Ivy Choked

 Fencepost of the Week #214

A fencepost mounted next to a wall, both of which have been throttled by ivy, now long dead.

Mixed Media Boundary Marker Post

 Fencepost of the Week #213

 

A beautiful boundary marker post in lamellar slabs of corroded metal, hunks of mouldering wood, and daubs of flaky paint; all held together with chunky, rusted bolts and topped with a dusting of verdant moss. Perfect.

Grass of Parnassus

Grass of Parnassus - Parnassia palustris

 

Otter Ferry Lime Kiln

 Some photographs of the Otter Ferry lime kiln.

view from the front:

 

view from the top:

Slime Mould Activity

 

I've been seeing quite a lot of slime mould activity this august. The video is approximately 400 times actual speed.

 

 


 

 

Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa














Metatrichia floriformis

Warm Evening Post

 Fencepost of the Week #212

Rutstroemia firma

 

Rutstroemia firma is a brown cup fungus that grows on dead oak wood. It often has a long, dark stem, but can also come up in crowded rosettes.

Danger Berries

 Fencepost of the Week #211

Dangerously delicious bilberries, maybe!

Fresh Glue Fungus

 

I can find glue fungus - Hymenochaete corrugata - at any time of the year as blackish, cracking lumps of matter sticking hazel tree branches together.

But at the end of July, I came across this: freshly grown glue fungus. Off-white, with a felty texture. 

Alder Sawfly

 

 

 

This is an alder sawfly - Eriocampa ovata - larva.

 

The powdery white stuff is camouflage: they look very like bird droppings from a distance.

 

Crown of Capsules

Fencepost of the Week #210

 

Water Upply

Fencepost of the Week #209

Arising resplendent from the dankest of herbage. Technically it's a signpost, but still my Fencepost of the Week.

Rust-gill?

 

One mouldy mushroom on the log. These are from my visit to Kyoto in 2016. Probably one of the rust-gills - Gymnopilus, but I never did get a solid id.

Teh Hollowing

Fencepost of the Week #208

 

Teh hollowing :3 

 

Mossy Post of the Mossy Forest

 Fencepost of the Week #207

Adder's Tongue Ferns

 Most example images of adder's tongues are taken side on, something like this:

Adder's Tongue - Ophioglossum vulgatum

 

 

But if you are looking for ferns out in the field, what you will be presented with might look more like this:

Adder's Tongue - Ophioglossum vulgatum

Frosted Lichens Post

 Fencepost of the Week #206

 

 

Orange Birch Bolettes

 

Leccinum versipelle - orange birch bolette. Love the strange marbling that develops in the white flesh when it is sliced open.

 

 

 

Maps For Local Knowledge

 There are lots of wonderful resources available on-line to help you know more about places in Scotland.
Use these to embellish your knowledge of familar places, prep for an exploratory walk, or even browse them to find new places that might be worth a visit.

- Canmore - a fantastic map with thousands of archaeological records.
https://canmore.org.uk/site/search/result?SITECOUNTRY=0&view=map

 

- Nature Scotland has a map that outlines nature reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest - with links describing what is special in each site.
https://sitelink.nature.scot/map

- National library of Scotland has a number of old maps that can be browsed here. You can also view them overlayed on modern maps or satellite imagery to compare the current state with how things used to be.
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.0&lat=55.91865&lon=-5.22467&layers=5&b=1

- OS Name Books In conjunction with the above, you can look up nearly any place name on the Ordnance Survey maps in the following website to see the original notes in the the OS Name Books on the meaning and history of the name, often contain useful titbits of information in the descriptions.

 

https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/

 

 

- National Biodiversity Network lets you view maps of biological records for a particular species or higher taxon. They also allow you to browse all records near a specific location, which is a great way to find out what flora and fauna have been seen in a particular neck of the woods.
https://nbnatlas.org/

 

- British Geological Survey has a map viewer that indicates the various kinds of bedrock in your area.
https://geologyviewer.bgs.ac.uk/