The Balvicar Blog

Today I was at the Seil Island Hall at Ellenabeich where a very exciting project is underway.  The area around the hall is being made into gardens with the help of the BBC's Beechgrove Garden team, and will soon feature on the programme.  There will be a wildlife garden, also flower and vegetable gardens, native hedging and a variety of other features.  All of it will be managed with wildlife in mind, and the results will be closely monitored.  To start off with, I'm surveying the whole site in its present form.  All the species present are being recorded, so that we can observe how they respond to the changes and see which new species move in and old ones move out as the site develops.

Here are a few photos I took while doing the survey.  I only surveyed one long grassy embankment; there is a lot more to do!  The embankment was built long ago with waste from slate quarrying, and has many slates on its surface exposed to the sun.  On a hot day like today these become extremely warm.

Ideal conditions for ants, and they make the most of it.  Many of the slates have colonies of the Black Garden Ant underneath them, like this one with workers and larvae.  Look out for their flying swarms around August.

There are virtually no other invertebrates under these slates.  Perhaps the ants eat them all.  The chunk of slate in the RH pic has a hollow beneath it where a toad lives; the fern is the Black Spleenwort, growing in thin soil over slate on the bank.  This kind of habitat has been colonised by plants typical of natural rock outcrops, such as Wild Thyme, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Herb Robert and English Stonecrop, which all attract bees and butterflies.

Here's a Small Copper butterfly feeding on English Stonecrop flowers, and then resting on a slate to show its underside markings.  Other butterflies seen were Painted Lady, which is currently present in Argyll in large numbers, Orange Tip and Green-veined White.

The flowers on the bank were visited by several Carder Bees (Bombus pascuorum) while I was there.  I noticed other kinds of bumblebees in other parts of the garden but could not tell what they were.

Parts of the bank with bare slate lacking any soil covering have species typical of disturbed ground, such as this Smooth Hawksbeard, much like any other yellow Composite on top, but with a delicate red, white and yellow pattern to the floret undersides.

Sheep's Sorrel is another of the ruderals that take advantage of the bank's bare slaty bits.  The Seil Island Hall is in the background.  The House Sparrow is having a dust bath in the track that runs along the bottom of the bank, which is yet to be made up.

A Silver-ground Carpet moth fluttered over the bank, landing on various leaves, sometimes with its wings half-closed and sometimes keeping them open.

Areas of the bank with deeper soil support grasses and tall herbs, the most conspicuous elements at this time of year being Sweet Vernal-grass, Tall Oat Grass, Red Fescue, Ribwort Plantain, Cowslip (perhaps originally planted) and Nettle.  These pictures show Nettle galled by the fungus Puccinia urticata, and Red Fescue stems ringed with Epichloe festucae, in its white "Neotyphodium" stage, without fruitbodies.  If the fruitbodies form it will turn yellow, like this one (a related species), but E festucae has never yet been known to form fruitbodies in Britain.  Thanks to Stuart Dunlop and Malcolm Storey for help with the identification.

The find of the day was this 11-spot Ladybird, a vice-county first according to the NBN map.  It was not on the bank but on the slaty slope leading down to the water near the Hall entrance.  (Picture is posed, not in situ)

We had fine weather for our midweek recording walk at Kilmartin on Tuesday, and guided by Alan who lives nearby, we walked around the hill Barr Mor, recording in squares NR8399 and NR8499. This route gave us great views of the surrounding countryside and of the Kilmartin valley down to Moine Mhor and the Crinan Canal. Also in the foreground was Kilmartin Castle, which has been restored in recent years.  

As we began the walk a Grasshopper Warbler could heard reeling close to the village and a female Stonechat sat up on a perch nearby.  Cuckoo Flowers were blooming merrily and the Cuckoo itself was heard too. There were huge numbers of Wolf Spiders hunting over the grass, and caterpillars of  both the Garden Tiger and Drinker Moths were quite plentiful and conspicuous.   

