The biggest nipples I've ever seen

A fungus foray at The Mens near Petworth in early November produces lots of new species for me as I've done very little with fungi in the past. Inevitably, I only photographed the more attractive or interesting looking ones.

This is the Veiled Oyster Pleurotus dryinus growing out of a rot hole in a Beech.

The White Saddle Helvella crispa - this is what they look like, it isn't a knackered specimen.

Beechmast Candlesnuff Xylaria carpophylla looks like a tiny version of the Candlesnuff Fungus but only grows on Beech mast. The experienced members of the fungus group had rarely seen this species but whether it is rare or just rarely found is difficult to know. This was found by Graeme who was looking for beetles under a log - you can't stop a good entomologist from being distracted!

After the meeting ended, Graeme kindly agreed to show some of us the wax caps and other interesting fungi that he'd recently seen at Ebernoe. I've never previously identified any wax caps, which I guess are the orchids of the fungus world, so I was dead keen to see some.

Golden Waxcap Hygrocybe chlorophana

Meadow Waxcap Hygrocybe pratensis

Parrot Waxcap Hygrocybe psittacina

Scarlet Waxcap Hygrocybe coccinea

And my favourite wax cap of the day:

Pink Waxcap or Ballerina Hygrocybe calyptriformis 

Other interesting species seen included the Orange Grisette Amanita crocea

and the Liberty Cap (or Magic Mushroom) Psilocybe semilanceata. We were looking at some individuals and discussing whether they were this species but weren't convinced as they didn't have much of a 'nipple' on top, some others nearby were much more convincing and provoked the comment which forms the title of this blog.

On foreign birding trips, a 'bird of the day' is often chosen. Having seen the sort of number of new species that I would normally expect only on a foreign birding trip, it seems appropriate to pick a fungus of the day. The Beechmast Candlesnuff and Pink Waxcap were strong contenders but in the end the title is won by the amazing ecology of the Scarlet Caterpillar Club Cordyceps militaris which grows out of a buried moth caterpillar.

A fern with the wrong name

Spent a day in the New Forest looking for a few ferns that I've not seen before. The first target was Beech Fern, so that was going to be in an area of mature Beech wood right? Err, wrong, the grid reference took me to an area of Alder carr; about as unlike a Beech wood as a wood can be. Fortunately the book put my mind at rest - 'not especially, or in some districts at all, associated with beeches'. It's amazing how many species have inappropriate names.

I must have walked past these lots of times as they are within my Wood Warbler study area. You can be blind when you're focussing on other things.

Next stop was for Southern Polypody. I had details for a couple of specific trees on which this species was supposed to be growing but at the first site I wasn't entirely convinced by the identity of the ferns that I found. Those at the second site seemed more convincing.

I diverted to Hatchet Pond where I failed to find a couple of plants, probably too late in the year for them. I did find a live freshwater mussel which would be new if I could identify it! Unfortunately, with the limited information I have, I cannot be sure what it is.

Back to ferns for the last species of the day; Marsh Fern. In pre-GPS days I wouldn't have stood a chance of finding it and I do wonder how the first person ever did but the habitat (birch woodland on fairly wet ground) is not rare in the New Forest so it is equally a mystery as to why the species isn't more common than it is.

Exploring new territory

I've focussed much of my attention this year on trying to improve my botany but I've been running out of options for things to go and see recently. I did come across a nice patch of Coral-necklace whilst trying to find something else.

This species is classed as Vulnerable but according to the county recorder it has spread rapidly in recent years, probably being spread around and between sites on military vehicles.

So with few plants to look for, what to do? Well there's fungi and bryophytes, both of which I've done virtually nothing with before. I went on a fungus foray in the New Forest on National Fungus Day (or something like that) which was all a bit manic and I didn't get any photo's because the weather was awful. Fortunately I was back at the same site a couple of weeks later for a bryophytes meeting and was able to refind a couple of the more interesting fungi.

