Wood-chip Fungus

Agrocybe rivulosa on woodchip, Melincwrt

Agrocybe rivulosa was first discovered in Holland in 2003. By 2004, it was found in Britain and has since spread throughout the country, growing exclusively (as far as I am aware) on wood-chip or mulch. This large troop of specimens was found this weekend on a wood-chip pile in Melincwrt, near Resolven. This is the first time I've seen it in Neath Port Talbot.

Because it is a new addition to the fungus 'flora' of Britain, it isn't described or illustrated in many books. For example, it isn't included in the revised edition of Roger Phillip's Mushrooms.  However there are several good photos on line and one in the Collins Complete Guide to British Mushrooms & Toadstools (Paul Sterry and Barry Hughes, 2009). There is also an illustration in the Collins Fungi Guide (Stefan Buczacki, Chris Shields and Denys Ovenden, 2012), but that doesn't show the most distinctive features of this species. The young, expanding fruiting bodies have a distinctive ring on their stems and a pale, wrinkled cap. The wrinkled-skin like appearance of the cap cuticle is very noticeable, as shown in the photo below. The gills are pale at first, then turn a dark grey-brown due to spore production.

Young specimens of Agrocybe rivulosa

Older specimens seem to develop a darker cap colour (see top photo), especially when wet, but this feature is rarely mentioned in guide books.

Fishy Tales from Llanelli: a Modern Mystery

My neighbours` daughter, who lives in Dafen, Llanelli, brought me a fish yesterday that her cat had brought to her house last Friday (18th October). She had shown it to her brother, who has a general interest in natural history and fishing, and he thought that it was a sturgeon. It was clearly a very immature specimen, being just over 9" or so long.

Sturgeon can achieve considerable size, with the largest British ever one taken by rod actually being caught in Carmarthenshire, at Nantgaredig on the R Tywi back in 1933; another was caught in Pembrokeshire waters more recently.
For Glamorgan, Lewis Weston Dillwyn in his always very useful Materials for a Fauna and Flora of Swansea (1848), stated that, ` in some years they are much less frequent than in others`....and....`in March 1836, one was caught in the weir opposite Singleton and weighed about 210 lbs. In June 1808, a large sturgeon was taken close to Loughor, and another has been caught nearer to the mouth, in the same river.`
TW Barker`s very slim Natural History of Carmarthenshire (1905) simply offers the snippet, `a sturgeon makes its way up the Towy [Tywi] at rare intervals, much to the detriment of the nets of the coraclemen`.
The 1933 Nantgaredig individual was 9ft 2" long and weighed 388 pounds, and a famous photograph of this catch shows it strung up and towering over the man who caught it, a Mr Alec Allen. After the latter died in 1972, he arranged for his ashes to be scattered into the Tywi at the very spot where he had caught this Leviathon.
So, is the Dafen find of last Friday really one of this rare fish? It would be nice to think so, with perhaps this unfortunate juvenile making its way up the Afon Dafen (a small, much modified minor river) which is quite close to the finder`s home.
However, an internet search shows that non-native sturgeon are sometimes stocked into fishing lakes with online quotes suggesting, ` some shady angling waters have been buying sturgeon from the pet centres and letting them out`. They apparently can be bought for garden ponds and are non-native Russian species, in particular, `sterlets` Acipenser ruthenus. I don`t know what degree of regulation is applied by the authorities, but also close to where the cat brought in the afore-mentioned individual, is Dafen Pond, a site that is much used for coarse fishing and owned by the local authority. I hope that this is not a repeat of the fiasco that occurred in the Millennium Coastal Park Llanelli, where in arguably unrestrained eagerness to let out ponds to a fishing group, the lease was given to a particular group of fishermen (long since disappeared!), who alledgedly introduced the non-native topmouth gudgeon, which has since required a very expensive eradication programme (paid ultimately by the taxpayer) undertaken by the Environment Agency (now part of NRW). I hope that the latter are nowadays more careful in their monitoring of fishing waters.

Can you spare a morning for Gower Tree Sparrows this winter?

