Cherry Leaf Miner

The long sinuous gallery that crosses the midrib suggests the micro moth Lyonetia clerkella, the Apple Leaf Miner. It affects many Prunus tree species.

Cherry Leaf Miner taking a line for a walk
Cherry Leaf Miner taking a line for a walk (a la Paul Klee, see below)

I particularly like the areas still chlorophyll-green, protected from the general yellowing by the tunnels of the leaf miner.

Burdened Children 1930 Paul Klee taking a line for a walk
Burdened Children 1930 Paul Klee taking a line for a walk, having observed Cherry Leaf Miners at work (I made up this last bit)

Wasp Spider arrives in Gunnersbury Triangle

Wasp Spider, the first we've seen in Gunnersbury Triangle
Wasp Spider, the first we’ve seen in Gunnersbury Triangle

Right in front of Mike the new conservation officer was a Wasp Spider. Of course, arriving late after working on scenarios for the new hut, I noticed it – her – before he did. The species only arrived in Britain about 15 years ago, and it’s certainly spreading.

Dark ants in anthill meadow
Dark ants in anthill meadow

Anthill ants are supposed to be minute, yellow, and never appear above ground. If so, these weren’t them. While we were digging brambles out of the anthill meadow, as gently as possible because the anthills are said to be one of the best features of the reserve, we couldn’t help disturbing some nesting ants a little. They seem to be black with grey abdomens; and as you can see, they quickly picked up their white cocoons and carried them off to safety. They certainly look as if they’re the owners of the anthills, but since the anthills are supposed to have been made by little yellow ants, perhaps the black-and-grey ones are just enjoying the resulting environment.

Grasshopper
Grasshopper

Several inch-long grasshoppers took a look at us.

Monadhliath Mountains

Ambre, Roy and Noggin setting out into the mountains
Ambre, Roy and Noggin setting out into the mountains
Rhacomitrium heath on the Monadhliath Mountains
Rhacomitrium heath on the Monadhliath Mountains
Sphagnum rubrum
Rhacomitrium heath on the Monadhliath Mountains
Alpine Lady's Mantle
Alpine Lady’s Mantle
A Moss - green and red Sphagnum in a peat hag
A Moss – green and red Sphagnum in a peat hag
Northern Spinach Moth Eulithis populata (FP Bilberry)
Northern Spinach Moth Eulithis populata (FP Bilberry)
Pupating Emperor Moth Caterpillar Saturnia pavonia
Pupating Emperor Moth Caterpillar Saturnia pavonia

I was lucky enough to catch an Emperor Moth caterpillar in the act of preparing to pupate; the full-grown caterpillar with its hairy aposematic yellow-green body marked with black is tied on to the grass stems with a hundred silken threads.

Glorious lichened rock on summit
Glorious lichened rock on summit

On the summit ridge, this flat rock was covered with magnificently coloured lichens in shades of orange, yellow ochre, grey and white, with black, grey, brown or burgundy apothecia.

Herd of Red Deer on Sunlit Skyline
Herd of Red Deer on Sunlit Skyline

Towards the end of the eight-and-a-half-hour walk with the sun westering low over the hills, we caught sight of a herd of 32 hinds. The little Nikon captured this nice shot of them, all peering down at us from the skyline.

Creag Meagaidh NNR

Regenerating Birch forest at Craig Meagaidh NNR
Regenerating Birch forest at Creag Meagaidh NNR

After a morning sheltering inside from the pouring rain, it cleared and I drove down to Creag Meagaidh, the enormous national nature reserve that fills a watershed from Loch Laggan up to the named mountain. The sun shone nearly all the time despite billows of cloud to the south. The hills were blue, setting off the shining grey-green of the birches, the russet of the heather – the Ling just coming into bloom now – and the bright yellow-green of the mossy grass.

Trailing Beards of Lichen, mostly Usnea with some Ramalina
Trailing Beards of Lichen, mostly Usnea with some Ramalina; the flatter leafy lichens are species of Parmelia

The Downy Birch is a stockier tree than the Silver Birch, tough enough to survive mountain winters, and home to a rich variety of lichens including Usnea beard lichens, bristly Ramalina, dark stringy Alectoria jubata (now renamed Bryoria fremontii), and various leafy Parmelia species that yield orange dyes used in Harris Tweed.