Podoscypha multizonata

Hericium erinaceum

There have been a lot of problems with commercial fungi collectors hoovering up anything and everything that they can find in the New Forest this year and on my first visit someone had removed most of the Hericium erinaceum, even though it was hidden inside a Beech trunk, so it was good to see a couple of new fruiting bodies growing unmolested in the same trunk when I returned.

The bryophytes meeting was interesting, although my brain was starting to bleed by lunchtime! One species that the experts got excited about was Zygodon forsteri. It is rare but that meant little to me as virtually everything was new. I did find its ecology interesting though. It grows around wounds on Beech trees and it seems that the wounds exude something that kills off the commoner mosses but which forsteri is immune to. There was always a very clear demarcation between the forsteri and the more dominant species.

Ok so it isn't much to look at! 

Olive Crescent - coming to a moth trap near you

Not so long ago, the Olive Crescent was confined to the Stour Woods RSPB reserve in Essex. I did a bit of work on its ecology there, with much assistance from the RSPB staff and volunteers. The larvae feed on dead leaves of oak and Sweet Chestnut there and we found that they had a preference for Sweet Chestnut leaves that were in full shade.

Occasional individuals at south coast locations show that Olive Crescents do occasionally migrate from the continent and in the early 2000's it seems that such migrants managed to establish one or more colonies in the far east of East Sussex. Over the next few years they seemed to consolidate their foothold but there wasn't much evidence of significant range expansion. Last year one adult was caught near Tunbridge Wells which was as far west as it had been seen in suitable breeding habitat. So this year the RSPB at Broadwater Warren and Sussex Wildlife Trust at the adjacent Eridge Rocks cut some oak branches and hung them up in the hope that larvae could be found later in the year. I joined them for the search and we found larvae quite easily at both sites.

Flushed with success I decided to have a look for larvae in Hampshire near Petersfield where several adults had been seen earlier this year. At this site they were likely to be feeding on Beech leaves (as they do at Friston Forest and some other sites in East Sussex) and luckily there had been some thinning of the Beech at this site earlier in the year, leaving stacks of suitable branches. I quickly found several larvae which were exceptionally variable in colour.

This was the first confirmed breeding in Hampshire but there was still no record of breeding in West Sussex so I headed over to the downs above Graffham where an adult had also been caught earlier this year. I didn't have the luck of having pre-prepared branches like at Broadwater Warren or forestry thinnings like at Petersfield and it took a long time to find any suitable branches but when I finally found a snapped off beech limb I instantly found three larvae.

During the hunt for the branches I came across a new plant species for me in a game strip; Small Nettle.

So what about the gap between Tunbridge Wells and Graffham? There are very few moth recorders in central Sussex away from the coastal towns and I suspect that the moth has been quietly spreading west without anyone noticing.

Olive Crescents are also spreading in Essex and the first larvae were found in Suffolk this year so if you live in south-east England, look out for this species in your trap soon.  

Punishment for twitching birds

In mid-October there was a Dipterists Forum meeting in Surrey and I managed to join them for a day. Autumn is a good time for craneflies and I hoped to see a good selection in the company of some of the top experts. The weather wasn't great but that doesn't account for the almost total absence of craneflies at all the sites we visited. This is even more surprising given the huge numbers of craneflies that were around in September but these were mainly two species - Tipula paludosa and T. oleracea - which are tolerant of dry conditions and it seems likely that the hot, dry weather in late summer was responsible for the dearth of other species.

The experts concentrated on fungus gnats - and one person got a new species to Britain that day - but these are way beyond me so I just bumbled around looking at all sorts of bits and pieces. The best new species for me was in fact a moth; Diurnea lipsiella. I've tried to find this species in previous autumns without any success but one flew past me at Nower Wood. Sod's law dictates that I then saw several more a few days later!

A few days later I had a trespass around some arable fields near Emsworth. At this time of year, arable fields can be one of the most interesting places to looking for plants that are still in flower and I'd seen reports of a couple of species that I'd never seen, with directions that seemed good enough to track them down.