One of the highlights was a freshly emerged Emperor Moth which allowed us to approach as close as we wished. Dor Beetles (Geotrupes stercorosus) were also out in numbers, as were the attractive Copse Snails (Arianta arbustorum).  Off to the west was a small gravel pits, where probably two hundred Sand Martin were swirling around the sandbanks.

       
Further ahead a male Stonechat could be seen on a perch with the female close by in a bush.  Climbing Corydalis was present in several places amongst the bracken and one clump had good early flowers, despite having hardly started its climb, which keeps pace with the bracken stalks. As we climbed towards the summit of Barr Mor a Great Spotted Woodpecker was drumming in the distance telling us spring was definitely here.

As we descended back to the village a male Blackcap was singing gloriously, welcoming us back to the village and our lunch at the Kilmartin Hotel.

Carl Farmer & Richard Wesley

This weeks midweek recording walk to Loch nan Ceardach was affected by the rain which, as forecast, got worse as the morning progressed, but we managed to reach the pub before the really heavy stuff came down.  It was too wet to take many photos, however the first one is a bit of a cheat as it shows toads mating in the loch during my quick recce a week earlier, which was on a very fine day. The loch was full of toads on that occasion, but yesterday all we could see were dead ones, probably attacked by Grey Herons. We also found spawn in various places away from water which was probably thrown up by herons or other birds after eating toads that had spawn inside them. Clearly the loch is a major breeding place and this will also attract birds. We did see and hear a Little Grebe on the loch .

Before reaching the loch we had a look round a birch wood with a sprinkling of ash trees, including one half-dead ash that had a rich coating of lichens including Sticta sylvatica, Sticta fuliginosa, Nephroma laevigata and Lobaria pulmonaria, all of which can be seen in Sallie's photo below to the right. There was one puzzling lichen with yellow dots on, which on examination appears to be an elderly Sticta colonised by an unknown yellow (green in good light) powdery species.

The fifth picture shows the cinder fungus that was on a bark less area of the ash, this is Hypoxylon multiforme, the Birch Woodwart, which we previously found on birch at Barnacarry. 90% of its records are on birch, the rest are on a variety of trees including, very infrequently, ash. Also found were three crustose lichens one on a birch tree, Pertusaria amara the bitter wart lichen, (taste it with a wet finger and it should be bitter) and two others on rocks which were identified as Fuscidea cyathoides and Lecidea lithophia.

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The picture below shows the small mushroom growing on sheep dung on the track after we passed the loch, which I think is Panaeolus semiovatus, which we also had on the Ellenabeich walk. This species rejoices in the English names of Dung Roundhead or Egghead Mottlegill, not sure which is worse. You can see the
mottled gills, due to the dark brown spores, in the picture to the right.

The total number of records will be less than on our other walks owing to the weather, but we did get some new species including the easily recognised mosses Ulota phyllantha and Hedwigia stellata.  

Thanks to all who took part!

Carl and Richard

Thanks to everyone who came on yesterday's midweek recording walk in Scammadale. There was a good turnout of nine, and the weather was kind once again. We walked along the River Euchar where there were some fine ash trees with an endless supply of interesting lichens, in fact we were in danger of spending all morning on the first tree. The photos below show Pertusaria pertusa,  which is made up of chunks like dice with various numbers of  dots and close by we discovered Pannaria rubiginosa.

Then we went into some Hazel woodland where we recorded the distribution of Hazel Gloves, the fungus that indicates ancient untouched Atlantic Hazelwoods, which was not previously known from this site. Thanks to everyone's sharp eyes we found a good number of specimens including the stonker shown below which I'm glad to say added a new word to Alan's vocabulary.  Another  fungi discovered was Exidia repanda (Birch Brain Fungus) on a fallen birch twig suspended from a hazel branch,  with a  jelly-like consistency of the familiar Yellow Brain Fungus, but it is less contorted (or perhaps just less brainy? )

We also found Birch Polypore, Hoof Fungus, Pink Curtain Crust,(see below) and Alan discovered some of the green-staining wood fungus Chlorociboria aeruginascens. The best fungal find was some more of the flimsy bracket fungus Plicatura crispa (see below) which had been found previously at Glen Feochan. This fungus has an eastern distribution and had not been recorded this far west at all but seems to be a constituent of Atlantic Hazelwoods  now that it's turned up in two of them. It seems the fungi of these woods have been researched a lot less than the lichens and there must be many more discoveries to be made.

