Muir of Dinnet

Last week we spent a day in the Loch Kinord area.

Our first transect was to the north of the loch, in the Old Kinord area. Parking on a small lane, we searched for the Northern Brown Argus in the fields and woodland clearings round and about. We followed a old grassy track through the site, where there were various old hut circles and derelict farm buildings to explore. There were lots of butterflies flying, but not the ones we were looking for.

In the afternoon, it was a short drive around to the Muir of Dinnet / Burn o' Vat visitors centre where we parked up and had a late lunch. This was a popular place, with lots of families making us of the various marked walking trails around the loch and through the surrounding woodland up to Burn o' Vat, a huge pothole in the hillside. 

Our next survey transect took us through the birch scrub and woodland to the west of the loch.

http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/cairngorms/loch-kinord.shtml

We were rewarded with a sighting of our target species laying eggs of its host plant, Rock Rose. The small white circular eggs can be seen on the leaf surface in the photo.

Loch an Eilein

Another great little walk is around Loch an Eilein just outside of Aviemore. There is a small charge for parking, but there is a visitor's centre selling gifts and refreshments as well as toilets, so I don't begrudge a few pounds for the facilities.  There is a lovely walk around the loch which is around 7km long.

http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/cairngorms/loch-an-eilein.shtml

Our survey route took us all around the loch, through some areas of remnant caledonian pine forest.

We also climbed up to the nearby peak of Ord Ban where there were great views of the surrounding Cairngorm hills.

Craigellachie NNR

I have been a little re-miss in updating my blog as the days have been very busy and the Wifi signal patchy, so I will try and keep posts to a short summary of where we have visited and what I have seen. 

Craigellachie NNR is a place that made a positive impression on me. We were fortunate enough to have a Mountain Ringlet transect at the top of the hill, so had to walk through the reserve to get there. Although we weren't successful in our butterfly hunt that day, the site was lovely.

http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/cairngorms/craigellachie.shtml

Parking is easy at the Youth Hostel in Aviemore, where there is also a display board just inside the building providing information about the reserve. There are various well-marking trails through the lower wood, extending up to a view point with great views of the Cairngorms. 

Although its a reasonable climb up the hill, it is worth the effort.

Butterflies and Climate Change

At the start of June I started a three month summer job as a Field Assistant with the University of York. I am helping to collect field data for a research project investigating the impact of climate change on butterflies, specifically if the range of certain butterflies is changing.

Our target species are the Northern Brown Argus, Large Heath, Scotch Argus and Mountain Ringlet. Each of these has specific host plants that are needed in their habitats, so as well as carrying out a butterfly transect we also have to do plant surveys for species such as rock rose and cotton grasses. Split into small teams, we each survey several sites a day. These are 1km squares where the butterflies have been previously seen, and a similar project surveyed for them ten years ago.  Overall there are nearly 500 sites to be covered over two survey seasons, across the north of England and Scotland.

So far we have spent two weeks based in Cumbria where we visited sites mainly around the Arnside & Silverdale areas, but also commuted down to the Forest of Bowland.  I then spent a week based from home, travelling out to survey sites on the North Yorkshire Moors, Derbyshire Dales and South Yorkshire peat moors.

We are currently in Scotland where we will be for the next two months. This weeks I have been based near Ullapool, and we have surveyed sites in north west Scotland. The area is remote and the scenery is amazing. Of course, butterfly surveys are weather dependent and this week has been a little challenging, but we have managed to survey all nine sites and found butterflies on all of them. We did get rather wet today though!

As well as looking for butterflies, it has been a chance to see some amazing wildlife and improve my botany skills, and I'm looking forwards to exploring some more areas in the coming months.

Bat Activity Transects

On Friday evening I accompanied the West Yorkshire Bat Group on a trip to Rodley. We were joined by some staff from the Canal and Rivers Trust, and the aim was to identify the species of bat in the area, and get an idea of abundance/activity levels, to inform conservation in the area.

We met at Rodley Nature Reserve and split into two groups. I joined the 'grassland' transect group and we walked the transect route in daylight to ensure we knew where we were going. This proved a good idea, as the route was steep and tussocky in places, and it was difficult to navigate through the scrub and overgrown vegetation down by the river. It was almost dusk when we reached the far end of our transect, so we decided to start there and work backwards, concentrating on the tow path and making incursions into the grassland/scrub rather than risk injury navigating through the undergrowth in the dark.

Rather than the emergence surveys I have helped with in the past, this was a chance to experience another survey method. We walked a set transect, and at key 'listening points' we stopped for 3 minutes and made a note of the species seen and/or heard. Recordings were also made for later analysis. (We did also note down anything encountered whilst walking between the listening points). 

Our first bat of the evening was a noctule - a large, bird-like shape flying high in the sky. Noctules made several appearances through the evening, though the most common species encountered were common pipistrelles with a few soprano pipistrelles also heard.

After the survey, I put my new found QGIS skills into practice and prepared a map of the route and listening points. A most enjoyable evening with good company, and hopefully producing some useful and informative results.

Awesome Ecology

Yesterday was rather hectic and tiring but I got chance to practice several different aspects of ecology culminating with an amazingly batty experience!

