Dalgety Bay ... new species loading ... please wait ...

A weekend of bad weather and domestic activity means not much happening. I did do this leaf section of the moss Campylopus introflexus, though. Pretty pleased with it. Shame it's already on the list!

Easterly winds continue. Lots of nice Kittiwakes and finally a Fulmar. Anther roll of the dice at lunchtime. Let's see. Everybody all together ... Gannet, LT Duck, Scoter ....

Dalgety Bay - creeping towards half way

Well things have certainly slowed down a bit. After the excitement of last weekend I've been adding  species onto the list with a dropper, but at least they've been pretty interesting.

After browsing "Marine Fauna" I was flabbergasted at how many ubiquitous/frequent/common species I am supposedly missing and so I determined I was going to get at least one or two of them! So it was that I scored a new mollusc yesterday with the massive Onoba semicostata. This entailed picking up every rock and peering over my specs until I found it something.

Your browser settings may determine how many times life size this appears. They are 2x1 mm typically, and indeed mine were. There are a number of other such snails, and tiny crabs (and tiny everything). With so many of our fauna being very small I'm slowly adjusting to the fact that making my scan image much smaller is an important field skill. As is grilling every square mm of substrate.

I had a Jaera before but "Fish & Fish" wasn't particularly helpful. When I realised the Fauna had much more info I braved it and found that taking into account characters, habitat and distribution I could be fairly confident that these are Jaera albifrons.

Tricky situation today. From yesterday's tide I know that it will be very low at lunchtime today. It's also sunny. I need clones to catch flies and flip rocks. With a bit of luck I'll find flies on rocks, though I'll need several nets. I look more and more like Inspector Gadget.

Numbers:

479	*	alga	Cladophora rupestris	A marine alga
480	*	cnidarian	Clytia hemisphaerica	A hydroid
481		alga	Polysiphonia fucoides	A seaweed
482		lichen	Collemopsidium foveolatum	A lichen
483		mollusc	Littorina obtusata	Flat Periwinkle
484	*	cnidarian	Phialella quadrata	A hydroid
485	*	mollusc	Onoba semicostata	A marine snail
486	*	crustacean	Jaera albifrons	A marine isopod

Dalgety Bay - Fish or Not Fish

One of my favourite things in any field guide. While browsing last night I realised just how many "frequent" or "common" species I haven't seen in the intertidal - bryozoans, hydrozoans, molluscs, crustaceans ... soooo many!

I am starting to fall in love with hydrozoans a bit. Cracking little things

Now, I also just "need" a couple of volumes on marine diatoms ...

Here are a couple of uncountable weather casualties I pulled out the seaweed banks:

Sand Goby I reckon

the same, but whole thing

Whiting? I refrained from taking it home!

The numbers ... of the Beast

Dalgety Bay - The Beast from the East

Well, that was quite a thing. Off work but unable, mostly, to get out. Nevertheless when I did get out it was a kiss from the princess. Not for all those weather casualties, of course, but it did bring some "patch gold" as farmland birds were forced into the tiny patch of exposed grass in my square. My first Dalgety Bay Golden Plovers showed up after not seeing one in the previous 20 years. Yellowhammers, Skylarks, Reed Bunting, Snipe. A bonanza. Churlish to complain about the lack of Little Auk, LT Duck, Scoters, Fulmar, Gannet ... and where are those Fulmars? They should be here anyway!

Here's some pack ice in the bay - very bizarre

There's really too much to cover in individual shots so here's a small collection from the kelp bed sweep

Watery wonderland

Water-loving things

One of my favourite things from yesterday was the hydroid Obelia geniculata, which even had a developing medusa like a little homunculus sitting in one of the "cups". From a Laminaria blade.

Obelia geniculata

Musical accompaniment -edit: E.S.T. Seven Days of Falling (snow). A bit of mellow genius

Numbers:

