Hanging Off the Bones of a Post

 Fencepost of the Week #231

Photogrammetry of Very Small Things

 Exciting progress on 'photogrammetry of very small things' this evening: I have devised a simple, but effective rostrum for photographing tiny subjects from every angle. 

 

 Rostrum made from a flower pot, 2 cardboard circles and a wine cork. Lighting from a very small torch fastened to the rig by a rubber band; there is a white sticky label on the light to make the lighting more diffuse.

A shrivelled, dry Cladonia caespiticia specimen. Small... and very frilly. The ruler is cm, not inches.

A really quite detailed 3d model generated from 60 photos taken from various angles. This time I used Apple's free 3d Scanner App which is easy to use and the results seem okay so far. 

Here is one of the 60 source photos used to construct the 3d model:

Here's a link to the resulting 3d model: https://3dviewer.net/#model=https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2o33u6wbjwsqj07to1p32/CladoniaCaespiticiaModel.zip?rlkey=3vmlxhudxoatpm6d366zzw46s&st=bz8nymih&dl=0

 

 ...and a second one: Cetrelia cetraroides. This one was done on a cloudy day with no artifical light sources. 3d view here.

 

 You can also download the model files and use them with your own 3d software here: dropbox. If you have VR, why not try sticking it in there, and blow it up to the size of a house! =o)

 

Keeping It Green

 Fencepost of the Week #230

Rewire

 Fencepost of the Week #229

Snow Pole

 Fencepost of the Week #228

A 2m high wooden post by the side of the road, painted in black and white bands to indicate the line of the road in deep snow.

iNaturalist Population Maps

 It's not perfect data by any means, but you can make some pretty interesting insights by browsing iNaturalist's species maps.

As someone who was very enthusiastic about reptlies growing up, it was always perplexing to me how I could never find any reptiles near where I lived in Central Scotland. Whenever I went on holiday I would find plenty, but not at home. As you can see from the iNaturalist data, I am not alone in finding reptiles to be scarce in the Central Belt.

Adder - Vipera berus - iNaturalist observations.

Slow worm - Anguis fragilis - iNaturalist observations

Also, Slow worms *really dislike* Italy:

Bleached n Blobbed

 Fencepost of the Week #227

Sun bleached wood and blobs of moss. Lovely.

Some Weather

 Fencepost of the Week #226

Given the amount of weathering on display here here; I think there might be quite a lot of weather in the area where this fencepost is situated.

Heather

 Fencepost of the Week #225

A couple of nice, heathery fenceposts at eventide.

 

 

Dalriada Project Post

 Fencepost of the Week #224

When your path marker-posts look like this, you know you are in for a boggy time! ^_^

These posts, show the insigna of the Dalriada Project, which built a path network around The Kilmartin Glen area. 

The path was new (and posts completely devoid of lichen) in 2010. 

The path I took - between Cairnbaan and Dunadd - is holding up fairly well. It has some really excellent plastic boardwalk sections, but there are some slippery stone slab sections and some very slippery wooden plank sections, which would make me shy of recommending it for anyone without good balance.

Bog Pimpernel and an Imposter

 

bog pimpernel - Lysimachia tenella

bog pimpernel - Lysimachia tenella

This pretty little wild flower is bog pimpernel - Lysimachia tenella. It grows in marshy places. I found this one growing along side sundew and pale butterwort very near to one of my adder's tongue fern spots in Argyll.

bog pimpernel - Lysimachia tenella

Having found it once last summer, I have been keeping an eye out, to see if is coming up anywhere else. All through this spring, I kept seeing these plants in various places (not just bogs.) It is almost the same but not quite right. I had to wait till this May for one to flower so that I could identify it:

New Zealand willowherb - Epilobium brunnescens

New Zealand willowherb - Epilobium brunnescens. Which first got off the boat from New Zealand in Edinburgh in 1904 and has been spreading across the countryside ever since. Interestingly, the third record for it outside of Edinburgh is from Ardrishaig - not far from here in 1911.

New Zealand willowherb - Epilobium brunnescens

It does very well in the climate of northern and western Britain and colonises wet, bare ground - ditches and forestry tracks are likely spots, but also gardens and river banks.

New Zealand willowherb - Epilobium brunnescens

New Zealand willowherb - Epilobium brunnescens

Floating Islands

Fencepost of the Week #223

 

Photogrammetry Test: Glue Fungus

 

Glue fungus - Hydnoporia corrugata 

   

note: the white blobby stuff on the undeside of the twig is not real - it is an artifact caused by not being able to get a clear photo from beneath the subject.

If you would like to download the model - perhaps to view with different software, maybe even a vr headset - it should be available from dropbox - photgrammetry.

Photogrammetry Test - Ricasolia amplissima

 I'm experimenting with using photogrammetry for fungi and lichens:

 

 Ricasolia amplissima:

   

If you would like to download the model - perhaps to view with different software, maybe even a vr headset - it should be available from dropbox - photgrammetry.

Tis the Season

 Fencepost of the Week #222

Seasonal sixteen-legged sexy-times!

Saddleback Harvestman - Mitopus morio

Well... fourteen-legged, but nobody's perfect. ^_^

Big, Blobby Slime Mould

 

 Walking back from the polling station on the day of the general election - 4th July - I came across this large, pale slime mould newly emerging from a mossy, recumbent beech trunk. From the size and colour I assumed it was Brefeldia maxima. 

 

Over the next couple of weeks, I returned to the site to watch the spore mass develop. Through the first 48 hours, it turned a deep black-currant red.

...and then dried out and turned chocolate brown.

Brefeldia maxima has a well-formed, continuous skin covering the spore mass (called the cortex) and this slime mould did not, and on examining the spores with a microscope more discrepancies appeared: 

The retuculate spores and net-like capillitium suggest this could be Symphtocarpus amaurochaetoides. My main reservation about that id is that the spore mass was so much larger than it should be - about 40x12cm where the description (in 'The Myxomycetes of Britain and Ireland" by Bruce Ing) suggested 5cm diameter was usual.

You can monitor or contribute to this observation on iNaturalist, here.

 

 

On my last visit to check on the slime mould, a large sphere of spore mass had fallen off the log and landed on the forest floor. A dor beetle had found it, and seemed happily engrossed in rolling it around the leaf litter.

I just caught the tail end of the performance on video: dor beetle exit stage down to the consternation of the mites.

Double Barb

 Fencepost of the Week #221

Our safe little enclave, twice girdled in the rustiest of barbs.

Dark Rain

 Fencepost of the Week #220

Wonderfully Knotty

 Fencepost of the Week #219

Dark, Green Cup-filled Core

 Fencepost of the Week #218

Mossy Silver Lining

 Fencepost of the Week #217

Kintwear Post

 Fencepost of the Week #216

 Even while sporting this fancy sweater, our post still provides fertile ground for some moss and lichen development.

 

 

 

Stemonitis Development

 Develomental sequence for a slime mould - Stemonitis Sp. 

Growing on rotten Alder wood. From Millhouse,  Argyll. 7pm, 23 April 2024

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14 hr

 

 

40 hr

Rusty Question Mark

Fencepost of the Week #215