The False Chanterelle

Walked around Dene Park in the gloomy evening today. It was so dark and dank, I didn't even bother to take the camera. Heard the Tawny Owl(s?) and the geese but not much else. Monty had a very good run through the woods while I stuck to the increasingly muddy tracks.

Attended the Low Carbon Group in the evening, and we talked about the "beautiful" orange mushrooms that had appeared on the compost in one of the cycle planters. The group were a little concerned about unauthorised eating, so I took a couple home, and they were indeed the False Chanterelle, Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca (Wulfen) Maire 1921.

Considered by some to be edible, by others too bitter to eat, all sources agreed that they could cause some alarming hallucinogenic symptoms in some individuals, so they will be removed before they are tasted by someone!

Characteristics were the overall orange rather than egg-yolk colour, decurrent and repeatedly dividing gills, as opposed to veins, and a good mushroomy rather than a fruity smell. The cap top is often darker in the centre and finely woolly all over (feels soft and velvety), with a thin(?) skin that could be peeled back in places, the cap often remaining inrolled to maturity. Associated with conifers and heathlands, this could reflect the origin of some of the compost components in the planter, such as spruce bark for example. The season fits, as the books have it as appearing from August to November,

Whetsted Gravel Pits

The weather was overcast with a cool breeze today, but no threat of rain. It certainly felt autumnal, a feeling emphasised by the fireworks over the last few nights, celebrating Guy Fawkes infamous attempt at mass murder.

In the late morning Monty and I headed off down to the Gravel Pits, to see whether the waterfowl were concentrating inland yet in preparation for the hard weather. There were a lot of dog-walkers and other people out enjoying the countryside on the way down to the River at East Lock, but not everybody crosses the river and gets as far as the pits themselves, and the ducks and gulls seemed fairly undisturbed when I arrived. Monty had done a lot of running about by then, and I felt justified in putting him on a lead when I got to the causeway, in order to prevent him jumping into the peaceful quiet ditch and the shallow gravel pit and scaring the birds.

The waterfowl is building up very nicely on the two large pits that I can look at!

The first photo is of a fairly close mute swan, Cygnus olor, which came out quite well, using ISO 2000 to give a very quick exposure of 1/1250th of a second which reduces camera shake and at an aperture of f11 to give a good depth of exposure. The resulting noise from the high ISO doesn't matter too much at this limited degree of cropping!

This mallard duck, Anas platyrynchos, is right on the far side of the first gravel pit, and the picture has been cropped much more heavily than the picture of the swan, so it is much more at risk of noise from the high ISO, which can be seen. I did need this ISO, as even with this I was only getting 1/640th (just above spec. for the lens used to keep shake under control) at f8, just sufficient for the depth of field required. Using the telescope on the tripod to steady the camera did help to reduce the risk of camera shake, and overall I was very pleased with this attempt.

This Little Grebe, Tachybaptus ruficollis, is at a closer distance than the Mallard, but the picture has been more heavily cropped, and shows the downside of noise and perhaps some camera shake. The picture is here to compare sizes of the grebe and coot (although the grebe is further away) but also because the coot is waggling something about in its bill - it seemed to do this for some time. Again I was quite pleased with picture overall. The ISO 2000 gave me a 1/1000th exposure with an f8 aperture, although the depth of field might perhaps have been a bit poor, with the centre of the focus being on the grebe, leaving the coot slightly out of focus.

There was a small flock of chaffinches, Fringilla coelebs, feeding off the seed heads on the causeway, and this female returned to the fence fairly close by and stayed long enough for me to get a reasonable shot. Again I think the high ISO helped, giving 1/640th at f8, although it could be easy to overdo it.

This juvenile swan has been diving after vegetation and water is still dripping from his beak. The picture is helped by the rapid exposure of 1/800th, again forced by the high ISO.

After checking out the first pit, I collected Monty and we moved on to the second pit, where I think we disturbed the Greylag Geese from the central gull roost. By the time I got the camera out, the geese had gone off to join the others on the far bank. The gulls on the roost were undisturbed and were almost entirely black-headed gulls, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, but noticeable by their size, there were a couple of adult and juvenile herring gulls, Larus argentatus, mixed into the crowd.