The morning started early as I had to go and retrieve bottle traps set out the night before around a local pond. 32 traps had been set up in an area where we had previously seen great-crested newts and evidence of their egg laying.  Given the number of newts we had seen on site whilst torching, the numbers trapped were disappointingly low (just two plus a male smooth newt) but we did get chance to examine a lovely mature pair of great-crested newts that were caught.

In the afternoon I went for a walk around Askham Bog nature reserve in York to practice my botany skills. I met up with another member of the Yorkshire Naturalists Union, and it was good to bounce ideas off each other, especially so early in the season when leaves and flowers are just starting to appear.  We saw many common species and a few less common ones, including Wild Angelica and Gypsywort.

There were also some common species that caught me out. A shrubby tree that I assumed was elder was, on closer inspection, Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus). I have only ever seen this in a hedgerow so wasn't aware of what the wood looks like, and the budding leaves form a similar 'pineapple' shape. Those that were a bit more developed though were clearly forming into a maple-shaped leaf, with very early flowers also developing.

We also stared at an emergent aquatic plant for ages, trying to convince ourselves it was something unusual. I then went back to my first thought which was that it was a type of bitter-cress, which led to the revelation that it might be Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis). Indeed we found another version that was a bit more developed and the pink flower buds were more obvious. I am sure things will all be a bit easier to identify in a few more weeks time!

We saw lots of birds on the site including Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Dunnock, Robin and a Grey Heron, with a roe deer also putting in an appearance across the marsh.

The day finished with an amazing evening of bat watching at Nostell Priory near Wakefield with the West Yorkshire Bat Group.  All nine species of bat found in West Yorkshire are believed to be present on the site, so I hoped to get some experience of other species. We arrived in early evening to allow time to walk around the site and look for visual signs, before getting into position for the dusk emergence surveys at three locations: 

1. A large amount of droppings were found below a large tree with several hollows in the trunk; these were thought to be noctule droppings as they were quite large and angular, and like all bat droppings were very dry and crumbly. The tree was the first of the allocated viewing points.  
2. We then moved onto a stone archway which had numerous cracks in the stonework, and indeed a small bat, believed to be a crevice-dwelling pipistrelle, was found in a cavity during a torch inspection. A few people stayed behind to watch this area.
3. The third survey point was an old building within the gardens. There were numerous possible access points around the shuttered doors and windows, and potentially underneath roof tiles and lead flashing, though the walls themselves were robust.  This was considered to be a potential brown long-eared roost due to the void spaces in the building.

As it was still some time until dusk, some of us wandered back to the tree to see if there was any action. There was lots of 'chattering' from the bats within the tree but nothing to see.  After a few minutes of watching and waiting in silence, bats started to pop out of the holes in the cavity. It was still light and we got a good sight of them flying out. We counted 14, coming out of different holes, that seemed to fly straight out over our heads towards the lake.

We decided to go back to our assigned positions at the building, which needed more pairs of eyes on it. Around dusk we started to get pipistrelle readings (common and soprano) which were frequent as they foraged in the trees around the building. Unfortunately this made it difficult to focus on the task in hand, which was the possible emergence of brown long-eared bats from the building. As they have a fainter call and emerge later, this tests the senses of sight and sound to the limit. We waited for some time as it got darker and colder.  Nothing appeared to come from the building, so we headed back to the tree.

During the walk back past the lack I picked up really strong signals at 26 kHz which would be consistent with noctule bats. By the time we arrived, 150+ bats had now emerged from the tree, and were swarming in the area. It was almost fully dark, though with strong full moonlight, so you could just see the numerous black shadows flitting by. It was an amazing experience to just stand there so close to the bats and they swooped silently in and out of their roost. Definitely a night to remember!

Urban Botany #2

I did the same walk to the shops today but picked up some different flowers to examine. My research was somewhat hampered by the fact that I seem to have misplaced my copy of Francis Rose :(

The first specimen is an Early Dog Violet (Viola reichenbachiana). This is distinguished from the sample I found yesterday (Common Dog Violet) as the 'early' version has a darker purple spur rather than it being pale/cream coloured.  The veins within the flower are also shorter and straighter. Like the 'common' version, this plant has pointed sepals and hairless heart-shaped leaves. I found a good comparison of the species on this website.

The second plant found today is a forget-me-not. I believe it is a Wood Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica) though this is very hard to tell apart from the Field Forget-me-not. Both are quite hairy with pretty pale blue flowers with a yellow centre.

I also found a speedwell (Veronica sp) with its distinctive four purple petals and two anthers [not pictured]. I think the version I found is Ivy-leaved Speedwell (Veronica hederifolia sub species hederifolia).  Although it does not seem as hairy as some of the photographs I have seen, it does have distinctive blue anthers.

Finally, I picked a very common plant but the first I have seen in flower this year - Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris). This has umbels of tiny white flowers, each with five petals. It is distinguished from the very similar Fool's Parsley as Cow Parsley is slighly hairy, particularly on the back of the leaves, and the bracteoles are much longer and more obvious in Fool's Parsley.