451	*	fungus	Laboulbenia vulgaris	A fungus
452		coleoptera	Pterostichus strenuus	A ground beetle
453		bird	Gallinago gallinago	Common Snipe
454		flowering plant	Chamerion angustifolium	Rosebay Willowherb
455		fungus	Trametes ochracea	A fungus
456		lichen	Hypogymnia tubulosa	A lichen
457		bird	Alauda arvensis	Skylark
458	*	diptera	Nanocladius dichromus	A chironomid fly
459		bird	Anthus petrosus	Rock Pipit
460		bird	Rissa tridactyla	Kittiwake
461		bird	Uria aalge	Guillemot
462		bird	Alca torda	Razorbill
463		bird	Pluvialis apricaria	Golden Plover
464		bird	Emberiza citrinella	Yellowhammer
465		bird	Emberiza schoeniclus	Reed Bunting
466		bird	Anthus pratensis	Meadow Pipit
467		chordate	Ascidiella scabra	A sea squirt
468		alga	Membranoptera alata	An alga
469		alga	Corallina officinalis	Coral Weed
470		mollusc	Cerastoderma edule	Common Cockle
471		mollusc	Doris pseudoargus	Sea Lemon
472		cnidarian	Dynamena pumila	A hydrozoan
473	*	annelid	Eulalia viridis	Greenleaf worm
474		echinoderm	Ophiothrix fragilis	Common Brittlestar
475	*	alga	Halidrys siliquosa	Sea Oak
476	*	alga	Palmaria palmata	Dulse
477	*	cnidarian	Obelia geniculata	A hydroid
478	*	alga	Rhodomela lycopodioides	A marine alga

Dalgety Bay - Feb target reached (450)

A good weekend allowed me to stretch out to 450 a couple of days early. Saturday's sunshine brought out a few flies after an early leaf litter sieving session, Sunday brought a fungal outing which racked up some nice fungal wins, and a brief walk yesterday revealed a small area of Willow Carr well hidden from the paths which produced 5 spp. in as many minutes.

First hover in the wintry sunshine - E.tenax

Kermit Shore fly Parydra quadripunctata

Tenuiphantes tenuis

Amaurobius fenestralis

I'll stick up a link to the fungi later, because I'll blog them elsewhere, but the willow carr (which I spotted with binoculars!) I knew would have epiphytic mosses. It didn't disappoint.

Orthotrichum pulchellum

Orthotrichum pulchellum

Ulota phyllantha

Ulota phyllantha

And, of course, the numbers ...

422		centipede	Lithobius microps	A centipede
423		coleoptera	Paranchus albipes	A ground beetle
424		diptera	Eristalis tenax	A hoverfly
425	*	diptera	Parydra quadripunctata	A shore fly
426		harvestman	Nelima gothica	A harvestman
427		hymenoptera	Lasius niger	Small Black Ant
428		millipede	Craspedosoma rawlinsii	A millipede
429		spider	Tenuiphantes tenuis	A Linyphiid spider
430		flowering plant	Deschampsia cespitosa	Tufted Hair-grass
431		flowering plant	Silene dioica	Red Campion
432		flowering plant	Stellaria media	Common Chickweed
433	*	fungus	Brevicellicium olivascens	A corticioid fungus
434		fungus	Eichleriella deglubens	Blushing Crust
435	*	fungus	Globulicium hiemale	A corticioid fungus
436		fungus	Hyphodontia alutaria	A corticioid fungus
437		fungus	Mollisia cinerea	Common Grey Disco
438		fungus	Resinicium bicolor	Hallowed Crust
439		fungus	Sistotrema brinkmannii	A corticioid fungus
440		fungus	Sistotrema octosporum	A corticioid fungus
441	*	fungus	Stypella grilletii	A corticioid fungus
442		moss	Syntrichium ruralis	A moss
443		spider	Amaurobius fenestralis	A spider
444	*	collembola	Onychiurus ambulans	A springtail
445		flowering plant	Cirsium palustre	Marsh thistle
446		hemiptera	Drymus brunneus	A ground bug
447		moss	Hypnum andoi	Mamillate Plait-moss
448		moss	Orthotrichum pulchellum	Elegant Bristle-moss
449		moss	Thuidium tamariscinum	Common Tamarisk-moss
450		moss	Ulota phyllantha	Frizzled Pincushion

Dalgety Bay - 400 up

So I managed to just sneak onto 400 before a brief Highland holiday with the family. A few additions since returning means I'm more or less still in line for 450 by end of Feb. Nice to see the moth trap not empty. Although technically it was, with three Dotted Border on the house walls, all the very pretty form fusca.

I'll be taking a leaf out of Tim's book before month end probably and doing some more sieving. I've had precious little from sieving leaf litter with even what I thought common litter species apparently absent (or my failing eyesight...). Not even a pseudoscorpion.  I still retain hope though, and I think at least partly it's the wetness that's to blame. maybe I'm subconsciously avoiding Tachyporus!

Numbers:

398		alga	Ulva intestinalis	Gutweed
399		fungus	Phanerochaete velutina	A fungus
400		fungus	Inonotus radiatus	A fungus
401		bird	Turdus viscivorus	Mistle Thrush
402		moss	Campylopus introflexus	Heath Star Moss
403		lep-moth	Agriopis marginaria	Dotted Border

Dalgety Bay - ann(elid)us mirabilis

Worms, worms, worms! I think I do, on balance, still think earthworms are tedious. Once you get to the seaside though, everything changes! Marine worms are a varied and very attractive lot.