I've been looking for a Common Gull, Larus canus, for some time now, in amongst the others. One reason for my failure has perhaps been my lack of concentration on the identification features of the different stages and plumages. One characteristic of the winter plumage which hadn't really occurred to me is that Common Gulls have a greyish hood at this time of year.

While looking at this character in the book that evening, I realised that I had seen a similar hooded bird in the photos I had taken today. I have always in this past assumed this to be the rather similar hood of the developing black head of the black headed gull, but I looked through the photos again, and found several of the same grey hooded bird in flight. They were completely ambiguous about the identity of the gull - it could equally well have been black-headed, or common, or another gull altogether.

And then - Eureka!! I got a picture of the same bird still in flight, still showing the slight hood, but this time clearly showing the significant bright white "mirrors" embedded in the black wing tips on the upper side of the wings - on a bird this size these are fairly diagnostic of my FIRST definitely identified Common Gull! What a lucky shot!

All this progress is down to doing this blog, and going carefully over the material for it - its definitely improving my identification of all sorts of organisms. what a great picture, even if its cropped to very fuzzy limits.

Now that I've got my eye in, I'm sure there were other common gulls there. Here is a possible, perched on this front post, in front of a black headed gull scratching itself in the first picture. Common Gulls (38 - 43 cm) are larger than the black-headed (35 - 38), but smaller than the herring gulls (53 - 59), although sizes can be tricky to judge. The first picture was at ISO 250, the next at ISO 2000, and the last at ISO 6500. I can't say they were comparable because of variable vegetation blocking the view in the forefront, but on the other hand I can't see that the ultra-high ISO value is causing me such problems that I cannot identify the bird. In all three shots I used the telescope to steady the camera.

The next three photos of a black-headed gull are very heavy crops at ISOs 2000 (1/800th), 6500 (1/1600th) and 200 (1/250th), the last showing movement - this is why it is so necessary to avoid these slower exposures at longer distances. Using a sufficient ISO to give an exposure of 1/500th to 1/1000th seems sensible, without any need to over-egg the pudding further.

Walking along the causeway of the second pit I was delighted to see some Hawkweed Oxtongue, Picris hieracioides, still in flower, amongst the declining Bristly Oxtongue.

Here is a Black-Headed gull in flight, to compare the upper wing pattern with that of the Common Gull

and to show the dark under wing

On the way back to the car and home, there were still loads of things to look out for and think about. These look like Horse Mushrooms, Agaricus sp. in the middle of the germinating wheat crop

The Ivy, Hedera helix, flowers in the hedgerows are now nearly all gone, and berrying up for the winter. I'm not sure if they are popular with the birds

On the other hand I do know how popular the Hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, berries are!

One tired, and very serious looking, but satisfied dog, at the end of a good walk! What an excellent job he has done today, as always, exploring the countryside, checking it out, leading and guarding me - and he takes these responsibilities very seriously indeed!

The Pedunculate Oak trees, Quercus robur, are still holding their leaves in the autumnal landscape

I'm still not sure why this field has been sown in two separate halves, but it may become clearer at harvest next summer

Total estimates of bird numbers for the day were 6 (plus 1 juvenile) mute swans, 3 cormorants, 90+ coot, c. 200 greylag geese, 5 tufted ducks, 40+ gadwall, 16+ shoveller, 5 mallard, 3 great crested grebes, 9 little grebes, 80 black-headed gulls, 3 herring gulls, 1 green woodpecker, 9 fieldfares.

Wildwood and Small Mammal Surveying

I spent the whole day at the Wildwood Centre near Canterbury on their small mammal surveying day course organised on this occasion by Kent Wildlife Trust. We learnt how to set traps, identify and characterise any mammals caught, with great care for both our own and the animals' safety. I shall have to consider whether to carry out a survey near Hadlow, perhaps on a tetrad which hasn't been surveyed before! Its difficult to find a good site, with a mixed variety of habitat.

