a characteristic orange “bum” and
more in hope than anything else, I landed my butterfly net on the spot where I
had seen it land. Quite often wee bees
disappear down into the vegetation when you do this but this bee was quite
obliging and flew up into the top of the net where, very carefully, I managed
to get it into my small plastic pot. It
looked like the Osmia if possibly a little bigger and, not wanting to collect
for checking by Murdo I got my camera ready and very carefully removed the
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| Almost but probably Andrena lapponica |
pot
lid whilst at the same time covering the top of the pot with my camera
lens. Round and round went the bee but
always resting out of view of the macro-lens but eventually it obliged and I
managed to get a couple of reasonable photos for the experts to see. The bee was then released and it was fingers
crossed time. Murdo’s email came
straight to the point “your bee isn’t Osmia but probably Andrena
lapponica”! Is this the bee we saw when
installing the saucers? If the weather
warms up I might be tempted to make another visit if only to see what
butterflies might be at the site but if I don’t make it we will have to wait
until the autumn when the saucers will be checked for any Osmia larval cells. 20 years and still searching!
However, 108 years on and we can claim one success. This find links to something that appeared in
the blog in November 2014 when I visited a path near Cairngorm to try and find
patches of bog bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum).
A list which had appeared on the new Lost and Found Project website produced
by Kew had mentioned that a fungus, Sporomega degenerans, had been recorded
just once in the UK on this mainly montane plant in 1907 in Perthshire. My visit in 2014 did find the
 |
| Bog bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) |
plant and there
was something very like the fungus on some of the dead twigs but, being so late
in the year the spores had all dispersed or, a parasite had got into the fungus
and destroyed them. Information from
1907 was scarce so there wasn’t a full date of when found so I made an
assumption that if the fungus was “past it” by October, it must produce new
fruiting bodies and spores fairly early in the year. A French website (AscoFrance) also suggested
that June would be a good month to look.
So, mid-month I made a return trip to my bog bilberry plants on the
lower slopes of Cairngorm in the hope that something new might have
developed. It started to rain as I set
off up the path but
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| Dead Vaccinium stems, Sporomega degenerans (black spots) & grey 'blobs' of parasite left end of twig |
that was to my advantage in that the elliptical slit
comprising the fungus (apothecia) would be “open” making the grey spore bearing
mass inside (hymenium) more visible. Last
year the fungus was found on dead twigs still attached to live twigs on the
plants visited, but, being fairly early in the season for this montane plants
the leaves were only just starting to appear making the plant much more
difficult to locate. One plant though
was quite well established when found in 2014 and it was to this one that I
headed first. Parting the live twigs I
could see that several dead looking twigs appeared to be quite red and on some
of these I could see 1mm long black edged slits identifying what I was hoping
would be the fungus. A few photos were
taken whilst dodging the rain and whilst taking these I could see some
pale-grey coloured “blobs” also on the twigs.
Time to get home and visit the microscope.
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| Sporomega degenerans & grey spore mass |
Under the microscope everything looked right
when compared to the AscoFrance website and it looked like the fungus had been
found once again. The one thing I
couldn’t find was the grey blobs visible in my photograph a bit of a mystery
until my specimens arrived at Kew. Brian
and Paul where quite happy that we had the right fungus – Sporomega degenerans
– and Brian went one step further by finding that many of the fungal fruiting
bodies had been parasitised by another fungus!
When he wet an infected fungus out popped a blob of greyish jelly, the
parasite. The parasite has yet to be
fully named so one for the future. Would
the Sporomega fungus be fairly common? A
few
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| Sporomega degenerans asci & 'curly' spore |
days later I wandered out towards the Chalamain Gap, an area that had
produced other good records of species associated with bog bilberry. Nearly all good clumps of the plant had dead
twigs, reddish in colour, and with populations of the fungus. Something similar happen when visiting the
plant on the moors in Abernethy Forest NNR so it looks like it could be in most
places where the plant occurs. Paul from
Kew is in Shetland as I type so it will be interesting to hear if it turns up
there. The trip to the Chalamain Gap
area also saw me making the first recording trip for a new round of BSBI tetrad
surveys (2 x 2km squares) but more about that next month.
All around the place we are seeing juvenile birds from this
breeding season, a good result considering the cold weather. The garden has had two broods of robins, a
brood of dunnocks, families of house sparrows on the feeders and the tail-less female
blackbird appeared with her family of youngsters
 |
| Tail-less blackbird & young |
demanding food. Swallows locally still seem to be feeding
young as do the house martins under the eaves of the house at the end of the road. My random BTO house martin recording square
near Grantown was visited mid-month and initially looks like the only suitable
buildings will have a few occupied nests, to be confirmed by the July visit. The mornings are getting quieter with just
the odd
 |
| House sparrow feeding young |
snippet of blackbird song although there is more of a noise if the pine
martens visit the squirrel feeders. A
new plant for the Caigngorms National Park (CNP) turned up in the new village
pond – water plantain (Alisma plantago-aquatica) – perhaps a by-product of the
disturbance of creating the pond or possibly introduced? Another plant I’d not seen before came via a
find by local Recorder
 |
| Water plantain |
Andy – goldilocks – a member of the buttercup
family. It was growing in slightly
lime-rich ground up near the TV mast on Laggan Hill, an area with quite a few
old lime quarries. Without being warned
it was a plant I would have missed, probably dismissing as just another
buttercup, but once found the leaves are quite different, hopefully a feature
that will remain in my head in case I
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| Goldilocks (Ranunculus auricomus) |
encounter any more. A bonus was several plants of wood cranesbill
and the giveaway red and white tops of alpine bistort, the red bits being
bulbils and the white tops the flowers.
Sadly, we have also had the 2015 summer solstice and currently we are
losing four minutes of daylight per day.
Roll on summer!
That’s it for another month, enjoy the read
Stewart and Janet
Fungal Records Database of Britain and Ireland (FRDBI)
Aspen Hoverfly Research Project
Description of a saproxylic insect species
Dr Graham Rotheray
Osmia inermis
Sporomega degenerans fungus
BSBI – Botanical Society of the British Isles
NBN
Highland Biological Recording Group
and how to join HBRG
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| Janet's brilliant bee-rich garden |
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| "You looking at me!" |
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| "Where have all the waders, flowers and bees gone?" |
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| Nethybridge, Cairngorms, 1st June 2015 |
Photos © Stewart Taylor
