First butterfly recordings for 2014

Both a Comma (photo above) and Small Tortoiseshell on the wing earlier this week.

It's spring because........

there is a wild daffodil in flower in Margaret's Wood. Soon the hillside there will be covered in them.

Scarlet Elf Cup

I found this striking fungus on some dead wood in the forest near the Biggs Weir bridge. It is Scarlet Elf Cup (Sarcoscypha coccinea. It is reputed to be edible but looked like it might be a little chewy and it seemed a pity to remove it.

It's waxcap central......

To my surprise there are extensive fruitings of waxcaps in the third of the main fields around the house. I was surprised to find them in a second field a few weeks ago but this field is less botanically diverse than the two other fields with waxcaps and I wasn't expecting them to be there. There are also fairly profuse. One interesting aspect is the timing of the appearance of the fungi in the different fields. They have only just appeared in this field which is probably about eight weeks after they fruited in one of the other fields. There seem to be around four species, a single robust H. citrinovirens and lots of H. chlorophana and I think H. ceracea. The fourth example which I have not identified is pictured above.

New Species - Common Darter

I haven't actually recorded a dragonfly on site before although I have spotted a few large hawkers. We have no ponds on site (yet) so I don't really expect dragonflies in any great quantity. However Common Darters are found away from ponds and one posed patiently on the doorstep yesterday so I thought it was time to kick off the Odonata species list.

Waxcap heaven

At last the waxcaps have appeared in the 'waxcap' field and in some profusion although the set of species is not the same as when I was lasy able to record them in detail in 2011. In fact I am struggling with some of the identification and await the only UK book on waxcaps which I have just ordered. There are also more waxcaps in the other field where they have appeared this year. In that field I have seen Meadow Waxcap (Hygrocybe pratensis) and what must be Snowy Waxcap (Hygrocybe virginea) to add to the species already seen there. In the main waxcap field there are a couple of the iconic Pink Waxcaps (Hygrocybe calytriformis)and swathes of other waxcaps including H. chlorophana (Golden Waxcap) and H. ceracea (Butter Waxcap) plus others I am still working on. The picture is of H. calyptriformis.

New Species - Eyebright

Another delightful flower seen for the first time in our fields this week is Eyebright. It is in a different field to the Red Bartsia I came across a couple of weeks ago. Eyebrights are difficult to differentiate, not only are there 20 microspecies but they hybridise. Our example looks to be Euphrasia nemorosa but I shall get an expert opinion when I can. Update - 20 September First of all I had a more structured effort at an ID and I decided that actually it was more likely to be E. rostkoviana (which has now been renamed E. officinalis). However today I got some more expert help and using a recently devised key we came to the conclusion that it is either E. confusa or E. nemorosa. One critical element of how erect it is points towards confusa but this flower is rarely found here in this neck of the woods, if at all, so maybe it is nemorosa. I shall take some measurements but unless something definite is found then a formal ID will have to wait until next year when some samples can be sent off.