It was a beautifully crisp, clear morning today. I (briefly) contemplated doing some painting, then headed out to see what I could find. It was still far too windy to be worth attempting any whale spotting, so I headed towards the woods at Glenbernisdale with a mind to checking for lichens. Options are easy if you're a pan-species lister.
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| The road out of Greshornish looking far more lovely than it usually does! |
I parked up and entered the woods at Glenbernisdale, brand new notebook in hand, merrily scribbling the names of various plants, lichens and invertebrates as I encountered them. Not too many invertebrates, to be fair. I found a few millipedes and a snail beneath one log, a couple of beetles and more millipedes beneath another, but mostly I was gawping at the lichens and bryophytes, thinking that one day I really will come here and do them justice. For now, I yearticked the ones I knew, puzzled over the ones I used to know and just admired the ones I had no clue about. So yeah, a lot of gawping and admiring, not an awful lot of identifying.
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| Parmeliella thriptophylla overgrowing mosses |
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| Sticta canariensis amongst mosses |
The usual Atlantic Rainforest cohort of Lobaria, Pannaria, Pectenia, Ricasolia, Normandina and Sticta were all duly noted and greeted. I tried to find the miniature liverwort Microlejeunea ulicina, but had to make do with rather a lot of Radula complanata instead. I'll come back another day and try again, it's ordinarily quite easy to find here. Parmeliella thriptophylla was a new lichen for me, my 160th apparently and my first lifer of the year. Lots of work required if I ever want to reach two hundred lichens though.
I began slowly heading back towards the hotel. A quick call into Brookside added the fungus Phyllosticta cordylines to the tally, seen growing on the living leaves of a Cordyline Palm in someone's garden. No I'm not counting the palm itself, but yes I am counting the fungus growing on it. Go figure :) Other additions to the tally whilst there included Coal Tit, Treecreeper, Honeysuckle and Sorbaria sorbifolia amongst others.
Edinbane was the next port of call where I made a point of visiting the sprawling patches of False Londonpride naturalised in woodland there. It's the only place I've ever seen it, though Londonpride itself occurs quite widely across parts of Skye. I suspect it may be overlooked, mistaken for it's near cousin.
Finally I headed towards Dunvegan, stopping to explore the quarry there for an hour or so. Happily the quarry offered a degree of protection from the wind, though some of the icy scum I was walking over gave way and saw me plunge my foot into ankle-deep freezing cold water. Fab. The quarry itself can be a profitable hunting ground, it's been used as a dumping ground by the Dunvegan Estate. Lots of old appliances, rusty bed springs and falling apart machinery, but a weird selection of plants too. I scooped a few specialities, White-stemmed Bramble, a few Cotoneasters, another Chilean Hard-fern to complement yesterday's colony. I also spotted a lovely little clump of Polypodium interjectum, I've already done the microscopy to confirm my initial ID
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| Intermediate Polypody. Just too cute! |
Back indoors I totted up the ol' yearlist, put it online and realised I was just 5 species short of 200. Ghostie was obviously paying attention for within minutes he messaged me in apocalyptic outrage, how the heck had I added so many yearticks when I was supposed to be indoors painting guestrooms. Aah well, the thing is...
I later nipped outside with my headtorch, hoping to secure the necessary five extra species. I jammed a couple of liverworts on a fallen log, plus some Turkeytail Fungus next to them. Then I wandered down to the rocks just above the shore where Sea Slater and Sea Bristletail quickly fell, along with English Stonecrop and Black Spleenwort. Boom, that's the 200 barrier smashed. An hour later I was itching for just a couple more species (PSL-addict that I am) and figured I could easily find a woodlouse or two. Yep, beneath a log were two Porcellio scaber and then I lifted a board of ply that has been laying in the grass for the past week or so. There were three small flies, which quickly ended up in a glass tube. Two were spear-winged flies of the genus Lonchoptera, but I had no idea what the third was. It looked quite leggy and had patterned wings, that's all I could tell for now. My fingers were cold, I headed inside and out of the wind.
Popping the flies beneath my microscope, I realised one of the Lonchoptera was a male, the genital capsule is important in the ID process, so I hinged it out and pinned it in position to dry. One for tomorrow (edit: they were both Lonchoptera lutea). The mystery fly turned out to be a spectacular little thing, all 3.5mm or so of it. I thought it was a very tiny Dolichopodidae, but it turned out to be one of the Empididae, which maybe makes more sense. I didn't recognise it as anything I'd seen before, and merrily began keying it through to family, then genus and then to species. A rewarding time at the microscope, I really should make myself do this more often. Some keys are a complete pig to understand and navigate, others are vague and ambiguous, leaving you uncertain that you've chosen the correct route. The keys I used worked like an absolute dream, and this key was the one that got me straight to species, no messing around, no fuss, it just worked well.
Popping the flies beneath my microscope, I realised one of the Lonchoptera was a male, the genital capsule is important in the ID process, so I hinged it out and pinned it in position to dry. One for tomorrow (edit: they were both Lonchoptera lutea). The mystery fly turned out to be a spectacular little thing, all 3.5mm or so of it. I thought it was a very tiny Dolichopodidae, but it turned out to be one of the Empididae, which maybe makes more sense. I didn't recognise it as anything I'd seen before, and merrily began keying it through to family, then genus and then to species. A rewarding time at the microscope, I really should make myself do this more often. Some keys are a complete pig to understand and navigate, others are vague and ambiguous, leaving you uncertain that you've chosen the correct route. The keys I used worked like an absolute dream, and this key was the one that got me straight to species, no messing around, no fuss, it just worked well.
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| Neck joins head at a level halfway up the eyes - a feature in the keys |
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| A distinct gap between the cheeks and the jowls - another feature in the keys |
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| A few wispy hairs at the rear edge of the mesopleuron - an important feature in the key |
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| 2 or 3 large spines at the base of the fore femora - check! |
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| Wing clouds above the cross-veins, yep! |
All of these features, plus a whole lot more, all led me to a confident identification of Clinocera fontinalis, a small fly that is supposed to be active in the spring to autumn, yet has records for all months of the year according to the NBN charts. Mine was certainly active up until last week, because that's when the maintenance guy left the sheet of ply laying on the grass. Happily, there are several Skye records for the species too. I hate it when you key something only to discover that the nearest population is 500 miles to the south, time to key it again!
So, a new lichen and a new fly. Two lifers in the first two days of the year. Not sure how long I'll be able to keep that average up for, but if the weather is good tomorrow, I think I'll maybe skip work once more. The boss did say to me "you're free to come and go as you like". Not sure how far I can push that.
This made me smile as I began inputting my yearlist onto the website. Help conservation huh?
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| Phew, I nearly gave away Ghostie's real name there! He'd never have talked to me again |
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