Beetle Game

In January 2021 I recorded 50 species of beetle...

I twitched a bird and I liked it

Hope my inverts don't mind it.

Lesser Scaup, happily appearing at the not-too-distant Beveridge park in Kirkcaldy just as we were deciding where to go out for a walk. That'll do. Until someone finds a reason to disallow it, that is. Relocated from the day before, where it was still at Kinghorn Loch. Plumage details let you know it's the same individual.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkysc6fYIJE

Isolepis setacea, Bristle Club-rush, in Cullaloe Hills

After a weekend with Seth adding a few new plants to tip me over the 900, we didn't really come into habitat that would work for this small plant, but I did know from Seth's description that the path through the Cullaloe Hills should be perfect.

So it was that, avoiding a bus that was on fire on the way to my dad's, I ended up detoured to that exact spot. I pulled over and took about 45 seconds to add it to NT18, one of the few squares in the country where it's not recorded. Job done. It might have been 30 seconds had I not had to fend off a large, muddy dog, whose owner assured me was friendly. I had to point out that, friendly or not, it was covered in mud that I didn't want and swore at the dog. He got the message and called it away pretty quickly, fortunately. 

NT18 is the "mline" of "Dunfermline"

Possibly the worst field photo of all time, any plant

Circle, Square, Triangle, Wave .. Star, Cone ...

Quickie round the back of the house in the woods to pick up Collared Earthstar (a gimme) and added Psathyrella conopilus (Conical Brittlestem) to the Bay list. Soon be at 300 fungi and 2.5k total species list. Never expected that would be at 2.5k before Cullaloe.

Fungi 2023 - Starting with dessert

This year, as noted, was a good year for plants, but fungi languished, albeit in a relatively high position. Next year I'll aim to push fungi much closer to 1k, but since I'm an impatient kind of guy I thought I'd get going while the getting's good. I plan to make 2k records of 500+ species in NT18 (as per 2022's failed-but-still-successful vascular challenge). I don't see any reason to stick to arbitrary delimiters, so I'll have 14 months at it.

I already recorded several new species in Dalgety Bay and Cullaloe LNR.

Also, full disclosure, somebody casually mentioned that Fife was pretty poorly recorded. Hold my jacket... so this effort is partly dedicated to Dick Peebles of the Weegie fungus group.

Let's start with dessert - Plums & Custard (Tricholomopsis rutilans) from Cullaloe Hills. What a lovely thing.

Best of 2022. So far.

Only some from Fife, inevitably (maybe a best of Fife required), especially given a week in Scilly. Amazing how quickly you can forget things which were a big moment/day at the time.

Algae

Not a category that's ever likely to raise the blood pressure overly, but a handful of seaweeds in Scilly were new, including Thongweed and Eyelashweed

Fungi

A solid bucket of new species were added to the fungi list this year, but the long-awaited bird's-nest fungi are an easy pick as highlights. Both Cyathus olla and striatus were encountered on ELFE (Edinburgh & Lothian Fungus Enthusiasts) forays in autumn.

Fluted B-N, C.striatus, Scone Palace

Field B-N, C.olla, John Muir CP

A special mention to another species from the same foray goes to Earpick fungus, which is a pretty cool species of pine cones.

Lichens

An easy choice here - Teloschistes flavicans (Golden Hair Lichen) from Scilly is plenty scarce enough to be interesting and is also a bit of a looker. In lichen terms.

Bryophytes

No new bryos, though maybe by the end of the year there will be.

Vascular Plants

Where to even begin? A major year for vascular plants, including a big effort on NT18 plants and a trip to Scilly, which inevitably added a smorgasbord of them - 189 new plants in total. I had hoped to break 900 but currently am sitting on 898. Can't say I'm upset about that. See Scilly posts for lots of greenery.

I was excited to see Purple Milk-vetch in Lothian, only to see it at Tentsmuir about 5 days later.

Cnidarians

Compass Jelly and Snakelocks Anemone were long-anticipated additions from Scilly. Neither were hard, but both were very welcome.

Molluscs

I'd hoped for more molluscs from Scilly but in the end only added Black-footed Limpet and a chiton, Acanthochitona crinita. 

Annelid worms

No new annelids in 2022? Surely some mistake...

Sea Spiders

As per all previous years of my existence there were no sea spiders observed during 2022. Hmph.