In the end I got three new species;

Sun Spurge

Dwarf Spurge

Field Woundwort

A few days previously, a Semipalmated Plover had been found on Hayling Island. I'd seen one previously in Britain and the thought of the crowds that it would attract was enough to put me off going. But after I'd finished looking for the arable plants, news came through that it was back on the beach and it started to rain which I thought would thin the crowds out a bit so I decided to go and have a look. It was raining quite heavily when I got to the car park but by the time I reached the bird it had become a downpour of biblical proportions. Despite full waterproofs I quickly started to feel wet patches appearing - someone was clearly trying to tell me something; time to leave.

I headed off to Sussex to look for White Horehound but West Sussex County Council had helpfully mown the whole site so no joy there. I did find an interesting 'fungus' as I walked back to the car. It turned out to be Leocarpus fragilis which is actually a slime mould but not at all what you expect a slime mould to look like.

Feeling Blue

My last fieldwork of note in September was an end of season flora group bash in the New Forest. We split into four teams and each covered a 1km square within the same tetrad. As usual I learnt loads but when the teams reconvened I heard that one of the groups had seen lots of Greater Broomrape. I'm a big fan of broomrapes so I couldn't resist going and having a look before I joined the rest in the pub. Ok, so it was long-dead but I was still impressed and I'll definitely be putting a return visit into my diary for next summer. I can't help wondering why a parasite of Common Gorse is so rare?

On to the matter in hand. Perhaps the wildlife event of this autumn has been the large number of British-born Long-tailed Blues that there have been. I don't normally twitch butterflies, hence the fact that there are still a number of resident species which I haven't seen (including one that breeds within a few miles of my house). But when there is an 'event' like this, you feel that you ought to make the most of the opportunity. It was the same in the 'Yellow-winged Darter year' when I went to Dungeness to see them, even though I don't really 'do' dragonflies.

So on a Saturday in early October I travelled to the cement factory at Shoreham where Long-tailed Blues had been seen a couple of days previously. As was to be expected, the forecast was completely wrong and the sun never came out all day! It was warm enough for some insects to be active and I occupied myself with watching various species visiting the ivy blossom.

There were lots of Colletes hederae - this one obviously feeling as sick as I did! This species was first recorded in Britain in 2001 but it has rapidly spread throughout the south and is now a common visitor to ivy, especially near the coast. There were also lots of Eristalis hoverflies, mainly pertinax and tenax.

Eristalis sp. This one is probably pertinax.

There was a brief visit to the ivy by the impressive hoverfly Volucella zonaria - another species which is spreading rapidly at the moment.

A few other things that caught my eye were leaf mines caused by the fly Amauromyza verbasci

Galls caused by the aphid Cryptosiphum artemisiae

Larval cases of the micro-moth Coleophora argentula were common on the Yarrow seedheads.

On the way home I stopped in at Climping and found a larva of the Yarrow Pug which was new for me so I did get a Lepidopteran tick that day after all. Somehow it wasn't really compensation.

A ladybird with too many legs

Many years ago I had to produce a leaflet about the management of a heathland site that I worked on. I wanted to include illustrations of a variety of heathland species and one of those that I chose was the Ladybird Spider. In the ignorance of youth (and before you could Google such things!) I had no idea that Ladybird Spiders only occurred on a single site in Dorset and that they had never set foot on the site that I was managing!

Ever since my error was pointed out to me I have had an ambition to actually see the real thing. Fortunately I have been working with someone who is involved with the Species Recovery Project on Ladybird Spiders so I asked if I could tag along when he next visited the site. It wasn't the best time of year to actually see the spiders as most were deep in their burrows preparing for winter but at least I would know what to look for in future.

I helped out with looking for, and marking, the nests which is easier said than done as many of the nests are very difficult to see. The picture below is of a particularly obvious one.

One way to find the nests is by finding the remains of prey items left outside. The commonest item found was the 'shell' of Violet Ground Beetles and I was seriously impressed that the spiders were taking on such a large, dangerous prey - and winning.

 Eventually I found a female outside her nest.

She is quite impressive but not a patch on the male but fortunately I at least got to see a male that was due to be released on one of the reintroduction sites later in the day.

The plastic container doesn't make for a good photo but I was well chuffed nevertheless!