We found House Mice (Mus musculus, rather smelly introductions to the UK and so many other countries in the world), quite a few Wood Mice of both sexes and all ages, Apodemus sylvaticus, a Bank Vole, Myodes glareolus, and a Common Shrew, Sorex araneus, in the wooded surrounds of the centre. We didn't find any Yellow-necked Mice, Apodemus flavicollis, which I would have liked to see. However we also saw Water Voles, Arvicola amphibius, Brown Rats, Rattus norvegicus, Water Shrews, Neomys fodiens, a Harvest Mouse, Micromys minutus, a Dormouse, Muscardinus avellanarius, a Fox, Vulpes vulpes, an Otter, Lutra lutra, a Eurasian Lynx, Lynx lynx, some smaller deer, Grey Squirrels, Sciurus caroliniensis, a Red Squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris, Wallabies, Macropus spp., Beavers, Castor fiber, very close up in their lodge, an Adder, Vipera berus, a Raven, Corvus corax, Little Egrets, Egretta garzetta, Mallard, Anas platyrynchos, Pochard, Aythya ferina, all in the collection at Wildwood itself, as well as seeing the new bat soft release flight cage.

It was a great day, with lots of interest. I was particularly aware of the good number of wood mice we caught. I can only assume that the woods are fairly full of small animals that we are generally unaware of as we walk through them. It would be interesting to carry out a survey in somewhere like Dene Park, but it would be difficult to ensure the safety of the traps with so many dog walkers and other usage of the wood. I am sure it would be easier in somewhere like Upper Lodge Wood.

Green Islands at Dene Park

Wow, today has been a bit of a revelation! Firstly a more careful check of some of the leaves on the Beech hedge in the front garden have revealed two old mines of a Stigmella, which must be Stigmella hemargyrella.

I had no idea that either of the Stigmella species was in the locality, nor that this species was present here, in our own front garden. The only time I've identified this leaf-miner before has been at Oldbury Hill on the Lower Greensand Ridge some distance to the North, where I photographed it on the 13th of September. What a turn-up for the books! Perhaps I've missed it at other sites as well, I just can't be sure!

In both pictures below the mine appears to start from near the margin of the leaf, and travels towards the mibrib where it ends, which is the main diagnostic characteristic of Stigmella hemargyrella as opposed to Stigmella tityrella. This is perhaps clearest in the second picture. In both cases you can also see the white spotting of the feeding marks of the Beech Leafhopper on the upper leaf surface.

The major leaf miner found in the hedge, much commoner than the two Stigmella I found today, is the ubiquitous Phyllonorycter maestingella, at least as identified according to the characteristics of the mine. This insect is specific to Beech. Ideally the adults would be raised in order to definitively separate it from Phyllonorycter messianella, which is found on a range of trees, also including Beech. However the ID to species can still be made fairly confidently I think, because of the long tubular mine which is well made within the boundaries of the main ribs of the leaf. P. messianella should be a more oval shaped mine.

Here in the picture below on the underside of a leaf you can see two old Phyllonorycter maestingella mines, both fairly decrepit. The one on the left is as found, but I had opened the one on the right to look for its contents.

Looking closer at the opened mine, I found some aphids sheltering in the old mine. Insects that use the structures of others are referred to as inquilines. I have no information on which species these may be or whether they have been noted by other observers.

Once I'd got over the enjoyable shock of locating Stigmella hemargyrella so close to home, I got Monty into the car and I struggled to get my bandaged foot into my walking boots. We headed off to Dene Park, not really hoping to do anything more than confirm previous sightings of the leaf mines and galls seen there previously, as I thought I was getting to know the Beech trees there quite well by now. The paths were clearly autumnal now, and the overall appearance of the woods has changed significantly since I was last here a week ago.

As quite a few of the Beech leaves have now turned colour, some of the branches are still mainly green, but others are already mainly golden or russet.