Andrew Lucas wrote:
Regular readers of Gower Wildlife will know the effort put in to try to support western Gower’s dwindling tree sparrow population.  A small breeding group at the derelict Newton Farm near Scurlage was present for many years, but despite nestboxes and supplementary feeding, appears to have disappeared.  However, birds are still occasionally seen, most recently a single bird in a garden in Rhossili in 2013.

I met with colleagues from the City and County of Swansea recently to discuss what we should do now.  We have a number of initiatives with local farmers, many of whom are very enthusiastic about farmland birds in general.  But we also need a systematic survey of likely areas where tree sparrows my still be present.  They can be very secretive, and often live in places that birders tend not to go.

There are five key tetrads that need checking for tree sparrows – and other farmland birds like yellowhammers and reed buntings – this winter.  They are SS48 J, P and N, and SS49 F and K.  In addition, there is a sixth area, a group of three 1km squares near Rhossili.  There are loads of footpaths to walk, so if everyone who reads this blog just spared one morning this winter to look at a tetrad, we would have comprehensive information on how many tree sparrows are still present, and where we should target future efforts.  And, for the rarity-minded birder, don’t forget: the 2009 gyr falcon was found during tree sparrow survey work!

If you decide to take a look, please let me know.  You can contact me at andrew.lucas@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk .  Many birders (appropriately enough!) are now using twitter, where you can find me at @AndrewLucas103.  Tell me what you find even if you don’t see any birds.

I’m sure that, between us, we can get all six areas looked at least twice this winter.  I know many of you are already busy with WEBS or the winter thrush survey.  But, working together, I’m sure we can find out more about Gower’s most enigmatic bird.

Garden Hedgehogs

Video HERE from last night showing one of the two that are visiting our hedgehog feeding station (i.e. cat food under a stone step, where the cats can't reach it). Looks like it's either cleaning its face or scent marking?

Invertebrate miscellany

A few common insects recorded in and around Gorseinon this morning; still plenty to see despite the weather:

Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) queen on Small Scabious
captured during last nights moth trap session

Glossosoma boltoni (a caddisfly)
captured during last nights moth trap session

Stenodema laevigatum (a mirid bug)
a grass bug tapped off oak

Adalia decempunctata (10-spot Ladybird)
tapped off oak

Pinalitus cervinus (a mirid bug)
3 of these captured during last nights moth trap session

(Very) Likeable Leaf Warbler

With the long run easterly winds and reports of eastern vagrant birds turning up recently, across the country, Darren Coombs, Rob Jones and I decided to try our luck at an isolated wooded area on Baglan Dunes, this afternoon . On approaching the wood, which is right next to the Wales Coast Path, we split up to cover more ground. But not too far apart, in case two of us missed what the other one sees! Or even worse, one of us not seeing what the other two see!!

It wasn't long before we'd all homed in on a small flock of Tits moving through the bushes. Long-tailed Tits and Blue Tits mainly, but maybe something else in with them? As we regrouped Darren described a bird, which he'd seen very briefly, as a small Phyllosc with a bold supercillium. We all knew what it might be. We waited along what seemed to be the most sheltered stretch of the wood hoping for the bird to show. It did; a very smart Yellow-browed Warbler! Excellent, but no sooner had it shown itself it was gone again. We hoped that it would again return to the same sheltered stretch so waited some more.

After 40 minutes or so our patience was rewarded with some delightful views of this stunning little warbler, which is not much bigger than a Goldcrest. It was particularly active and caught numerous flies while flitting through the bushes, and occasionally it would sit right out in the open and give mesmerising views.

The reason they are so glossy...

...In actual fact the juveniles, which is what we mostly see here appear rather dull unless seen in bright sunlight. Click HERE to see a short phones-scope video clip of one of the five Glossy Ibis that have been visiting the deep water lake at Penclacwydd over the last few days, the birds coming in at irregular intervals for a quick brush up, usually staying only 5-10 minutes before heading off again. It's suspected that they are feeding in the fields to the north of the centre, but no one has tracked them down yet. Still hoping to see one in Gower one day!