A brace of squirrels and 2 lichens

 My squirrel surmises were proved when I went to empty the  kitchen compost, to see 2 squirrels chasing each other in the garden.  In front of my eyes, they ran into the rabbit trap and were both cross at being cooped up with their rival.  Luckily for them, as I had seen it happen, they were soon released.  It was difficult to get a photo as they were very active, but I did get a few seconds of video before I let them go and they both scampered up a nearby birch tree.

The season is feeling increasing spring like, with the Wood Anemones out, Dandelions blooming and Danish Scurvy Grass flowering alongside the road (opposite the Balavil in Newtonmore).  This is the plant that enjoys (or tolerates?) the salt that is spread on the road each winter.

I spent some time in Grantown-on-Spey recently, and while waiting for a friend, had a wander around some of the streets looking for lichens. Many of the large older houses had low stone walls separating the gardens from the pavement, and the old sandstone capping stones were worth a look.  Two distinctive lichens caught my eye.  The first one had huge black apothecia - well, huge for lichens - when you consider that sometimes the fruiting bodies are just fraction of a millimetre across.  These ones were about 3mm across. Its name is Porpidia macrocarpa.  Macrocarpa means big fruits. 

Porpidia means "pore in a ring" but I don't know why,  However, another lichen on the same wall was more deserving of the "in a ring" description.  Here it is, with the black apothecia in concentric rings:

This is Rhizocarpon petraeum.  To check, I had to find some spores by slicing one of the black apothecia and looking at it under the microscope. I was glad I did as they are an amazing shape.

I've made the photo big so that you can see the spore structure.  The spores are the boat shaped things and their insides are broken up into lots of little compartments, a bit like a brick wall, which is why this structure is called "Muriform" - muri means wall (think of mural). This was the first time I was sure I had found this species, but if you look at any stones up Glen Banchor you are likely to see another really common Rhizocarpon lichen: " Map lichen" (Rhizocarpon geographicum).

A walk in Glenmore and bloody lichens!

 Success! The rabbit was tempted by some cauliflower leaves and has now been relocated to Glen Banchor, no doubt to its relief as it will no longer be on its own, and definitely to mine as I can now get on with planting out  the flowers I have been nurturing all winter.

Rabbit awaiting relocation

The sunny weather has been perfect for tackling the overgrown areas of the garden and as I have been digging, I am finding buried hazelnuts in their shells.  As there are no hazel trees nearby, I assume that someone is feeding the squirrels and then they are burying the nuts in my garden.

One sunny day, we went to Glenmore and had a walk up a forest track.  There were several wood ant nests which look like mounds of pine needles.  Scotland has its own species of wood ant which is not found elsewhere in the UK. The ants were gathered in groups on the surface of the nest presumably absorbing the warmth of the sun, as on the way back we noticed they had moved further round their mound to keep in the sunshine.  Like all insects, ants are cold-blooded and cannot generate their own body heat.

Alongside the track was a dead Scots pine, a granny pine which had grown in its natural shape rather than the straight up and down trunks that you get in a plantation.

There was a lichen on one of the branches, a white background with black spots,

This turned out to be the Bloody Heart lichen (Mycoblastus sanguinarius) as when you scratch off the black spot ( apothecium) there is a red colour underneath.  Here is a thin section of one of the apothecia, in water so these are the natural colours.

This lichen also grows on the birch trees in Glen Banchor. You can see the red colour peeking through.

There is another lichen in Glen Banchor that grows on the rocks - the Blood Spot lichen.  This time it is the apothecia that are red. Given the shape, maybe this one deserves the name of Bloody Heart lichen!