An amazing brief visit to the intertidal yesterday produced a nice small handful of easy species (edible crab, overflying mute swan), but the evening session was more exciting with 4 out of 4 species being lifers.

It was interesting to put the scaleworm Harmothoe imbricata (big!) with its relative Lepidonotus squamatus. From the books it's not always apparent what different animals they are. The Harmothoe is a magnificent beast as you can see below. Psamathe fusca I thought was going to be something sort of ordinary from the ragworm stable, but once under the lens it revealed its beauty, particularly in its colours as the green and pink resolved with closer inspection.

The worm that broke the mould was a nemertean which I briefly tried to ID as a terrestrial flatworm - it was near the top of the beach. Once it became apparent it wasn't, though, the marine books both held sufficient keys (I hope) to nail it as Cerebratulus fuscus. It was interesting to watch it submerged in sea water. I didn't like this group much either to begin with but they are growing on me, partly because of watching them in action.

All will be returned to the sea today after their brief visit ashore. 

Even the seaweed was julaceous today...

Cerebratulus fuscus

Scaleworms - for, um, scale

Psamathe fusca

Ceramium virgatum on a kelp stipe

Numbers:

355		cnidarian	Actinia equina	Beadlet anemone
356	*	echinoderm	Amphipholis squamata	Small Brittlestar
357		fungus	Chaetosphaerella phaeostroma	A pyrenomycete
358		mollusc	Littorina littorea	Common Periwinkle
359		fungus	Pleospora herbarum	A fungus
360	*	diptera	Geomyza tripunctata	An opomyzid fly
361		mollusc	Trochulus (Trochulus) hispidus	Hairy Snail
362		mollusc	Cornu aspersum	Common Garden Snail
363		dermaptera	Forficula auricularia	Common Earwig
364		fungus	Melanomma pulvis-pyrius	A pyrenomycete
365	*	collembola	lepidocyrtus cyaneus	A springtail
366		crustacean	Cancer pagurus	Edible crab
367		bird	Cygnus olor	Mute Swan
368		annelid	Spirobranchus triqueter	An annelid worm
369		fish	Lipophrys pholis	Shanny
370	*	annelid	Psamathe fusca	A ragworm
371	*	annelid	Harmothoe imbricata	A scale worm
372	*	invert-other	Cerebratulus fuscus	A nemertine worm
373	*	alga	Ceramium virgatum	A seaweed

Dalgety Bay - Diet of Worms

I decided to take a small break after January's madness. OK, that's a lie. I was painting my kitchen. There's no way I ever decided that, but it happened anyway.

Fortunately I was able to manage a fantastic hour at low tide on Sunday morning to keep the show on the road. It was a nice exercise in the variability of annelids. Ironically this was exactly the group I was thinking of as tedious and possibly avoidable. They showed me! My favourite was Cirriformia tentaculata, a spectacularly tentacled worm from under an intertidal rock. It would have been the scaleworm, which is awesome but which I already knew from last year.

Spirorbis spirorbis

Lepidonotus squamatus - a scale worm

Cirriformia tentaculata

Lumbricus rubellus

The Star of the day, literally, was the lovely Small Brittlestar, Amphipholis squamata, of which there were two. This is a very pretty little thing and allegedly bioluminescent. I spent some time trying to see this (naturally!) but to no avail.

And lastly on the way to the coast I wandered briefly into the woods and picked up Chaetosphaerella phaeostroma, which I expected to find somewhere. The spores are good value under the microscope.

So, we keep moving along and the kitched is even almost finished - I hope.

Numbers:

342		alga	Fucus serratus	Toothed Wrack
343		flowering plant	Ficaria verna	Lesser Celandine
344		diptera	Phytomyza ranunculi	An agromyzid fly
345		lichen	Opegrapha calcarea	A lichen
346		lichen	Lecidella asema	A lichen
347		alga	Laminaria hyperborea	Cuvie
348	*	annelid	Cirriformia tentaculata	A marine worm
349		annelid	Lepidonotus squamatus	An annelid worm
350	*	annelid	Lumbricus rubellus	An earthworm
351		annelid	Spirorbis spirorbis	An annelid worm
352		bird	Anser anser	Greylag Goose
353		bird	Streptopelia decaocto	Collared Dove
354		bryozoan	Electra pilosa	A bryozoan
355		cnidarian	Actinia equina	Beadlet anemone
356	*	echinoderm	Amphipholis squamata	Small Brittlestar
357		fungus	Chaetosphaerella phaeostroma	A pyrenomycete
358		mollusc	Littorina littorea	Common Periwinkle

Dalgety Bay - January roundup

So largely thanks to Seth's prompting and pace-setting I finished January on what I would have considered a near-miraculous 341. Now I know with more time it could have been maybe 400. I barely touched the lichens. Fungi have been very kind, providing a large block of the month's 23 lifers. Bryophytes have been a relief after a year working a somewhat dry square with little fresh water.