Platyhelminths

Nope

Arachnids

Steatoda grossa was new to me from from St.Mary's church wall, but not the most exciting. A clear indication of lack of effort on this group.

Myriapods

As if. The one group that never fails to make me feel incompetent! This is actually the first year I've added nothing, though.

Crustaceans

Monty's Crab on Scilly was a good crustacean this year. Almost the only one, though I also added Landhoppers from there, about which I was more excited than it merited probably.

However, there were also these Goose Barnacles ...

Insect: Odonata

No. Maybe one day I'll pay attention. At least there will be plenty to work with. Not adding even one, though, was a bit surprising.

Insect: Orthopteroids

No contest! One of the definite top 10 of the year, which I haven't broken it down to yet.

Insect: Hemipteroids

Better forgotten this year - Common Green Shieldbug?

Insect: Hymenoptera

There were a few, but I probably went backwards on Hymenoptera this year.

Insect: Coleoptera

A surprising 1-2 in early summer were two species of bean weevils, with Bruchidius villosus and then Bruchus rufimanus both additions to the Fife list and neither having any Scottish records on NBN at the moment.

Insect: Diptera

A new Conopid, Myopa buccata, was cause for celebration from St.Ninians quarry edge. One I'd wanted to see for a while.

One of the best things I saw all year was the small dolichopodid Aphrosylus celtiber, which was scuttling around the edge of the beach at Pettycur, the males flashing their silvery palps into the sunshine

Ins: butterflies: 

Insect: moths

In Dalgety Bay a few nice additions including Hypsopygia glaucinalis (Double-barred Tabby), Tawny-barred Angle and Juniper Carpet

Tabby

Tawny-barred Angle

Juniper Carpet

Also finally got a Broad-bordered White and Buff Arches

Could argue that in Fife moths have been one of the best categories of the year.

On Scilly there were inevitably additions, including Privet Hawk Moth at one end of the scale and Yellow V Moth at the other, but lots of other nice things in-between. Not sure I photographed the latter, but it was waaaaay smaller than anticipated.

Echinoderms 

Was nice to finally connect with Cushion Star at Porthcressa; another "easy" one - once you've driven for hours to the bottom end of the country, that is.

Tunicates

Star Ascidian and Lightbulb Sea Squirt were other long anticipated species, but there was also a nice new one at home in Dalgety Bay in the shape of Botrylloides leachii

Lightbulb, Porthcressa

Botrylloides leachii

Fish

Blue Shark was undoubtedly the biggest new fish, but a blue shark being tagged does not make for a pretty picture. None of the hoped-for clingfish appeared in Scilly, so unfinished business there. I did manage also to sneak in poor cod and Lesser Sand Eel to stretch out my meagre fish list. All from Scilly.

Back in Dalgety Bay, Viviparous Blenny was a nice new addition for me and the Bay

Reptiles & Amphibians

No new reptiles or Amphibians

Birds

Bean Goose? Also my first Med Gull in Dalgety Bay, though not new to me or to the Bay - just a new combination

Mammals

No new mammals during 2022, though adding Bottlenose to my Inverkeithing list was alright.

Juniper Carpet in Dalgety Bay

Been a long time since last blog. Overnight a Juniper Carpet made its way into my MV trap. Quite a scarce moth and not seen in Fife for a while. 

Stigmatomeria crassicornis, new to Fife from Cullaloe, March 2019

 This has been languishing on a pin since 2019, waiting for the publication of Peter Chandler's excellent new Fungus Gnats book. A common species across Britain, but as far as I know not recorded in VC85 before.

Stigmatomeria crassicornis

Ruddy Shelduck in Dalgety Bay

Missed this one, sadly. I have a list for Dalgety Bay of 177 bird species. Would be great if it could get up to 200

Video on youtube:

Youtube Video 

Dalgety Bay fishes

 Wow - it's been over a month since any updates.

Last week, when the tides were low I managed to sneak out a couple of lunchtimes and turn over a lot of rocks. The aching hamstrings and worn fingers were worth it, with a couple of new fish for the Bay records. There were a few other new things too. Here's a selection.

