ONE WEEK

One week remaining in June before firing up the engines for the new vismig season!

Midsummer

Not much happening in the Divit birdwise - a few post-breeding returners possibly. Flowers are nice with Stinking Iris and Perforate St.John's Wort in flower

3-spined Stickleback

In Prestonhill Quarry, a male Stickleback tends to the eggs. There was a shoal of small fish close by which I thought were Minnows maybe, but they wer too fast to photograph and too much in the murk to see clearly

Psathyrella candolleana

Psathyrella candolleana

Psathyrella are also known as "brittlestems", which is very apt as this mushroom literally fell apart on being handled if not careful. Both cap and stipe broke very easily.

Nichol genus key
Spores very dk brown/purple/black
Cap scaly? n
Cap pleated? n
Gills decurrent? n
Stipe ring? n
Cap ylw-brwn? n
Small, conical? n
Brittle stalk, stipe silver/white? Yes!
-> Psathyrella

Philips
Cap 2-6cm, bell-shaped becoming flattened, pale ochreous-brown drying near white
Stem 40-80x4-8mm, white, fragile, hollow
Flesh: white. thin
Smell: not distinctive
Gills: adnate, crowded, greyish lilcac darkening to dark brown
Spores: 6-8x3.5-4um, elliptical/ovate, print dark brown/purple
Very common

 

Divitwatch changing course

 In line with Cataloguing Cullaloe Divitwatch will now become the place where all things Divit are placed (including potentially Carlingnose). There are some interestnig things there which I don't see elsewhere, so I will begin to place them here. To start with a couple of nice wildflowers that I haven't seen elsewhere - Columbine and Weld. Sweet Cicely is already in see - I didn't even see it in flower!

Mown grass around the harbour

Columbine

Sweet Cicely

Weld

You wait for a bus and then...

... Sedge Warbler and Garden Warbler both show up together. Both new additions to my Divit list, and not only for the year. One of the benefits of spreading the coverage to the south side of the harbour. No Lesser Whitethroat this time though.

I had hoped that Sedge Warbler would show up eventually as a fringe species, but I would never have guessed where. As it happened it was in scrub between the coastal path and the river.

Terns back

Common Terns returned to the Divit this morning with about 10-ish frolicking around and making a din.A handful of Swallows also making their way north, but otherwise pretty quiet.