Taxidermy interlude: Wheatear

 Here's a juvenile wheatear I finished on Saturday.

The wheatear is a summer visitor in this country, they like to hop and run around open ground in upland habitats eating insects. The adults have very striking colouration and the name comes from a linguistic corruption of 'white arse' from the prominent white rump. This unfortunate chap was spotted after it clunked into a window at SASA during high winds last year.

 He was very fiddly to do, I would say even more so than the robin and its larger! Songbirds have paper thin skin so it's very easy to perforate if you're not careful. His right eye was damaged, i tried to reconstruct the eyelid with the aid of superglue but it was a fiddly job and didn't turn out that great. His left side looks ok though.

Next on the list is either a grey squirrel, rabbit, or stoat with a vole...vote now!


In other news, we've discovered we have another bluetit using our birdbox to roost in :)

 

Lets hope he or she will find a mate and build a little nest in there in the spring.

RSPB Volunteers day

If you have been following my adventures you will know that I recently did a two week stint at RSPB Forsinard reserve. Shortly after I returned I received an invitation to the RSPB Volunteer Day in Stirling, which was nice! It was held in the university and comprised of a main hall featuring stands from BTO, iSpot, Butterfly Conservation, Marine Conservation Society and various reserves.
The day began with a  welcome talk by the director, Stuart Housden, where success stories were shared and the RSPB's change in focus was outlined (as you may have seen in the recent advertising campaign 'Give Nature a Home'). The change in image is a lot to do with the importance of conserving ecosystems and biodiversity within them rather than just focusing on key species. The RSPB have had this wider approach for quite a while however the general public tend still to think 'birds' when someone mentions the name, rather than all of nature. There is evidence that these perceptions are changing, which is brilliant of course, and also the knowledge that organisations such as RSPB are working alongside other conservation charities large and small for the benefit of nature.

There were a series of workshops available in the morning and afternoon, and I prebooked on Owl Pellet Dissection just before lunch (!) and RSPB Loch Lomond in the afternoon. I have picked apart owl pellets before but was keen to go into a bit more detail and find out what species the various bones inside belonged to. For those who can't tell puke from poo - pellets are the regurgitated remains of a bird's meal, which can include indigestible parts such as bones, claws, fur and feathers. In the gizzard the rest of the fleshy parts are dissolved by acidic juices and digested, the remains are then thrown back up around 6 hours after the meal has been eaten. They are often found around favourite perches near fenceposts or barn doors etc.
Our pellets had been presoaked to make it easier to pull out small bones. They were also crawling with clothes moth larvae and pupae to make it even more fun :) As you pull the dark mass apart you immediately start to see skulls, both intact and in bits, mandibles and then larger leg bones such as the femur, then working down to rib bones and finally tiny tarsus and metatarsus.

Apologies for the rubbish phone photo

In my pellet there were a couple of field vole (a rodent) skulls along with 3 common shrew skulls! You can tell the shrew by it's wedge-shaped cranium and sometimes you can see the tips of the jagged insectivorous teeth are red in colour. One vole tooth was able to be pulled out of the lower jaw and it was almost the length of the entire jaw itself! This is due to rodents wearing down their teeth gnawing on things and so they need to grow continuously.
We also got to take some dried pellets home so I gave them to R as a present. Here's a good guide for identifying small bones

After a free lunch (heyhey!) it was time for the second workshop which involved learning about the latest site acquired by the RSPB at Loch Lomond. This site is being viewed as a clean slate and so the staff were looking for ideas from volunteers on what sort of things we would expect to see and want at a reserve. There were three tables each with a different topic each: Wildlife Watching, Volunteering and I forget the third and after a bit of discussion we wrote down our contributions, swapped round and noted if we agreed with the other groups suggestions and added our own. It was quite amusing as most of the volunteers were of the older variety and some of the suggestions were quite stereotypical :)

To round off the day there were a few talks on the All Nature programme, bird monitoring and reserves in the east of Scotand. Unfortunately I had to leave after the first one but managed to hear all about the bugs so I was happy enough! I'm hoping to visit the site of the new reserve and check it out, and maybe someday when it's open I can volunteer there.

Shakin the Trees

About a week ago R and I headed across the road to North Kelvin Meadow, a small but important plot of land amongst the tenements which is currently subject to unwanted planning applications to build some crappy houses all over it. Its been a haven for dog walkers and kids in the area for a few years now, as well as having a diverse selection of wildlife, including invertebrates!