As you'd expect, the Hazel woods had a rich lichen flora dominated by Lobarion lichens, and often three Lobaria species (L pulmonaria, L virens and L scrobiculata) were found growing next to each other, but we didn't find the fourth one, L amplissima.

We had plenty of opportunity to compare the smooth plum tarts of Degelia plumbea (see above) with the crusty ones of Pannaria rubiginosa, as well as with the tartless Degelia atlantica, and the quartet was completed by Pannaria conoplea which also lacks tarts.The final find was a cushion jelly lichen Collema fasciculare (see above) found by Richard. Thanks again to everyone.  Looking forward to the next walk.

 
Carl and Richard

We had a record turnout of nine people today for the midweek recording walk, despite the off-putting weather forecast. We enjoyed a bit of a weather window as the rain wasn't too bad at all, compared to how it was immediately before and after the walk. The wind was pretty strong on the tops, but we found plenty of sheltered places to hunt for things.

In the first part of the walk we saw a lot of Gorse and Hawthorn, the latter was very rich in mosses and lichens (with especially fine examples of Ramalina fastigiata and Melanelia exasperata), but there was very little on the Gorse apart from Yellow Brain Fungus (Tremella mesenterica) and Velvet Shank (Flammulina velutipes), both of which prefer dying or dead stems. We looked at the lichens on the shore including vertical rocks covered with Sea Ivory (Ramalina siliquosa) which in places had been grazed  probably by either land slugs or the Small Periwinkle which lives on the extreme upper shore and can graze in the splash zone.  Another was Dermatocarpon miniatum, a spotty brown lichen that Alan found on rocks by the shore, a good find as it is not one of the more abundant coastal lichens.

The ants found under slates were the Yellow Meadow Ant (Lasius flavus) and the Black Garden Ant (Lasius niger). The sandhoppers were Orchestia gammarellus and  Catherine's centipede was Geophilus easoni.  Sally's beetle was Nebria brevicollis, a ground beetle that's found in any kind of sheltered conditions that are not too wet and Rosy's snails were the Smooth Glass Snail (Aegopinella nitidula).

We then went into an old slate pit which was rich in bryophytes and gave us a few new vascular plants as well. Then we followed a Hawthorn-lined burn  into a mossy Birch wood which didn't have many lichens, suggesting the wood was not very ancient. It did give us Birch Polypore (Piptoporus betulinus) and what I think is Root Rot Fungus(Heterobasidium annosum - to be confirmed). There was a mystery flowering plant here, but not flowering, if you see what I mean - we will have to go back later in the year to find out what it is. There's was also a large woody gall we saw on Rowan which is called Crown Gall and is caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
 

On the way back we passed a couple of Hazels which yielded several Lobarion lichens and Ramalina fraxinea, the fourth, and least common, Ramalina of the day. Just as we were about to leave the square Rosy discovered a spectacular colony of Jew's Ear (Auricularia auricula-judae) on Elder. It's not common this far north as the NBN map shows
http://data.nbn.org.uk/gridMap/gridMap.jsp? allDs=1&srchSpKey=NHMSYS0001475388 . 

On the underside of the branch with the Jew's Ear was a very decrepit bracket fungus turning green with algae.  This was really in too poor condition to identify, but it had one odd feature, black root-like things growing out of some of the pores.  I've asked around about these but so far I have been met with stunned silence.

Thanks to all for coming and spotting so many things.

Carl Farmer

Another Seil Natural History Group visit to this Atlantic hazelwood, accompanied by lichenologists Andy Acton and Anna Griffith, who showed us some of the species that make this such a special habitat.