Amongst such concentrations of leaves that have already turned, a very few of them have either remained green entirely or remained green in obvious sections, sometimes clearly delineated by their veins. I have heard that this is a sign of hormonal interference from leafminers - and wow - that's exactly what is happening! In the picture below we can see an old Phyllonorycter maestingella mine on the top side of the midrib, which is having some, but little, effect, and two Stigmella tityrella mines on the lower side, which are very clearly causing the lamina all around them to remain bright green, and are likely to be at least recently, if not currently active. The caterpillar on the right (at least) seems to be still within the mine, visible at the end of the tunnel. These Stigmella mines must be Stigmella tityrella because the mines start next to the midrib, and generally travels outward the margin of the leaf, weaving sharply from side to side and each staying with their own segment created by two adjacent major veins.

This was fantastic! The very first time I had identified this insect was in North Wales last weekend, and I've not seen it in Kent at all before, despite the fact that it must have been there, and I'd been looking for it. And yet, I found these two almost as soon as I looked at the Beech trees, by noticing the green island - and there were these two mines!! Its going to be very easy to find some more, if they are actually present here, and they form such clear green islands!

And here is another, again Stigmella tityrella and again very obvious from the green island effect, and again found very quickly. Clearly Stigmella tityrella has been here in Dene Park all along during my autumn visits, just as Stigmella hemargyrella has been present in the garden hedge since at least earlier in the autumn!

Now that I had my eye in, and knew the patterns to look for I found half a dozen other S. tityrella mines, including this one on a leaf that was still completely green. The occupant may have only recently left, leaving the "flap-door" open!

The effect is however not confined just to Stigmella, as seen in this Phyllonorycter maestingella mine found further down the side track. Could this be an example of convergent evolution?

And here we go again, the midge Hartigiola annulipes, a very common gall former on Beech, also seems to have a very effective mechanism of keeping the majority of, if not the whole of the leaf, green. Here is a fairly clear example of the effect, of which I saw many examples.

Here is the gall again, a rather better pair of specimens perhaps, again on a green, quite fresh-looking, leaf

and here that same photo is again, this time in close-up. Note that there was a third gall, but it has been knocked off, just leaving its base.

Some of the leaves have been subject to a fungus leaf spot, which seems to appear on particular clusters of leaves, perhaps due to inoculum potential!

I've seen this damage below illustrated somewhere before, but I cannot remember for the life of me which insect causes this bizarre, if not unique, damage. Its the first time I've ever seen it in real life, but I know I've seen this picture in a book somewhere!

I spent most of our visit today in amongst the various compartments of Beech - they do look great with their russet carpet of leaves and clean woodland floors where the dense foliage of beech has inhibited the development of any significant undergrowth.

Point of Ayr at high tide, or just after.

2,000 oystercatchers, 500 curlew, 100+ black-tailed godwit, 50+ redshank, 3+ grey plover, 4+ dunlin, 100 black-headed gulls, 40+ herring gulls, 10+ lesser black-backed gulls, 10 teal, 30 mallard, 80+ shelduck, 20 wigeon, 20 cormorant, 1 kestrel (nice and fairly close on a ridge).

Excellent views and what a great afternoon!

Here is a distant shot of the female kestrel on the ridge in front of the shoreline.

and some of the approximately 2,000 oystercatchers,

Bod Petrual, Glocaenog Forest

Squeeky trees, but, very sadly, no birds of the relatively good numbers seen up near the tops of the trees were positively identified.

There was a lovely little pond, could well be worth checking for dragonflies next year.

And there, on the South side of the pond, I hope I found a new leaf miner for me, Stigmella tityrella (Stainton, 1854), with the egg apparently always laid on the underside and amongst the hairs in the angle of a vein directly against the midrib of the Beech leaves! I should have photographed the underside of the leaves, not the topside, for a clearer view of the mine. However this error did mean that I picked up the leafhopper feeding marks as well.

The mines of S. tityrella are said to characteristically weave dramatically from side to side, but generally remain within the single leaf segment created by the midrib and two adjacent main veins. Sometimes this typical pattern can be seen but on the other hand the pictures on the web of some mines are much, much straighter than others - e.g. in Suffolk? Overall the identification certainly looks pretty good! The moth's specific list number is 0077, and a common name for the adult is the Small Beech Pigmy Moth.

