I wrote a long post which somehow got deleted so this one will be a bit briefer!
I spent several days at Glenmore Lodge on a lichen course which I had helped to organise. The weather forecast was dire but we escaped with just one downpour which was fortunately just as we got back to our cars.
The format of each day was to go for a walk in the morning to different habitats and then spend the afternoon with our microscopes, as many lichens can't be identified without finding spores.
Most things about lichens are small so you have to get up close and personal to see them well.
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| Maybe something interesting on this dead log? |
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| Or these big rocks? |
Lichens are quite fussy about where they grow - some like rocks, others like trees, others like dead logs.
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| Even a dead stump can attract a host of lichenologists! |
My garden is full of flowers and wildlife at the moment. There was a small (5cm) Common Newt under a log.
It was near the pond - which might explain why my tadpoles disappeared as newts eat tadpoles.
A Bee Beetle was on a Scabious flower.
And a pair of blackbirds have been following me around as I garden, collecting food. Here is the female in the compost heap.
My bamboo plant has flowered this year for the first time. This might be bad news as they can die after that. They are a grass, and I have some news about grasses in my next post.
