"Dirty sand"
When visiting Easington at the end of last year I was struck by a broad band of brown, dirty-looking, sand at the top of the beach. I collected a sample of this material which proved to be half as heavy again as normal beach sand.
The above image shows ordinary quartz beach sand (left) compared with the dark sand (right). This demonstrated how effective the wave action had been at sorting the heavy garnet (pink and red grains) from the transparent quartz. The black grains were a mixture of magnetite (iron oxide) and ilmenite (iron-titanium oxide), the former of which is highly magnetic. With a fridge-magnet I was able to extract 10% by weight of the grains.
Moral - don't rely on your compass at Easington!
Richard Middleton, 8 April 2021
Butterbur, Snuff Mill Lane
Annie Horne, 24 March 2021
A new local patch ...
As the lockdown was announced, a strong sense of déjà vu, what to do? how to fill the quota of wildlife I need to stay afloat from the madness of this world. I need a local patch, within walking distance, and diverse enough in habitats that it will keep me busy recording in it. So I decided onto Sculcoates square (TA0930), with a river, a drain, lots of scrubby, brownfield places and three cemeteries. I have planned to visit at least weekly year round and if you want to follow my patch adventures, check my web blog.
Africa Gómez, 9 January 2021
Stranded whales
On the 30th of December I headed to Withernsea to see the stranded Sperm Whales. I've never seen a stranded whale before and I was saddened by their misfortune, but incredibly curious to see these animals up close. Five whales were stranded and a team was carrying out the necropsies. The individual closest to Withernsea is pictured in the photo.
Africa Gómez, 9 January 2021
Botanists at work
Valerie Fairhurst, 1 January 2021
BSBI New Year Plant Hunt 2021
The BSBI organised the New Year Plant Hunt again this year, emphasising that participants must comply with any COVID restrictions in their area. For those who have not taken part before, the idea is to record all the flowering wild or naturalised plants that can be found during a 3-hour walk on a day during the New Year period, January 1st to 4th. Three members of the Society turned up for a walk round Beverley on January 1st. This is an area we have surveyed in previous years but, lacking any of our botanical heavyweights in the team, we only managed a total of 27 species compared to 42 in 2020 and 70 in 2019. Looking on the bright side, this is still significantly higher than the national average list length of about 18. The full list can be seen by going to BSBI results page and clicking the marker on the map. The weather turned out to be better than expected and it was a very enjoyable outing. Non-botanic highlights were a good view of a Grey Wagtail on Barmston Drain and the discovery of a group (or should that be a constellation?) of Collared Earthstars (Geastrum triplex).
Andrew Chadwick, 1 January 2021
Collared Earthstar - Beverley
Helen Kitson, 1 January 2021
Leucistic crow
As I walked by the Oak Road playing fields yesterday I noticed an odd bird feeding on the grass. I couldn't believe my eyes: it is a silvery crow! I remembered that Andy Gibson messaged me about such a bird on New Years Day. I went to find it the following day and I have been visiting the area regularly, so it has taken me over 4 months to find it. It is likely to be a genetic variant of the usual colour plumage, instead of it being due to poor nutrition (as exemplified by this very tame young bird at West Park). Carrion Crow young being fed on bread appear to suffer from discolouration of their primaries, and are more frequent around public parks. They might grow black feathers in their next moult, but in the meantime, the white feathers fray more easily and sometimes these crows look like they have to make more effort to fly.
Africa Gómez, 14 April 2021
Siskins
I've been for a long walk to the north limits of the city following the Beverley and Barmston drain. Had a close look at the Mistletoe, and nearby was a little flock of Siskin coming down to drink on a puddle after feeding on the Alders. Also had my first Colt's-foot by Oak Road Lake, and my 2nd picnic of the year!
Africa Gómez, 15 March 2021
Fungi on dead Holly leaves
After seeing a simple pictorial guide for identifying fungi which apparently only grow on the dead leaves of Holly, Ilex aquifolium, I examined some brown holly leaves from under a local hedge. Several leaves had black speckling on both the upper and lower surfaces (see photos). This is a characteristic feature of the Ascomycete fungus Phacidium lauri [Naturespot]; it has no common name according to the British Mycological Society. The small round speckles are pycnidia which release asexual spores (conidia), ie spores produced by mitosis [Assynt Field Club].
Two other species of fungi only found on dead Holly leaves are the Holly Speckle (another Ascomycete) and the Holly Parachute (a Basidiomycete).
The Holly Speckle, Trochila ilicina, can be identified by finer black speckling restricted to the upper surface of the leaf [Naturespot]. These speckles have a lid which ’flips’ open to allow the release of sexual spores [Assynt Field Club].
The Holly Parachute, Marasmius hudsonii, looks completely different. It emerges from a dead leaf as a minute mushroom with a slender stalk. The pale pinkish cream cap, 2-6 cm diameter, has a covering of red-brown hairs [First Nature]. This fungus is reported to be associated with moist Holly leaves. A feature of this genus is that a dried out mushroom can recover if rehydrated.
All three species would appear to have a wide distribution in the UK, with the Holly Parachute being the least recorded species (173 records on NBN). However there are only three entries on iRecord of these fungi from VC61: two for P.lauri and one for T.ilicina. Hence it seems that there is considerable scope to increase the reporting of these easy-to-identify fungi in Hull and the East Riding.
Richard Shillaker, 1 January 2021
Fungi on Holly leaves (2)
Upper (top) and lower (bottom) leaf surfaces.
Richard Shillaker, 1 January 2021