Eelpout - a viviparous fish of mostly NE Britain

Green Sea Urchin

Brittlestar and Long-clawed Porcelain

Five-bearded Rockling

Five-bearded Rockling

Velvet Swimming Crab

Scilly, Part IV

 Wednesday, 6th July

On the 6th we decided to venture further into the island, and set off broadly in the direction of a circuit around Porth Hellick, Higher Moor and Holy Vale, with a return down Rocky Hill Road, where we had heard tell of Kangaroo Fern. We must have spent a bit of time in Hugh Town (I think we were lunch shopping), as Tim spotted Musk Storksbill on the side of a bit of rough ground/pavement edge. This completed our Erodium set; a satisfying feeling.

We came across a few plants, and the expected Greater Tussock Sedge in Higher Moor, as well as a few insects, including Rush Veneer. My photos of that are too out of focus to even post. Fortunately we bumped into a man who knew exactly where the Kangaroo Fern was, otherwise we'd probably have walked past it. 

We also had a lot of Rose Chafers, one of which we had seen earlier in the week.

A stand of Grey Alders were being dismantled by some cute Striped Alder Sawfly larvae.

Remarkably, we still had some energy to do an hour of rock pooling in the late afternoon, having been told that the closest pool to the beach is a good spot. It was still open to the sea at this level of the tide, but we found a couple of things, including the much-anticipated Star Ascidian.

Thursday 7th July

Today we decided to go to St.Agnes, though not before we finally got Smaller Treee Mallow, a species that gave us the serious runaround. Having been looking for a Tree Mallow, but a bit smaller, Pete finally bagged it after we had resolved that it was nothing like "a tree mallow". In fact it's a small herbaceous plant. which is probably a Tree Mallow by dint of being a Lavatera, which it isn't any more (spoiler alert - it's a Malva)

St.Agnes - not the most productive, but we caught up with Lampranthus deltoides finally

sand bar

Apparently I didn't take any pics of the nice patch of Yellow-horned Poppy , which is a bit of a shame. Here's some Sea Holly from Gugh instead.

We did visit the fantastically-named Wingletang Down, but to be honest there wasn't much to see there, with all the fancy clovers being apparently long-since over. Everything was dry as a bone into the bargain.

Best of the day for me was Goose Barnacles, attached to the bottom of a buoy near the sand bar.

Then a bit of mothing in the evening again, which also turned up Tubular Water Dropwort. 

Dolicharthia punctalis, a nice SW specialty

A bristletail, as yet unidentified

One of a few rowdy Cockchafers

Friday, 8th July

A last day (almost) to home in on target species with laser-like focus resulted in about a 50% hit rate on our list, with some records clearly having been not-to-be-repeated one-offs. You can see in the above track a failed attempt at what look like they must have been spoil heap plants at the end of the road, followed by a successful attempt on House Holly Fern in Porth Minick. We also managed to jam into a much-awaited Bermuda Buttercup along the road. It was the only one of the trip! Equally we found two plants of Small-flowered catchfly, one of which was still a bit green. The flowering, sadly, was clearly long over.

The weather was horrible throughout - yet somehow we muddled through.

Saturday, 9th July

Saturday morning was going to be all about sorting the luggage to be picked up and then maybe a brief local tour before boarding the ferry.. That's what it was going to be, at least, until I got a message before seven that there was Prickly Stick Insect to be seen across the road! We did have a half hour while our host changed out of his jammies, so luggage was hastily thrown together, breakfast was downed and we set off for a last quick feast of invert loveliness.

Prickly Stick

Privet Hawk

Four-spotted Footman

We set off toward the Garrison to look for a plant in Newman's Battery, which turned out to be a private garden, and not to apparently have the plant anyway. We did, however, manage to catch up with another dew plant - the mysterious, and much less common than we were led to believe, Heart-leaved Iceplant.

And that was that. Two of us gave it an hour up top on the ferry before settling in for a snooze. Pete quickly retrieved his car and was on e road, leaving Tim and I to pick up a few plants that we'd scooped gen from Seth's blog on - Pink-headed Persicaria, Rosemary, Krauss's Clubmoss and Canary Herb-robert were very quickly in the bag. Since my car was in the park and ride right by Guval Church and Tim needed to be back at the bus station it would have been rude not to.

By two the next morning I was safe and sound in bed in the Kingdom of Fife. Had it all been just an elaborate dream? Well, there are (some) photos. Time will tell whether there's enough on the islands to go back for. But then we didn't get sunfish. And I didn't get Wilson's. I reckon it's worth another visit.

And the obvious question? 176 species. So far.