Caterpillar of Fox Moth Macrothylacia rubi
Caterpillar of Northern Eggar Moth

Large handsome caterpillars of the Northern Eggar Moth, the Scottish form of the Oak Eggar (Lasiocampa quercus), up to 3 inches (75 mm) long and nothing to do with oak trees, wriggled across the path, their rufous hairs warning off predators. They feed on Heather and Bilberry.

Scotch Argus
Scotch Argus

In every patch of damp grassland, Scotch Argus butterflies skittered, looking very dark in flight. They are hard to approach as they constantly chase each other off from their territories, but eventually I found one that stayed settled long enough to creep up to. Close up, the upper side is a rich brown, with red patches around the wing edges dotted with black circles that have white centres.

Scabious
Devilsbit Scabious

A few bumblebees, some of unfamiliar species, visited the Devilsbit Scabious (Scabiosa succisa) briefly. Large Syrphid hoverflies basked on the paths.

Glittering Downy Birches
Glittering Downy Birches

Further up the valley, a fine group of birches actually glittered in the bright sunlight, the water of the stream shining silver behind them.

Birch Bracket Polypore
Birch Bracket Polypore

A dead birch, stark against the sky, supported stout Birch Bracket polypores, handsomely whitish-grey above, yellow ochre below.

Bog Asphodel Bell Heather Marsh Orchid
Bog Asphodel Bell Heather Marsh Orchid

In the boggier patches, Bog Asphodel and Marsh Orchid flowered among the Bell Heather.

Rock Bog Heather Birch Mountain Tundra
Rock Bog Heather Birch Mountain Tundra

I turned the corner of the valley to see snow still lying in the deep, north-facing gullies on Creag Meagaidh, and the striking notch of the col that gives access to the mountain ridge.

Nature Walk on Creag Dhu

A red Russula
A red Russula

Today I went for a proper nature walk, after cutting a lot of thistles on the farm in the morning. The birchwoods were lovely with Chanterelles, red Russulas, and the first few Orange Birch Boletes of the year.

Orange Birch Bolete
Orange Birch Bolete (it was delicious)

The sun came out from time to time, enough to make the Spey Valley look lushly golden against the green wooded hills and the distant blue Cairngorms, the heather richly brown in the foreground.

Upper Spey Valley
Upper Spey Valley
Orange crustose lichen with big black apothecia on rock
Orange crustose lichen with big black apothecia on rock
Spotted Flycatcher
Spotted Flycatcher
Wood Warbler and Spotted Flycatcher Habitat

I climbed up the old mossy boulder-field of fallen rocks until I reached the old-growth Hazel woodland, and sat down. Around me, a Spotted Flycatcher brought flies to a juvenile, and a pair of bright yellow Wood Warblers flitted about the trees and showed themselves beautifully. The rocks were richly lichened, and Wild Thyme and Wood Sage (elegant spikes of green flowers with purple anthers) sprouted among the ferns. Maidenhair Spleenwort grew here and there among the rocks. It was really pretty.

Wood Sage, Teucrium scorodonia
Wood Sage, Teucrium scorodonia

Then I made my way right under the last of the cliffs around to the north and up on to Creag Dhu itself, with glorious views over the Upper Spey valley. Half a dozen feral goats played the role of herbivore, along with a Roe deer that skipped away from me effortlessly up the mountain and over a crest.

Feral Goats on Creag Dhu
Feral Goats on Creag Dhu

As I neared the summit, a Peregrine Falcon, wings like an anchor, hung motionless in the stiff wind before swooping to the ground.

Back at base, we had a magnificent mushroom sauce on our rice for dinner.

