Strange things rising from the depths...

 Rather strange islands have been rising from the depths of Loch Imrich. Large black lumps.... It looks as if as if part of the loch bed has floated up.

The ducks are finding them useful resting places.  A tree has also appeared recently with its bare branches resembling bones.

Loch Imrich

I have tried, without success, to find any explanation of what causes these lumps of sediment to detach from the loch bed and rise to the surface.  All I can think of is that there is a build up of gas (methane) as the sediment under the water decomposes and eventually it pushes a layer of the loch bed upwards. If anyone knows, please tell me!

I received an email via the Jungle Telegraph - when botanist friends share discoveries - about

another weird and wonderful plant that I had never heard of, let alone seen. This was the Yellow Bird's-nest  which was seen at Coylumbridge this summer.  Off I went to have a look.

Yellow Bird'snest

These plants are about 4 inches  (10 cm tall). Earlier in the year, the plants would have had white flowers, but the ones in the photo are fruiting.  There are no leaves, just brown scales up the stalks.  With no green parts at all, how does it get any nutrients? The answer is that its roots link up with a fungus  To quote from http://sppaccounts.bsbi.org/content/monotropa-hypopitys.html

"recent research shows that it is actually epiparasitic, using Tricholoma fungi to extract nutrients from living trees in its vicinity"

It's that wood-wise-web again. The fungus does not gain anything from the plant as far as we know.  This plant was last recorded in the area in 1875!  Surprisingly, the plants were easily visible from the pavement on a road that is walked by hundreds of people every day so it is always worth keeping an eye out for anything new - you might make an important discovery. 

If you want to look it up, it is now called  Hypopites montropa, though in my older books it was called  Monotropa hypopites. Hypopites means "under pines" and it was indeed growing in some pine needles in a pinewood.