However it is worth looking at the left hand leaf, and seeing how, given a very restrictively sized segment near the tip of a leaf to start off with, the mine actually crosses a main vein at the very margin of the leaf, and doubles back into a second segment, but this time heading inwards towards the midrib again. Perhaps a careless adult left this egg too close to the tip of the leaf? I wonder how often this happens.

These couple of mines were a fantastic sight, with such a clear and interesting "behavioural" separation of the two species Stigmella tityrella (seen here at Bod Petrual) and Stigmella hemargyrella (seen earlier this year at Oldbury Hill, see below), with only these two Stigmella species reported on Beech on the UK Leafminer site. These particular mines appeared to be empty of their creators (mine activity listed as June-July and August-October, with earlier flight periods of the adults), apart from the full distribution of "uncoiled" frass in the main sections of tunnel, and the narrower central line of frass in the first narrower section of tunnel. Sadly I felt I didn't have the time to search for any more mines on this site, and no other galls or mines were seen in the few dozen leaves so quickly and cursorily checked.

This species is found across UK and Europe as far as the Russian border. According to the rather limited NBN Gateway, S. tityrella has been recorded as scattered records across North Wales for example as mines in Coedydd Aber NNR, (September, 1973), Maenan (September, 1974), Maentwrog and Glan Conwy (September, 1975), Church Island, Menai Bridge (September, 1980) and as unspecified field observations in Burley Hill Quarry (Summer, 2000) and Weston Rhyn and Preston Mountford in Shropshire (July 2010). It hasn't been recorded on the NBN near Glocaenog, but this may be just lack of recording effort, or more likely, limited inputting to the Gateway.

In Norfolk or Northamptonshire (Eakringbirds), where it seems to have been actively looked for, it can apparently be found in about half the squares looked at, according to the County organisation. In East Sussex however it doesn't seem to be densely concentrated, and the County records seem to be limited to October - perhaps as mines again? The mines are said to be found in "green islands" in leaves over the autumn/winter period - so well worth looking for.

It has also been found in Kent, but there are even fewer NBN records here. There are only three listings in the whole of the county, two from the 1970s and one from 1990, with very limited details, so its something I should still keep my eyes open for in my own county!! The BBCS Kent Moth Report indicated significantly more records than this, thanks to the redoubtable David Gardiner!

Compare the blog on the 13th of September at Oldbury Hill, for the other Stigmella species that I have seen on Beech, Stigmella hemargyrella (Kollar, 1832), whose eggs are laid mainly on the upper, but on either surface of the leaf, and not against the midrib, so tends to tunnel from the margin towards the midrib. The mine often crosses at least one vein, and the frass, initially a thin central line, is said to be "coiled" from part way along the mine, although the frass trail commonly narrows again somewhat, later on in the final stages of the mine as the caterpillar approaches pupation (I wonder why?).

S. hemargyrella also initially seems to be recorded very patchily across the country with only one record on the NBN Gateway in Kent. However reference to the BBCS Kent website and its Moth Reports again indicates a wider distribution and a greater degree of abundance than listed in the NBN. Adults are also said to be easily collected on beech trunks from the beginning of May until the middle of June; the adults of the less common summer generation fly from mid-July to early August. This micro-moth is specific list number 00081, with a "common" name of the Beech Pigmy Moth, although it doesn't seem significantly smaller than S. tityrella.

S. hemargyrella has more or less the same overall phenology and European distribution as S. tityrella. From the pictures on the web I would personally say that frass patterns in both species are quite unreliable, and should not be used on their own as definitive ID. On the NBN gateway in North Wales, S. hemargyrella was found with S. tityrella in Maenan in 1974 and Burley Hill Quarry in 2000, but not in the other S. tityrella North Wales sites. I would guess from these overall indicators that S. tityrella is a little more commonly recorded than S. hemargyrella. There are no NBN records North of the Great Glen for either species although S. tityrella was logged close to Inverness itself.

Here is a rather nice overall world website for some of these leafminers, the Nepticulidae, http://nepticuloidea.info/

Fantastic, what a lucky one-off spot, another step towards completion of the Fagus sylvatica list, four of the seven possible leafminers have now been definitely spotted, in just over half a dozen visits to beech woods throughout the UK!