I've had a cracking couple of days off work this week. Yesterday the weather was bright, if rather chilly, and I took myself across to Inverness for the day, the furthest afield I've been since last October!
An hour or so inside the Inverness Botanic Garden was disappointing. They've cleared away the Pyracantha hedge meaning the colony of Phyllonorycter leucographella, not at all a common moth in the county, has been destroyed. Stepping inside the hothouse I soon noticed a distinct lack of spiders, just a couple of Uloborus plumipes where there used to be hundreds, no Pholcus phalangioides where there used to be dozens, one Parasteatoda tepidariorum in an empty web where there used to be several guarding their egg sacs. I spotted one ant that I lost before I could identify it and the branches with Saissetia oleae scale insects have been removed. None of the 'bug traps' hanging discretely from various branches held anything inside as far as I could see. Operation Death to All Inverts seems to have been a hugely successful undertaking, rather sadly.
The one saving grace was a very heavy infestation of Florida Red Scale on an Olive tree. This is a species I've not seen before, it's a very distinctive-looking thing. I brought a leaf back with me in order to view them more closely beneath my microscope, which is when I found something unexpected.
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| Florida Red Scale Chrysomphalus aonidum |
The rounded shield, which kind of looks like a limpet shell (and also very much like a nipple...) sits over the scale insect, but isn't actually attached to it. It's very easy to flip them over to reveal the yellow scale insect beneath. Like so
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| Not entirely sure which way up it is. Head end to the left...I think |
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| Note the big hole where 'something' has chewed its way out... |
These next two images are pretty rubbish, but what you're looking at is the empty husk of a scale insect body in the upper image and the empty pupa of a chalcid wasp in the lower image.
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| Flipped over shield revealing the torn open husk of a scale insect |
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| Empty pupa of a chalcid wasp. The black areas are meconium |
Florida Red Scale can be a serious pest of many fruit trees, so serious that efforts have been made to control populations by introducing chalcid wasps of the genus Aphytis. The female wasp inserts an egg through the shield and onto the scale insect, the egg hatches and the grub devours the unfortunate scale. I think this must be what has happened here, the staff have introduced parasitic wasps as a biocontrol agent. Last year a member of staff told me they utilise various types of biocontrol in the hothouse including nematodes, mites and ladybirds amongst others. And maybe high concentrations of insecticide from time to time.
These scale insects have been introduced to the hothouse accidentally, living, breeding and thriving as unexpected guests. I'm happy to count them on my PSL. But what about the chalcid wasps? I didn't see any, so it's a purely hypothetical question, but what if they were to become fully established and self-supporting too..?
Whilst in the Inverness area I wandered a few alleyways and derelict bits of land, slowly adding plant species to my 2026 Yearlist, before heading off to some more natural sites. Campanula poscharskyana in an Inverness alleyway, Red-berried Elder in Culloden Woods and White Butterbur at Urquhart Bay Woods were about the only plants I can't find locally. On the way back to Skye I called in at Morvich and duly saw Saltmarsh Sedge Carex salina, currently known from a mere handful of sites in Britain, none of them on Skye. Four Feral Goats in Glen Shiel were my first of the year.
Today was also lovely and sunny, and quite a bit warmer too. I headed south, aiming for the Sleat Peninsular. It's a fabulous part of the island, typically warmer than the rest of Skye. I called in to Leitr Fura, the best spot I know for reptiles locally. The sky was blue, but frost still coated the shadowed areas. I suddenly felt a little foolish looking for reptiles in February. So I wandered off into the woods, waiting for the day to warm up a bit more. I found an animal track running through the trees and down a hill, decided to follow it and came face to face with a large patch of Wilson's Filmy-fern on a mossy tree trunk. Nice!
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| One day (hopefully) I'll find Tunbridge Filmy-fern on Skye too |
Wilson's Filmy-fern is one of those plants that I tend to find in shady, humid situations, typically amongst deep mosses on a large boulder or tree stump, usually somewhere that is sheltered from the wind. But sometimes, like today, it's just sat there in an open woodland exposed to the elements and doing very well for itself too. I've yet to find Tunbridge Filmy-fern up here, it's far scarcer than is Wilson's. I'll maybe need to do a targeted search for it later in the season. Perhaps Stephen will give me a heads up of where to try.
The day was finally warming up by the time I returned to the carpark area, time to check for reptiles! A heavily overgrown stone wall is used as a hibernaculum by Slow Worms and Adders. In fact, every Adder I've ever seen on Skye has been on or beside this wall. I took a very slow wander around the perimeter and, to my surprise, successfully found a Slow Worm sunning itself. So there you go, you can find reptiles in February on Skye after all!
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| Slow Worm desperately trying to soak up some warmth |
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| Discus rotundatus. I'm surprised it's taken me until now to find one for the year |
Quitting Leitr Fura, I headed along the road to Ord. This road is an experience that everybody should enjoy at least once in their life. At one point I had to push a cow with my front bumper whilst hoping anther one wasn't about to kick my driver's door in, then had to reverse up what may as well be a vertical section of road seeing as the oncoming driver was not about to reverse into the passing place they had just driven by. Throw in some rollercoaster drops and rises, blind summits, pot holes and the risk of panic-stricken lost tourists and it's a blessed relief to reach the other end in one piece. It's the only place on Skye where I'm forced to drive in first gear in order to make it up some of the inclines, and the only place on Skye where my brakes repeatedly go spongy and start to fail on the declines. It's a scary road, and I say that as a confident driver! But it is also undeniably and unbelievably beautiful, and I always do the whole circuit when I'm there. My car hates it, but it really is a stunning area.
