Bad news for Purple hairstreaks in Kirkcaldy since the storm. Two large oaks toppled and one with most of its top ripped off in Ravenscraig Park
About half an hour of searching revealed only one PH egg, but I must have searched about 0.001% or less of the available branch tips.
Also not great news for bins, though a Beech took this one out
Not exactly famous, but I finally wandered along them when I noticed that, unbelievably, I hadn't ever walked along the bottom of them before. They were pretty bare, as quite exposed I suppose, and not covered in stuff, but what was there was interesting. Not really the best time of year to assess either, really though. Plenty of seepages, and a definite calcareous flavour means they might actually turn up something peculiar.
As it was, they did turn up a new moss and a new fern on this visit in Sea Spleenwort. As far as I know there are no prior Dalgety Bay records.
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| Sea Spleenwort |
There was a small shelf of Wild Garlic, which I've only ever seen a couple of bits of in other locations.
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| Allium vineale |
The calcareous nature of the cliff face was revealed in frequent tufts of the moss Eucladium verticillatum, with its characteristic white lower portions. It has toothed and hyaline lower "wings". Sadly, I don't think I captured any of the tufts.
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| Eucladium |
To make up the plant additions of the day I found a half dozen rosettes of Bristly Oxtongue, which isn't particularly frequent around here.
This is definitely a stretch that will see some grilling in the coming year.
(Comparitive Plant Ecology lists pH for A.vineale, Weld and Bristly Oxtongue as 6.5,7.0,7.0 respecitvely, so maybe it's more neutral)
Though I may also have forgotten Sweet Chestnut, in which case 391st!
From the same damp meadow as yesterday's Blue Shieldbug. today's new Fife species is from the admirably alien-looking Delphacidae.
A bug I wanted to see for a long time, I didn't expect to sweep one during a lunchtime walk. But that's how it often happens. Happy days!
Two feature posts from outside the county which have been delayed and delayed due to eyeballs-out pursuit of the ever-bigger list. Actually it'll be one more because I just decided this needs split into botanical and non-botanical.
First up is a fantastic, and fantastically productive, weekend on the Isle of Skye from June.
In short, this was mostly spent bothering the montane flora of the Trotternish Ridge with the expert guidance of locals Neil and Stephen, the also expert but more neophyte Seth and the far-more-expert-than-me-but-displaced-from-botanical-comfort-zone southern Pete.
It's been a long time coming and lacks narrative, but these are at least finally the pictures!
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| Alpine Clubmoss |
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| Flowering Sibbaldia |
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| Alpine Meadow-rue |
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| Moonwort |
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| Moss Campion |
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| A precipitous bum-shuffle to see Cyphel that I was already sat beside |
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| The Cyphel |
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| Juncus triglumis |
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| Dwarf Cudweed |
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| Pete and Seth searching for pipewort |
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| A different category - Bronze Pirri-pirri Bur |
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| Lesser Knotweed |
Two hours of MV lighting up Dalgety Bay last night produced a nice three Small Yellow Wave, new to me and without many records in the county. There were other records last night too though so maybe it's on the up.
This is the third outing for the new genny and the second for my new MV setup from Paul Batty. With a funnel from the brewing shop and a light shop bits it worked a treat in my heath trap box and the chopped off bit of the funnel proved enough for a Poplar Hawk to slide in - no vanes? no problem.
£2 funnel from online brewing shop (exactly as used in WatDon heath traps but no rain shield brackets), white ceiling spider to hold in place in funnel, and an 8" shade holder to protect the bulb. May later hold vanes, though it works without
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Inevitably ....