One reason these humid western hazelwoods are so good for lichens is the high rainfall.  This was in evidence during our visit, so regrettably photos are very few and rather poor.

Often in the reserve you will come upon a group of hazel twigs apparently glued together in mid-air.  This is caused by the Glue Fungus, Hymenochaete corrugata, which forms a sticky surface on a living Hazel twig to catch other twigs as they fall.  The fungus thus gets first chance to feed on the twigs before they can reach the ground where numerous other fungi lie in wait for them.  The Glue Fungus, which is quite common, is itself devoured here by the rare Hazel Gloves fungus, shown in a blurry photo on the right.  Hazel Gloves is confined to ancient uncoppiced Atlantic hazelwoods and is a sign of a rich lichen flora.

The wood is rich in the Lobarion lichen community, of which the Green Lungwort, Lobaria virens, is a prominent member.  Here we see it parasitised by the pink fruitbodies of the fungus Nectriopsis lecanodes.  The lichen has turned brown where affected by the fungus. 

Crustose lichens are also abundant, completely covering the younger Hazel stems.  The one on the right is on Blackthorn, taken on the way out of the wood when the rain eased off a bit.  It is Caloplaca ferruginea

Several scarce species were found including Parmelia testacea and Thelotrema petractoides.  Thanks to Andy and Anna for braving the weather to show us the wonders of the wood.

As we walked down the road to Kilbrandon House and the entrance to Ballachuan Nature Reserve the roadside verges were full of wild flowers. Some of the more common species identified included Red Campion, Common Sorrel, Pignut, Catsear, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Tormentil, Silverweed, Wild Thyme and Foxgloves. In the ditches we also found rarer species such as Ragged Robin, Marsh Cinquefoil and Valerian.

Once into the reserve there were many Heath Spotted Orchids and several of the darker purple Northern Marsh Orchids. Although it was rather cool we soon spotted the first of several Small Heath butterflies and a couple of Common Blues. A few black Chimney Sweeper Moths were also evident low in the grass and rushes. A Sedge Warbler was singing loudly from the ditch on the edge of the reserve and a Stonechat accompanied him chatting away close by.

We were now searching for the rare Marsh Fritillary butterfly which breeds on the reserve and although the conditions were not perfect we did find one specimen which was very obliging and allowed some photography. This is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan species which is in severe decline, except here in Argyll. Its food plant is the Devil's Bit Scabious which is abundant here on Seil.

We left the grassland and headed into the hazel wood in search of more species. We were soon rewarded with a couple of Speckled Wood butterflies which prefer the more shadier conditions of the woodland, but more surprising found another Marsh Fritillary butterfly which again gave good opportunities for photography.

As we emerged from the woodland near the entrance we were lucky not to tread on a male Golden-ringed Dragonfly which was vibrating its wings on the edge of the path. This completed an excellent morning giving our members the chance to observe several rare species.

Website :- http://seilnature.spaces.live.com/

This morning we had a Seil Natural History Group midweek walk to the Toad of Lorn, which is the hill in the picture above.  If you can't see the resemblance to a toad there's no hope for you...

It was a very calm day with the sun more in than out.  There were a lot of Small Heath butterflies about, also a yellow moth with black spots which wouldn't settle long enough for a photo.  We heard a Blackcap singing in the woods on Seil from across the sound.

Here's a view of the islands to the west after gaining a little height on the mainland side of the Clachan Sound.

A Seil Natural History Group visit to the reserve at Ballachuan to look at, and photograph, moths caught in a light trap by Pete Hardy, who had camped there all night.  The previous Tuesday, Pete had given a talk on digital photography to the group.  He is a professional wildlife photographer and his work can be seen at Pete Hardy Images.  There are many inspiring photos there and he also runs photography workshops.  It was a very exciting experience to see all these moths close to (they are very docile early in the morning) and was greatly appreciated by all who attended.