Loch Meodal is a short way around the Ord Loop, as I call it. On the far side of the loch are records for a rare plant that I wanted to try and relocate. It's a plant that I was shown way back in March 2003. Then I saw it for a second time in Hampshire in 2014, self-found on that occasion. And I've never seen it since. The species? Marsh Clubmoss Lycopodiella inundata. Armed with a grid reference and a map, I headed for the far side of the loch, wondering if my wellies would suffice or if chest waders would be more suitable.
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| Not convinced health and safety would approve but it does the job! |
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| Just look at all the aquatic plants amongst the rocks! |
The conditions were absolutely perfect for viewing the shallow margins of the loch and I was thrilled to see so many plants of Water Lobelia and Awlwort. I can't recall ever seeing this much Awlwort before at any other site I've visited. There were hundreds upon hundreds of them and I spent a happy while re-familiarising myself with their spiky rosettes. This place must look stunning in the summertime once the Water Lobelia is in flower.
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| The wide strappy leaves of Water Lobelia and the spiky leaves of Awlwort |
After a bit of splishing and squishing, and leaping a couple of channels that were well beyond welly-depth, I made it to the area in question. On both of the previous occasions that I've encountered Marsh Clubmoss, it has been growing on bare wet mud. I guess it is a very poor competitor. Looking around I couldn't see anywhere that looked suitable. The records from this site (one of only two sites for Marsh Clubmoss in the vice county) date back to the 1970s, but from memory the last record was from around 2015. I wondered if the loch margins had dried up a little, allowing grasses to dominate. Had the Marsh Clubmoss been outcompeted and no longer occurred here? I suddenly realised that I had no clue as to how many plants occurred here. Was it a substantial colony or just a few individuals? Casting around in slowly increasing circles, I spied a small area which, to my eye, seemed ideal. Wet mud, not very heavily vegetated, surely worth a closer examination even though it was a short distance away from the given co-ordinates.
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| Do you see it? |
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| Marsh Clubmoss, still holding on at Loch Meodal! |
I can't remember what I uttered as I saw this tiny sprig of loveliness laying in the wet mud, I think it was something as innocent as "oh, there you are!" but I'm pretty sure I had a big fat grin on my face a second or two afterwards. Despite subsequently examining quite a lot of the surrounding area, this remained the sole plant of Marsh Clubmoss I found. I suspect recent dry summers may have allowed grasses to colonise the muddy margins, leaving suitable habitat for this rare plant vanishingly scarce at this locality. The second Skye colony lies about four or five miles down a track deep into Glen Sligachan. Stephen recorded 80+ plants when he visited a few years back. I think I need to visit the site, I've only tromped through Glen Sligachan once before whilst heading for Sgùrr nan Gillean and that was a few years back now. It's a part of the world where Azure Hawker could occur, one of this summer's target inverts.
Thrilled at my day so far, Wilson's Filmy-ferns, an early Slow Worm, masses of Awlwort and now a single plant of Marsh Clubmoss, and all in a beautiful part of the island, I could take no more and absolutely had to take a pee! Looking around I noted a low hummock of Polytrichum commune close by. Something looked odd with it, I looked a little closer (after I'd finished peeing, obviously...)
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| Oooh, that's a fungus so it is! |
This is Lizonia emperigonia, a fungus that infects the antheridial cups of Polytrichum commune. I was reading something about bryophilous fungi just a few weeks back, obviously something must have stuck because I recognised this straight away. Cue my second big fat grin of the hour. This fungus will also sometimes infect the closely related Polytrichum formosum and is probably common wherever the host occurs. Which is throughout most of Britain, though more sparsely so in parts of Central and Eastern England. So go and have a look at your nearest cushion of Polytrichum, there's a fair chance the fungus will be present too.
I had a quick look at my phone and noticed a few WhatsApp messages from the bird group. Glaucous Gull on rocks, Broadford Bay. Shiiiit...I was only 15 minutes away! Happy days, and pretty soon I was pulling up into the carpark and didn't even need to get out of the car; I could see half a dozen gulls on a rock from where I sat. A quick squizz through the bins and I clocked pale wingtips sticking out from behind a near gull. Excellent, I grabbed my camera and clicked a handful of images. A gull flew off, the remaining birds rearranged themselves, the Glauc being even more obscured. Bugger. I figured I would get a clearer view from a hundred foot further down the carpark but, before I could do anything, the Glaucous Gull flew off and away from me, being very quickly lost to sight behind the co-op building. Oh well, possibly this is the bird that I saw 12 days ago (which nobody else caught up with despite much looking) but at least others had seen this bird. I headed back homewards, in need of hot food. This is the best of my efforts, I didn't look at them properly until I had read Neil's subsequent announcement on WhatsApp.
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| Ah right, that ain't no Glauc |
Neil suggested that the bird was in fact a hybrid Glaucous x Herring Gull, what's known as a Viking Gull. Looking at his images, and zooming in on my own, it's pretty obvious that this isn't anything like a pure Glaucous Gull. The head shape and undertail coverts are completely wrong and the plumage, though I feel Neil's pics are somewhat on the 'warm' side, is just too sullied and contrasty for a Glaucous Gull. The black-tipped pink bill and size rule out any outlandish species; it definitely has Glauc in it, and I feel that Viking Gull is a fair shout. Fairplay to Neil for getting decent images and then looking at them in detail. My excuses are that I only saw the head through the camera's viewfinder, didn't notice the heavily-marked undertail coverts, and it was only in view for a matter of seconds before it flew off. I've seen far more Glaucous Gulls than Viking Gulls, I would have much preferred to have been given the opportunity to study this individual properly. But there you go. I've had a great day and nothing can detract from that. Apart from the thought of the painting that I need to be getting on with tomorrow morning.
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