The Lyons Share

I'm still feeling rough so I'm trawling through old files to find interesting tales from the past. In 2007 I spent a month working at Abernethy RSPB with Mark Gurney, helping them carry out bird surveys. There were lots of great things to see there but a day that really stood out was when we went up Cairn Gorm on the 5th May. We were in search of Ptarmigan and Dotterel and we had excellent views of both. Amazing how confiding these birds are. 

I just love spending time in the mountains, so many new things to see! Lots of good plants such as Interrupted Club-moss, Alpine Hair-grass, Curved Wood-rush, Dwarf Cudweed, Sheathed Sedge and Stiff Sedge. But as is often the case, it's the things that you are not expecting to see that get you most excited. We saw a few of these little moths flying around in the sun shine that totally confused us. As we were looking through the photos afterwards, one of us was arguing for Black Mountain Moth and the other for Netted Mountain Moth. Of course, neither of these were anywhere near the mark. It's Broad-bordered White Underwing. This is quite a nice mountain moth and we were lucky to stumble across such a rarity!

By the way the moss in the background of the photo is Racomitrium lanuginosum. I have not been to Scotland since I left the RSPB. I really must get up there again soon...

Can't win 'em all. I went searching for a live Helicella itala today but failed. I did find a few more empty shells but found no live snails on the chalk except those under fallen wood. The above photo is a very common and easy to identify snail that I see mostly under logs in woods, it's Discus rotundatus. Here is today's snail list:

So I didn't add anything new in the field. The mosses there were pretty boring for a chalk grassland site with Fissidens taxifolius, Bryum capillare and Pseudoscleropodrum purum being very common and just the occasional bit of Homalothecium lutescens. I did however get three retrospective ticks looking through old notebooks. I found my notes from a trip to Abernethy when I was working at the RSPB. I had a day in the field looking at Sphagnum with Andy Amphlett and I saw Sphagnum fuscum, russowi and inundatum. That puts me on 3745.

So it was three years ago, I was at Abernethy RSPB Reserve in Scotland and the photo is terrible but this is the very surreal David Lynch like moment when I dropped quickly down from a vast, rather birdless, uniform Heather moor into a wide, stony-bottomed sunken stream bed to watch a (young?) feral Reindeer walk straight past me! Oblivious to my presence (get it!) the only sound you could hear were its hooves negotiating the rocky bottom. Then it was gone. 

We were surveying breeding birds on the reserve between the trees and the mountains. A vast area, with some impressive sightings. Walking up and down the bases of mountains for 17 km in knee deep Heather did make you look a bit like you were dancing and for a few hours after you had finished too. Camping for a month in the Abernethy Forest was a memorable experience too, although when it got to -4 on the first night I was a bit freaked out. This, the Timberman (sounds like a super hero), is one of the most impressive longhorn beetles and can be seen in some numbers at the wood yard there. Look closely at the antennae to see just how long they are!

I have totally lost my voice for Christmas Day, good job the Internet is now my main way of communicating. Have a great Christmas everyone!