Fording the Feshie

Last month I met with the Highland Biological Recording Group (HBRG) to do a Bioblitz on a patch on land in Glen Feshie.  It is part of the area owned by Wildland, who wanted to know what was in a particular area to give a baseline survey before they undertook interventions.  The idea of a Bioblitz is that you record everything you find that is alive (apart from the people!) and I wanted to look at the lichens whilst others recorded fungi, plants, insects and anything else that hopped or flew past.

The Feshie

The area where we were recording was on the other side of the Feshie from the road, so we were ferried across the ford in a vehicle.

The ford across the Feshie

We were lucky with the weather which was dry, though the midges were plentiful. Too plentiful for my husband who decided to return before the vehicles came back and forded the Feshie in his bare feet!   I found a few lichens that particularly interested me, on Scots Pine.  

A new one for me was Hypogymnia farinacea. Not surprising that I had not seen it before as there are very few records, though it had been found in Glen Feshie before but on an Alder. It looks very similar to the common Hypogymnia physodes except that the soralia (the powdery looking bits) are all over the lobes rather than just at the tips.

Hypogymnia farinacea

There was plenty of Hypogymnia physodes as well, though I did find one thallus with an apothecium on it – never seen that before!

Hypogymnia physodes with apothecium ringed in red

A large fallen trunk had a pattern of black lines following the grain of the wood which I thought looked rather beautiful. This is actually a lichen called Xylographa parallela.

I didn't entirely ignore the plants I saw, though I find it hard to combine botany recording with recording lichens on the same trip, so I usually stick with one or the other.

There was some Common Mouse-ear (Pilosella officinarum) in bud looking like a boiled sweetie:

And a new plant for me, Mountain Sorrel (Oxyria digyna), growing in the shingle. Presumably the seeds were washed down in the water from higher up.

Mountain Sorrel

Other excitements were seeing 3 Capercaillie which flew across the road as we drove in. I had never seen one “in the flesh” before.  And to cap it all, I found a Capercaillie feather elsewhere on a tree stump. A brilliant day.