We took along a couple of white trays and a hand lens and had a good shake of the hedgerows and trees to see what fell out.

We found:

Springtail (Entomobrya intermedia)

Harvestman (Paroligolophus agrestis)

Sawfly larvae

Barkfly larvae

 

 This gorgeous member of the Crab spiders

A typical leafhopper adult

A teeny tiny weevil (Apionidae)

What I reckon is a potato leafhopper but as leafhoppers are quite variable its hard to be sure!

A big fat female Garden Cross spider.

This cute little sawfly larvae

A kind of sac spider.

Adalia bipunctata

A two spot ladybird (Quadrimaculata).

Why don't you have a go in your garden or park and see what you can find - all you need is a light coloured tray (washing up bowl would do!) or a white sheet stretched over a wooden frame, hold it under the bush or tree while you give it a good shake. Remember to return the organisms to the area where you found them :)

TCV - Introduction to Invertebrate Survey Techniques

Hello!
Last Friday I took part in a free training course offered by The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) at their office in Stirling which was handy as it's not far on the train.

The workshop offered a general introduction to invertebrates and the groups and orders within. I learned there are 26 species of Harvestmen in the UK, 17 of which are present in Scotland - who knew! I also discovered that species which undergo an incomplete metamorphosis from larvae to adult (that is to say they go, egg - nymph - moultmoultmoultmoult - adult) are Hemimetabolous, which includes cockroaches, dragonflies, earwigs and the like. Those which do a full on complete metamorphosis (egg - larvae - pupae- adult), for instance ladybirds and butterflies, are Holometabolous.

After lunch we moved on to actual survey techniques which you'll need if you want to study these wonderful creatures at close range. The various types of moth traps were explained, and which ones were best for portability and effectiveness. Next were pitfall traps, where you dig a small container like a plastic cup into the ground with the lip flush with the ground level, leave it overnight and see what unsuspecting beasties have fallen in the next day. Also water traps which are brightly coloured bowls filled with some water with a dash of washing up liquid to break the surface tension, unfortunately these result in a watery death for the insects that are attracted to them. Apparently wasps are attracted to white most of all, so bear that in mine when you're picnicking next summer. Simple methods like beating trays, where you have a large white sheet stretched over a wooden frame and then hold it under bushes while you shake the foliage to see what falls out, and sweep netting which involves vigorously swishing a sturdy fabric net to and fro among plantlife, are basic but very effective ways of surveying.
We also discussed walking transects and the best times of year to carrying them out (May to September if anyone is interested) and then turned to aquatic techniques including kick sampling (disturbing the sediment and then sweeping your net to catch anything) and water sweeping (similar to terrestrial sweep netting).

After some pointers on the best places to submit any data you collect (irecord - www.brc.ac.uk.irecord) we headed out to the TCV garden for a pond sweep. I've done a few kick samples and pond sweeps myself however I was surprised at the density and diversity of this one! Check out all the goodies - Newt larvae, ramshorn snails, great pond snail, lesser and greater water boatmen, non-biting midge larvae, caddisfly, hoglouse, waterfleas and tons of tiny zooplankton.

Newt nymph and Great Pond Snail

Caddisfly larvae (centre) and Lesser Water Boatman

Ramshorn snail

Backswimmer (Greater Water Boatman)

We then had a look at a couple of pitfall traps which had been put out the night before and were bustling with rove and ground beetles. A quick look around the rest of the garden found 7-spot ladybirds huddling together in dried out knapweed flower heads.

We then walked along near Stirling castle and caught a few different types of hoverflies, including the Marmalade and the Sunfly, as well as several types of tree and frog hoppers, money spiders, common flower bugs, woodlice, earwigs and millipedes. Certainly a fruitful day for inverts and free too!

Tasty brambles

 

 

 

 

 

I bagged this gorgeous orb weaver spider..and put it back obviously

Raspberry Pipistrelles

On the evening of the 4th September we went out to Loch Ardinning, near Milngavie for a Bat walk and moth trapping night organised by Mugdock Country park and the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

It was the perfect weather for it, even down to the midges providing snackettes for the bats we were hoping to spot and hear. The two species we were listening out for with the bat detectors were soprano pipistrelles (it was only relatively recently discovered that there were two separate species of pipistrelle) and Daubenton's bats (who tend to hunt over and near water).

