This weeks midweek recording walk to Loch nan Ceardach was affected by the rain which, as forecast, got worse as the morning progressed, but we managed to reach the pub before the really heavy stuff came down.  It was too wet to take many photos, however the first one is a bit of a cheat as it shows toads mating in the loch during my quick recce a week earlier, which was on a very fine day. The loch was full of toads on that occasion, but yesterday all we could see were dead ones, probably attacked by Grey Herons. We also found spawn in various places away from water which was probably thrown up by herons or other birds after eating toads that had spawn inside them. Clearly the loch is a major breeding place and this will also attract birds. We did see and hear a Little Grebe on the loch .

Before reaching the loch we had a look round a birch wood with a sprinkling of ash trees, including one half-dead ash that had a rich coating of lichens including Sticta sylvatica, Sticta fuliginosa, Nephroma laevigata and Lobaria pulmonaria, all of which can be seen in Sallie's photo below to the right. There was one puzzling lichen with yellow dots on, which on examination appears to be an elderly Sticta colonised by an unknown yellow (green in good light) powdery species.

The fifth picture shows the cinder fungus that was on a bark less area of the ash, this is Hypoxylon multiforme, the Birch Woodwart, which we previously found on birch at Barnacarry. 90% of its records are on birch, the rest are on a variety of trees including, very infrequently, ash. Also found were three crustose lichens one on a birch tree, Pertusaria amara the bitter wart lichen, (taste it with a wet finger and it should be bitter) and two others on rocks which were identified as Fuscidea cyathoides and Lecidea lithophia.

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The picture below shows the small mushroom growing on sheep dung on the track after we passed the loch, which I think is Panaeolus semiovatus, which we also had on the Ellenabeich walk. This species rejoices in the English names of Dung Roundhead or Egghead Mottlegill, not sure which is worse. You can see the
mottled gills, due to the dark brown spores, in the picture to the right.

The total number of records will be less than on our other walks owing to the weather, but we did get some new species including the easily recognised mosses Ulota phyllantha and Hedwigia stellata.  

Thanks to all who took part!

Carl and Richard