I usually think of February as a slow month because you've visited a lot of the "permanent" stuff and the spring hasn't got up and running properly. But you never know. I have a lot of seashore untouched and I bet there are easily another 50 fungi I haven't found. Is 500 possible? I'll be more than happy with 450. Last year I wasn't at 500 until April.

'Tis the feast of St.Bridget today so I guess I should go to the ruined church of St.Bridget's. Sunny, too, so maybe the fly tally can get a wee boost. You never know. Maybe even a bee.

Happy hunting, everybody.

Algae	6
Lichens	27
Fungi	60
Plants - Vascular	65
Plants - Bryo	46
Mollusc	12
Arachnida	7
Collembola	5
Hemiptera	4
Hymenoptera	3
Coleoptera	8
Diptera	15
Lepidoptera	4
Invert - Other	22
Vert - Birds	54
Vert - Other	3

Dalgey Bay - the Green Man

With only 3 species required I thought I had enough in the house to complete the task, even if it meant scouring the shed for spiders. I thought it might come to that when the snow started to fall, but happily the snow vanished and ten minutes into lunchtime we were over the line.

I had intended to pick up a few species I know are in the intertidal and relatively easy, but when I got there I found the tide as high as it can possibly be (at which point my square is 1/2 submerged!). Still the gathered seaweeds did at least give up Vertebrata lanosa.

I stuck with the maxim, "The easiest way to find new species is to look in new places" and walked the coastline, quickly picking up Weld and Red Dead-nettle where the grass runs out and becomes sand/rock. A happy find was more Spotted Medick, so it's at both ends of my current square.

The only species I took to the lens in the evening was the lovely Cryptosphaeria eunomia. A nice side-effect of finding this one is that it nudges me into the top ten for fungi on the PSL charts - a spot I've been eyeing for some time!

shaved surface to expose interior

the asci/spores

E&E

the stroma

Numbers:

331		flowering plant	Lamium purpureum	Red Dead-nettle
332		flowering plant	Reseda luteola	Weld
333		alga	Vertebrata lanosa	A seaweed
334		moss	Scleropodium purum	Neat Feather-moss
335		moss	Campylopus flexuosus	Rusty Swan-neck Moss
336		flowering plant	Trifolium repens	White Clover
337		flowering plant	Primula vulgaris	Primrose
338		flowering plant	Vicia sativa	Common Vetch
339		fungus	Cymadothea trifolii	A fungus
340	*	fungus	Cryptosphaeria eunomia	A fungus
341		moss	Cirriphyllum piliferum	Hair Pointed Feather Moss

Dalgety Bay - kissing frogs

Yesterday (as today) I didn't have much time in the field. As a temporarily single dad I had lunchtime to gather material and oodles of time in the study once the manchild was tucked up in bed. The priority therefore was to gather material! With a reachable target I went to the ground game and gathered promising leaf and wood litter for later perusal. This is a methodology I learned on a microfungi weekend I had with some fungus-bothering friends and very productive it can be too.

On this occasion I was spending a lot of time kissing frogs to find a prince. Some species were too immature to separate (there are two very similar pyrenomycetes which like sycamore petioles) while some pluriverous fungi which might have been doable evaded me. I found one birch leaf in the mix which is normally good for a couple of banker species. It was bare. I still managed to put up 3 new species which pushed me within reach of success.

Then, when I woke up this morning it dawned on me that I have two enormous birch trees in my garden! Bingo! Both common species of fallen birch leaves were quickly rounded up before the school run. Three to go. Surely nothing could go wrong.

The Mycena below is the kind of thing you think you have no chance of identifying. It's the Dewdrop Bonnet and on its stipe it has tortuose cystidia. These hold onto water droplets and so are responsible for both its English and scientific names. I've already recorded it but it's a lovely thing.

Botryobasidium aureum (conidial stage)

Hemimycena tortuosa

Birch leaf Gnomonia and Venturia

Dicyrtomina fusca

Numbers:

326	*	fungus	Botryobasidium aureum	A corticioid fungus
327	*	collembola	Dicyrtomina fusca	A springtail
328		fungus	Merismodes anomala	A fungus
329		fungus	Gnomonia alni-viridis	a pyrenomycete
330		fungus	Venturia ditricha	a pyrenomycete