With the detectors turned to 55Hz we found a clearing in the trees and everyone was soon ping-ponging their heads back and forth tracking the feeding bats flying above. Their high-frequency echolocation clicks are translated to a wet slapping sound through the bat detectors, which quickens and ends up sounding like someone blowing a raspberry when they home in on a midge!
Listen to the video and you'll see what I mean -

No signs of Daubenton's were found at the loch unfortunately so we wandered along to where the first moth trap was set up, a Robinson with a terribly high UV light which was attracting all sorts of night flying insects. Of the species I can recall there were July High Flyers, Square Spot Rustic, Yellow Underwing, Garden Carpet and Common Wainscot among many other pedestrian looking micromoths (of which there are approximately a bajillion species in the UK alone).

There was (half of) a Skinner moth trap set up in the bushes nearer the loch not far away so it could be seen if there were any difference in the species caught. There were some new faces as well as a lovely chunky carrion beetle which Richard Sutcliffe of the Butterfly Conservation Society spotted just shortly after starting to talk about the trap. The guys had also tubed some moths they caught earlier and so those were passed around with everyone trying to remember the names and identify them on their own with varying degrees of success.

If you are interesting in more fun and frolicks involving bats and moths, then why don't you check out these websites?

http://www.bats.org.uk/
http://butterfly-conservation.org/
http://www.buglife.org.uk/local/buglife-scotland

Forsinard farewells

Well the memory card has recovered from its aquatic adventure and I'm now able to bring you exciting photos from the first 'Fish Day' on Tuesday! Woo yay!

We were joined by Colin Bean from SNH who was up to train the RSPB staff in how to catch and anesthetise brown trout in the reserve lochs for a mark and recapture project to get an idea of fish numbers. There were 7 of us which was just as well as the seine net we were casting was 40 meters long!

Argo beats the boggy ground

 Equipment included:

• Argo 8x8 for getting the stuff across the bog
• inflatable dinghy + oars
• scales, forceps, scissors, measuring board, bags etc
• 40m seine net
• gill net
• various small nets
• 4 big dustbins and several small buckets
• recording equipment
• waders, drysuits and lifejackets

As you'd imagine it was a full on job - the gill net was set up first and left out all day while we did four casts of the seine. The first two produced 1 trout in each which wasn't that great but better than nothing, then nowt in the third, however on the fourth and last cast a mighty haul of 60-odd brown trout were landed and needed to be processed fast.

"We're gonna need a bigger boat"

Smiley happy fishermen

Ready for piscine action

Colin, Mark and Graham paying out the net

Mark and Claire pulling it back in

First catch of the day

...and they kept coming

Unfortunately because it was a fairly sunny day the water temperature was quite high and the fish in the bins were not too happy even with the oxygen pumps going, so sad to say we had a few casualties before we got them processed. However today we had caught 51 and we had far fewer fatalities as the production line was much slicker! Fish were placed in a bucket of dental anesthetic and when they were sufficiently woozy were then measured, weighed, had their adipose fin clipped and scales taken before being placed in a recovery tank and finally released. I might get some of the photos of the fin snipping and today's shenanigans to show you at a later date.


Going back to Saturday I had got the train up to Thurso for the day to have a toddle about and see what I could see. There wasn't much in the way of beachcombing finds but I did spot this graffiti -

Original Banksy in Thurso?

 I've no idea if it's genuine or not. I did find a whole undamaged urchin shell and was planning to take it home but it was far too brittle and ended up breaking in my pocket.

Tomorrow is my last day at Forsinard Flows reserve and I'm a wee bit sad to leave to be honest, even though the work has been tough at times I've had an enjoyable stay, probably got a bit fitter and met some great people. I've already decided I'll be back next year and hopefully help out on some more invert and fish work!

Forsinard Station and RSPB visitor centre

The lovely horse from across the road

Sphagnum, it's everywhere

Also tomorrow I'm back on dipwells in the forestry - yay! Here's a lovely dappled sunlit photo of one from yesterday.