Moorland … with Orchids

Fragrant Orchid Gymnadenia conopsea among heather on hill, Upper Speyside
Fragrant Orchid Gymnadenia conopsea among heather on hill, Upper Speyside

I’m used to seeing Marsh Orchids up here in Scotland, but I’d always associated the Fragrant Orchid with chalk and limestone. However, I keyed it out with James Merryweather’s very helpful Key for the Identification of Orchids Common in Western Scotland, and there it was, Gymnadenia conopsea, growing among the heather and bilberries with no chalk in sight. Its jizz is quite unlike the Marsh Orchids, with slim unspotted leaves, pale unstreaked flowers, and an unobtrusive long slim spur behind each flower.

Marsh Orchid
Marsh Orchid

The Marsh Orchid is quite variable, usually boldly marked like this one in purple with stripes and loops, but sometimes almost white all over. It’s mostly rather short. The paired pollinia are visible inside a couple of the flowers.

Birdsfoot Trefoil near Dalwhinnie
Birdsfoot Trefoil near Dalwhinnie

Another little plant that I’d not have associated with rainswept moorland is the Birdsfoot Trefoil (or, Bacon and Eggs from its rich red and yellow colours). It is happy in warm dry lawns; but equally at home here on disturbed ground where the competing plant cover is conveniently low.

Lichen-covered rock near Dalwhinnie
Lichen-covered rock near Dalwhinnie

More obviously Highland in character are the tough lichens forming orange and black patches actually in the hard weathered rocks on the moor. The black discs are the apothecia of one of the species, containing the spores of the lichen fungus; they have to meet up with the single-celled algae to re-form the lichen partnership or symbiosis.

Like peering into a rock pool: Cup Lichens
Like peering into a rock pool: Cup Lichens

The miniature world of lichens is able to surprise even people who know their local environment well. The Cladonia ground-living lichens include shrubby species that make excellent tiny trees for railway modellers and architects. The same genus contains several species of cup lichens, some coarse and scaly like the common cup lichen (C. conoiocraea), some tall and slim like C. fimbriata, some with elegant red apothecia around the edges of their cups. This mixture of lichens, including some leafy grey Parmelia saxatilis, was growing on a rock beneath a light canopy of Downy Birches.

One of the former Shielings on Catlodge
One of the former Shielings on Catlodge

In the old system of transhumance, the women and children took the cattle up to hill pastures and lived in shielings during the Highland summers. These are marked today by small rectangles of grey stones, all that is left of the humble buildings, and bright green grassy areas among the brown of the heather.

Female Antler Moth Cerapteryx graminis
Female Antler Moth Cerapteryx graminis

The Antler Moth is sexually dimorphic, the female being larger and with a slightly different wing pattern. Appropriately for a species that shares its moorland habitat with the Red Deer, it has a whitish antler pattern on its wings. The caterpillars eat purple moor-grass, sheep’s fescue and matgrass.

Open Day at Gunnersbury Triangle

Cake stall ready to trade, just in time
Cake stall ready to trade, just in time

There was face-painting, and a beekeeper with a demonstration hive and lots of honey, and a brilliant nature walk guided by John Wells, and pond-dipping with damselflies and newts and water scorpions and ramshorn snails and mayfly nymphs, and butterflies all around.

Natalia painting faces and hands
Natalia painting faces and hands

It was seriously sunny and parents pushed pushchairs.

Excitement at the Raffle with Mike and Marie
Excitement at the Raffle with Mike and Marie

It was hot. There were lots of happy people. We sold masses of cakes, quiches, scones and delicious chocolatey things and tea and coffee and orange squash.

Gunnersbury Triangle's 3rd 30th Birthday Cake, and lots of Cava
Gunnersbury Triangle’s 3rd 30th Birthday Cake, and lots of Cava

I was too dizzy in the heat and busy with the stall, pond-dipping – and pouring birthday Cava – to take more than a few desultory photos. We had a 30th birthday for the saving of the Triangle from development, two years ago; a party for officials and Trust workers back in May for the day the reserve opened; and now this one for the public. Anyone would think we liked parties or something.

Jan presenting Netty with flowers
Jan presenting Netty with flowers

Netty, our Conservation Officer, is now on maternity leave. On behalf of the committee, Jan gave her a card and a big bouquet of flowers.