Happy Christmas readers!
Photographed a couple of days ago through the front window as I was identifying a few diptera specimens and glanced out. The Himalyan Honeysuckle Leycesteria formosa is very popular with all sorts of species and this Bullfinch was tucking in.
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| Bullfinch |
Leycesteria formosa can be invasive I believe, but doesn't seem to be a problem here in Perthshire, I have only found it wild once, growing in the wall of a cemetery.
A wee early Christmas present was finding an Ichneumon corpse in the bottom of a tube in which I had a couple of Coleophora larvae. The Coleophora were either alticolella or glaucicolella, I hadn't got around to investigating them, but the wasp was NFM Scambus brevicornis, a known parasitoid of these two species.
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| Scambus brevicornis |
It was a community woodland day yesterday. I managed to add a few species to the CCW list and two to my own.
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| Heteromyza commixta, common enough but under recorded and NFM |
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| Byssomerulius corium, the white fungi here, also NFM |
The Heteromyza was hard to identify, despite the excellent key by Sivell, Stubbs and Andrews. Hopefully, I have got it correctly. I might need to take some of the photos again. And the fungi was very striking as I wandered around the CCW reservoir.
I went up to the reservoir after working with others on one of the butterfly orchid sites on the CCW. A place where both species occur but was getting overcome with rank vegetation. Unfortunately trees had been planted on this spot also. I dug up and moved some Scots Pine to a more suitable spot, and others scythed and raked. There's still a bit more tree work to do.
The wander around the reservoir also added Alder, the only place on the site where it naturally occurs, I must have walked right by it many times. The same with the single Norway Spruce, close by. I also added Sylvicola fenestralis, several were taking advantage of the pastries left on the bench for the volunteers.
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| Flamminula velutipes s.l. a fungi that I've seen here several times before. |
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| Norway Spruce |
Writing this late in the evening with a snoring dog at my feet and both Barn Owl and Tawny Owl audible from the kitchen. Season's Greetings!
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