An absolutely stunning example of a dipwell in plot DK3

Always go out on a funghi

Forsinard Beasties

Hi folks, today I can only provide pictorial evidence of my endeavours for Friday's work, as today while catching fish in a seine net I managed to drop my own and someone else's camera into the loch. Ahem. So it's drying out for a couple of days. Anyway on Friday I was based at the Keepers cottage shed (which is quite a large shed) sorting through the colonisation traps that we brought in from Clar loch last week. It involves unrolling the little rectangles of astroturf that have been in the loch for 6 weeks, sloshing them about in a shallow sorting tray, then picking through the murk to find any inverts, and plonking them in a nice little tube of alcohol where they can die happily drunk. I think it's been my favourite activity so far, and one that I'm really comfortable with having carried out a few kick sample surveys myself in the Kelvin. Plus I got to listen to my music while I was working :)

Sorting inverts to Opeth

The rolled up astroturf provides a great little shelter for all sorts of beasties to make their homes in to escape from predators. Among the rafts of caddisfly larvae there were also water fleas, diptera larvae (more commonly known as bloodworms), the odd small leech, one gammerus (freshwater shrimp), mites and some teeny tiny black beetles. Some required a little persuasion to get between the ends of my forceps and into the tube!

Caddis case with a glorious surrounding lawn!

Among all the usual suspects there was a large flying insect which seemed happy rowing along in the water, but myself and my housemates had some difficulty trying to identify. However, rather than being some amazing bog beast new to science it turned out to be a half-hatched caddisfly...you live and learn!

The beast of Clar loch

On Monday I was back in the woods doing dipwell surveys again and I'll be doing the same tomorrow and Friday, hopefully avoiding getting stuck or losing a welly in the boggy pools this time!

Today was quite exciting as the team were getting some training from Colin Bean at SNH in how to carrying out fish surveys in the loch using gill and seine netting. The aim is to catch, mark (by snipping off a little bit of the fish's adipose fin) and then release so that the RSPB can get an idea of the fish populations of the lochs. This is to assess how much impact the fish might have on the food web of invertebrates and the Common Scoters. We had a couple of non-starters with the netting at first but then we hit the jackpot, and hopefully once my camera has dried out I'll tell you all about it next time.

Forsinard Forests

The update on the water situation here is still that we haven't got much....we've got plenty bottles to use for cooking and washing but the 4 of us have had to visit a bunkhouse about 15 mins drive away to get a nice hot shower. After walking the whole day on the bog carrying about 20kilos of kit its such a luxurious relief to be clean at the end of the day!

Anyway enough moaning, I'll tell you what I got up to yesterday and today.

From forest...

To bog! (almost)

As I mentioned previously,the RSPB is undertaking a 'Forest to Bog' project, and as a result a variety of surveys need to be carried out. Yesterday I was out with Paul Stagg in Dyke forest checking dipwells. This is to check moisture levels in dammed and undammed areas of forestry to see if conditions are right for sphagnum and other mosses to colonise the area and transform it to bog once the trees have been felled. It involves following a map of 20 marked dipwell locations throughout the forest, with a tray to sit on, a meter stick with a tube attached, moisture meter, thermometers and various forms to fill in. Once you get there you need to measure the depth of any water in the well by blowing through the tube as you lower it and stopping when you hear bubbles, fight off the midges, stick the moisture meter and thermometer in the ground and take readings. Not too difficult but being left in a massive forestry area on your own in the gloom is quite exciting.

Measuring intently

Hey, check this thermometer!

There was a lot of crazy fungi action...

...and a couple of froggy friends to keep me company!

Today I was back on the Loch with Mark Hancock who was taking sediment grab samples while I collected invertebrate colonisation traps. There are 10 quadrats around the loch, which consist of two bricks on a length of rope stretched out into the loch. The bricks have two small rolled up pieces of astroturf cabletied to it which provides a nice cosy environment for invertebrates such as caddisflies to move into.

The turf and any moving things are tweezed off the brick and washed out the net and then bagged and tagged ready for me to sort out tomorrow!

A colonised brick

Caddisfly, out of its case

Lovely example of a Caddisfly case on a piece of vegetation

One of the best things about today was the variety of wildlife we spotted. On our way out in the morning I saw a water vole scurrying away up the bank! It was like a massive dark moley rat. We also saw a Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Kestrel, two broods of Common Scoters and a couple of Black-Throated Divers.

 

Merlin in flight

 

CLEG!

Today was light on the midge front, but I was served some bitey realness by the horseflies, or clegs as they are commonly known. They have the most horribly well adapted mouthparts which part fur and hair and slice your skin up enabling them to have a good sook at your lifejuices while you flail ineffectually.

Hopefully tomorrow it will just be the midges I'll need to deal with as I'll be in the shed all day sorting through samples and drinking tea.