Mute Swan Cygnet Tir Founder Fields

 On looking on facebook last night i so a young swan being reported on Aberdare Marsh and i could see it was Tir Founder Fields and i went along this morning to see if it was well and looks very health  and most likey one of the cygnets from Abercumboi lake .

aberdare park

Local news I've just seen on facebook is that the lake as been drained for cleaning. It will be interesting  to see if it tops my WeBS up next Sunday at Tir founder fields. The fish were taken away and there loads of fresh water mussel's left in the mud.

 Still water in there and a lots of mud and leafs and the duck were still present and feeding in there.

 Egyptian Geese still on site.

Pretty and Deadly - Revised (again)

I was out and about yesterday and as usual. I spent my time mooching about in the dark and dingy places. I did the same last weekend and in the process came across this caged over mine adit, between Abernant and Llwydcoed. Although the cage had a couple of gaps around the edges that bats might use to enter and leave, someone had also created a bat slot on the main part.

According to the 1885 six inch to the mile Ordnance Survey map; this was an
ironstone level.

As for yesterday, my first mission was to check on a mystery fungus, at a site, near Cwmbach. I first found it at that site, in 2012, growing on the caps of the attractive Olive Oysterling (Panellus serotinus), which were colonising a standing, but rotten birch trunk. The mystery fungus (I think of it as the Werfa fungus) infects and kills some of the developing caps of the Panellus and then produces a forest of attractive, spine-like fungal bodies, which bear the spores.

Tilachlidium brachiatum on a withered Panellus serotinus cap.

If you look closely, you can see the stricken Panellus cap beween the spikes
(synnemata) of Tilachlidium brachiatum.

Apparently healthy caps and an infected one.

Some of the synnemata of Tilachlidium brachiatum mounted in Lactofuchsin; to
reveal the details x200. 

At x400, the clusters of spores can be seen attached to the main structures.

Since finding it, I have taken lots of photos of it, collected specimens, examined them microscopically and measured the spores and other features. I have searched and searched the web, but have found absolutely nothing which resembles it at all. I have never seen it anywhere else and as the colony of Panellus on that trunk is beginning to fail, I fear that the Werfa fungus (whatever it is) is ultimately doomed.

Stop Press:
Last night, I contacted Emma Williams about the possibility of her introducing me to one of the fungus experts in Kew about this fungus and included these photos in the email. Emma must have posted them on Facebook, because a Richard Shotbolt got back to her and suggested I look at Tilachlidium brachiatum and there it was: at last, after four years of getting nowhere, I finally have a name. There are, apparently, only four records of it in Wales, so all good stuff; however, this process has highlighted to me the fact that although just about everything is available on the web, finding just the right search term to locate it can be incredibly difficult.

While I was in the wood, where the Werfa fungus lurks, I had a pleasant surprise, when I came across an immature plant of the Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis), which being deciduous, was well on the way to dying back, but still recognisable. It grows in the coastal belt, in such places as Pant-y-sais fen and on Gower and the spores obviously get blown inland to us, but although the spores germinate, and young plants develop, they aren't quite hardy enough to withstand some of our harder winters, so get killed off. This one is in quite a sheltered spot, so maybe it will survive longer than most.

The Osmunda is the yellowy brown dying thing.

Another, slightly gruesome, discovery at Werfa was this unfortunate Brick (moth) which had accidentally flown into and impaled itself on a gorse spine. It was long dead by the time I found it.

Note: Since posting this and also posting this photo on the Glamorgan Moth Recording Group site, George Tordoff, Dave Slade and Howard Burt, have questioned whether it was impaled by accident or perhaps by a Shrike. When I first found it, the possibility of it being a Shrike's victim did cross my mind, but for some reason, the Werfa site doesn't seen right to me. Spurred into action by those queries I took a good look at the moth (which I had luckily collected). Now it isn't all that clear in this photo, taken through my microscope, but as well as the large wound in the lower abdomen, caused by the spine, there is also a large crush injury to the section of abdomen close to the thorax and on the thorax, there is a discrete area in which the hairs have been removed, perhaps indicating that the moth was grasped by a bird, with one mandible on the thorax and the other on the abdomen. Based on this damage, I have to concede that it is entirely possible that the moth was impaled by a Shrike and if so, it was within the last couple of weeks.

The Werfa fungus duly checked, I then moved to a strip of riverside woodland, near Robertstown, where I spent the rest of the afternoon. This woodland is dominated by Sycamore, and Ash, but there are a few other species, such as Beech, Oak, Alder and willows, as well as Hazel, Holly and Sloe.
While checking out the ground beneath a Holly, I notices a dead Ash branch partially hung up on a nearby tree and curious about the peculiar appearance of its twigs, I went and had a look.

On many of the thicker twigs and branchlets, was this attractively coloured crustose fungus, which felt jelly-like and slightly waxy. It was the contrast in colours within the body, between the older areas (orange) and the younger parts (greyish lilac) that drew my attention. I haven't had the chance to try to identify it yet, but I took some specimens, in case it comes to spores under the microscope.

Also on the twigs of that Ash branch were clusters of quite prominent and attractive nail head shaped fungi, in shades of orange and brown; the like of which I had never seen before.

Pretty and Deadly: to Ash trees, that is!

