Hull Nats News 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

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

Collared Earthstar - Beverley

Helen Kitson, 1 January 2021

Wawne - top 20 garden birds 2020

Over 2020 I kept a daily record of all (identifiable) birds seen or heard from our Wawne garden. Travel restrictions and cancelled holidays resulted in an unbroken sequence of 366 lists with 47 observed species. The above chart shows the frequency of occurrence (as a % of days listed) of the twenty most frequent species.

Goldfinch has been the clear winner, with small "charms" being lured by sunflower hearts several times during most days.

The quietness of the lockdown gave 28 days of Skylark song and even the Cuckoo managed to make it onto two lists. The discipline of keeping a constant look-out for something new has been quite rewarding, resulting in both Yellow and Grey Wagtails, Curlew, Blackcap and Chiffchaff. Although it was a very simple exercise it has yielded quite an interesting base-line data set which is going to take some time to analyse.

Richard Middleton, 3 January 2020

Red-crested Pochard

Chris Sulston spotted this female Red-crested Pochard on East Park lake at the end of last year. They occur commonly in Europe, but are fairly rare visitors or escapees in the UK. East Park has a good selection of waterfowl and is well worth a visit.[AC]

picture- Chris Sulston