All identifications are by Pete.  There were some that he couldn't name for certain in the time available and these are indicated with terms such as "probably" or "possibly".  The only exception is the Lesser Swallow Prominent which on comparing the photos with the books is clearly that species.

Left: the Early Thorn.  Middle: the Brown Silver-line, which is often seen in the day but must fly by night as well.  It's resting in a different posture to the one I showed 2 days ago, and looks a completely different colour which is probably due to the difficulty of photographing deep into an egg-box.  Right: the Flame Carpet.

The Nut-tree Tussock, which along with the Brown Silver-line was the most numerous species in the trap, and two shots of the Puss Moth.

The Pale-shouldered Brocade and the rather similar Lychnis.

The remarkable Pebble Prominent, whose even more remarkable caterpillar we had back in Aug 2005.  Nice to catch up with the adult moth at last.  The other one is probably the Engrailed.

The Peppered Moth and the Scalloped Hazel.

Two shots of the dazzling Brimstone Moth, and a rather drabber one of unknown identity.

The Lesser Swallow Prominent and a probable Common Wave.

A couple that have previously featured on the site, the White Ermine and the Clouded Border.  The buff form of the White Ermine was also in the trap, but my pics of it deep in its eggbox don't show the buff tinge so I'll leave them out.

And the star of the show, the Poplar Hawkmoth.  I'd never seen anything like this before in my life!

Thanks again to Pete for a momentous moth morning.  We also went for a short walk among the bluebells and looked at the flowers which were so prolific in the woodland including some Early Purple Orchids.  The hazel wood is at its best this time of the year and is a place of supreme beauty and tranquility.

All photos and other content copyright © Carl Farmer

Mon 15 Apr 2008 Seil

A Seil Natural History Group midweek walk on a splendid summer-like day.  Starting and finishing at the Clachan Bridge, we walked through woods and then up the coast on the west side of the very narrow Seil sound, reaching the north-eastern tip of Seil where it is possible to walk across to the mainland at low tide.  We then came down the Puilladobhrain coast on the other side of the peninsula, and then back overland to the Tigh an Truish for lunch and a pint.

A view up the Seil Sound from our starting point.  Seil on the left, mainland on the right.  In the bright sunlight Sea Bootlace was conspicuous in the water from the Clachan Bridge.

Juniper was quite common on the heathy and rocky coastline; it ranged from near-prostrate to almost tree-like.  This specimen at well over 6 ft was the tallest I've seen on the West Coast.  All round the shore Thrift is putting up its pink buds.

Looking back southwards down the Seil Sound to the Clachan Bridge.  During our walk round the peninsula we saw an otter holt, with fresh spraints (but no otters seen) and a Kestrel's nest with the owners flying above.  Two lizards were seen by quick-eyed members of the party, but not by me.  It looks like being a good year for lizards. 

Plants seen in flower for the first time this year were Greater Stitchwort, Buckshorn Plantain and Bugle.  Dog Violets are now out in great numbers.

I fell in love with this whole NE peninsula of Seil, definitely my favourite part of the island so far (but there's a lot of it I haven't seen yet).  This is typical of the views you get on the Puilladobhrain side.

In the afternoon I explored part of the nearby mainland...

Here is Buckshorn Plantain in a natural slate crevice close to the Clachan Bridge on the mainland side.  The slate is angled at about 45 degrees as is common in this area.

The Knotgrass Leaf Beetle (Chrysolina polita) was resting on dead marsh vegetation next to Loch Seil (a mainland freshwater loch).  There were a pair of Mute Swans on the loch.  Also saw the first Green Tiger Beetle of the year.

I then made my way to the Dubh Loch in the hills to the west of Loch Seil and stayed there some time fascinated by the liquid trilling song of the Little Grebe (of which there were at least 3 on the Loch) and the honks and barks of 3 Whooper Swans, which seem to have basically two sounds, one goose-like, the other dog-like, but combine them in an ingenious variety of ways.  These birds are winter visitors and will shortly depart for somewhere more Arctic.  There were also a few Tufted Duck on the loch, but they didn't join in the concert.