They were fairly large (up to 10mm diameter) and very photogenic, so I took some photos and also some specimens. When I got home, I had a look on the web and was a little shocked to find that they are the fruit bodies of Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, AKA ash die-back disease: no wonder I had never seen them previously.
Earlier, while in Cwmbach, I had been saddened to see obvious signs of ADD die-back in many of the numerous ash saplings that line the disused railway, but this was the first time I have encountered it in a mature tree.

On a happier note; although I wasn't really searching for it, I kept coming across my old friend Cobalt Crust (Terana caerulea) and most of it was looking really colourful. There was one small patch of it, on a dead willow branch, near Robertstown, that was probably the most colourful I have ever seen.

Actually, it doesn't look nearly as impressively blue and  vivid in these photos as it
did in real life.

Frost Bittern

 I had one of these days today and i  had Planned to go too Caerphilly Castle to see the Dragon Sculpture and on getting there bright and early , I found out it,s been keeped in the castle this time and in the past it,s been outside the Castle and it  did not open  and  till 10 am and I was there at 8 am and also there was a christmas market today and it would be crazy by than and when i walked around the castle i so a female Goosander  and a pair of Kingfisher . So i decided to  go on  to plan B and sit in the hide at forest farm and see if the Bittern appears and i got the Water Rail staight away and Kingfisher shorty after and i was Amazed to see him Diving and come out with a Dragon Fly Larvae and looking at  the size i would say Emperor Dragonfly and as always the kingfisher put on a great show and i was talking to a lady later and she said do you know Kingfisher are not real blue they are Brown and i thought she must be crazy and  i checking when i got home this what i found .There is no blue pigment in the feathers of a Kingfisher .The blue is a result of Structural  Colouration. The Structure of the Feathers [ Which are made up of Keratin like our Hair and Nails ] Scatters Blue light by a process called the Tyndall Effect.Visible White light is made up of loads of different colours of light [ Remember the song sing a rainbow ] Blue light has a shorter wavelength Compared to the other colours [ Except Violet ] At about 400 nano meters.This fact means that blue light is more easily reflected by particles in the feathers back towards our eyes [ Since  light is reflected when it strikes a particle of eqal or greater diameter to it,s Wavelength ]. This fact means that blue light is more easily reflected by particles in the feathers back towards our eyes [ Since light is reflected when it stikes a particle of equal or greater diameter to it,s  wavelenght ] . All the other colours pass staight through this reflected blue light reaches  our eyes and leads to us perciving the familar blue of the birds. Incidentally this is the same process by which we see the sky as blue . This colouration is not the resuit of iridescence , as it is in the colour on Hummingbirds ercetera.We can tell this because the Kingfisher still appears blue no matter what angle it is viewed from , whereas Hummingbird throat patches , for instance produced by iridescence appear and disapear depeding on the viewing angle .So the next tine you catch glimpse of blue darting past you or you marvel at a beautiful Kingfisher perched on a branch remember it,s not Blue  it,s Brown. and thats what a Elaine Turpin had to say and nice to know and it would make a great question in a pub quiz. As for the bittern i missed it by ten mintues and spend about 5 hours there today and i know how Mark felt when he went to spend a penny and missed the one at cossie on the bridge  all those  years ago . Today  was a good day and nice to see Adrian  murch out and about and he got the bittern.

 The jays were like hoovers and amazing how many peanuts they can put in there beak and strange it not to see any common snipe there today and i be back and yes the hide was freezing and yes i almost got frost bite,

Green Elf Cup

I found this in Robertstown last week on a pieces of Hazel and i was pretty sure i had seen it on the Glamorgan Fungus Page on Face Book and  Emma Williams Confirmed it was Green Elfcup and go to show could be in a couple of places in the Cynon Valley and i put this safe of the path and hopfully i will get to see the Elf cups. I also had a look for the Holy Parachute Fungus and was told to look in the fallen  leafs and i thought great and on looking i noticed that being a evergreen they lose very little leafs and  are harder to find than i thought it would be and i will keep looking and i was  look for holy leaf miner  phytomyza ilicis and i found this staight away and fairly common in robertstown and trecynon area .

above the country park

I was up on top  looking to see if  the Great Grey Shrike is back and i noticed they are taking the gas tanks down .Back to the shrike no sign and the wind turbine is right by the area where it,s been and they were on and i found them very loud and they were give me a headache and  I also checked the reservoir and had 3 male goosander on there and not alot elses .I also  checked  lower down  and  it looks real  good and kevin Hughes  had it here the begain of the year and still  no sign and now  the tree  have been felled  lower down and i could see the lower reservoir and not seen it before  .

 Due to the lack of birds I took  some frost shots

Surprised to see a Stonechat still above the country park

 This Red Kite was hanging about  a fair bit and so  it  twice.

 Ice Bubbles in a frozen puddle.

Llwyn-onn

Some poor heavily cropped distant record shots from this afternoon at Llwyn-onn northeast, viewed from rock outcrop opposite bird hide. If you look carefully you can just about make the bird out from the mud, bird feeding with grey wagtail so hopefully it will follow them down to the spillway giving closer views. 

The best of the last couple of weeks at Rhaslas; wigeon[c35], mute swan[2], tufted[16], lapwing[3], teal[7], pochard[1m], goldeneye[4], herring gull[495], canada goose[94], common snipe[3]. Raptor wise; red kite and buzzard most visits with female peregrine on the 15th and a male hen harrier on the 29th November.