Wildlife Sightings

Wildlife Sightings

I have some exciting wildlife finds from the past few weeks

I have been actively searching and recording a lot of wildlife recently, especially bryophytes. I have also gained a few new records for the area and I came across some species that I was provided information about too.

1. Two weeks ago I was in Fathom Glen looking for oceanic species as per usual. I happened to find a stonefly resting upon some mushrooms growing from a fallen tree trunk across the stream. Stoneflies are not a group I have ventured into, but I took a photo anyway because they are interesting creatures. Uploading the photos of the day to Twitter, the stonefly was tentatively identified as a possible Protonemura praecox by Hugh Feeley, a rare species in Ireland and is considered critically endangered.
   Hugh asked for the location details and lo and behold after he himself visited the glen, he confirmed P. praecox in the upland stream, plus four other more widespread species. This was very exciting and I would have not been able to highlight these organisms since I know little about them.
2. On another day I had a closer look at a patch of native woodland on the Flagstaff Road in Upper Fathom. It turned out to be a hazel woodland with a bluebell and woodrush field layer. Amazingly, there was a huge grey willow, the mother tree. Most definitely the oldest tree in the woodland, it was one of the first colonisers on this land after grazing pressure dropped and woodland could form. It was multi-stemmed and dripping in epiphytes. Ash and downy birch was relatively abundant here too, but hazel was dominant. Thankfully there wasn’t much sycamore or beech. However, there were no oaks here.
   Sanicle grew along the flushes and bilberry and bracken thrived on the woodland edges. Old stone walls marking former field boundaries were host to Scapania gracilis, Diplophyllum albicans, Racomitrium lanuginosum and Cladonia lichens.
3. Yellow Water River walkway in Rostrevor yielded new sites for both Scapania gracilis and Saccogyna viticulosa. Dense plantations unfortunately meant that there was little biodiversity and there are very few native trees lining the Yellow Water River.
4. I visited an oceanic hazel wood near Lislea in South Armagh which was festooned with bryophytes. Despite the woodland being severely overgrazed by sheep, these hazel woods are hanging on, thriving in this wet and humid valley between the hills of the Ring of Gullion. Essentially every branch and bow was crowned with polypody ferns and script lichens decorated the young and smooth hazel branches. Rocks on the forest floor were not to be seen through all the moss. Most excitingly, this is yet another new record for Plagiochila spinulosa growing on the sheltered and shaded granophyre rocks. Saccogyna viticulosa and Scapania gracilis also made welcome appearances. These are amazing woodlands and I wish they were protected.
5. Windy Gap, Cooley was another bryophyte expedition. Thanks to information provided by Dr Melinda Lyons, I was able to locate the lovely blood-red Bryum aplinum and the extremely rare Braun imberbis growing on base-rich gabbro boulders. Also a new record of Saccogyna viticulosa atop Fox’s Mountain.
6. This weekend was about appreciating wooded glens, both Fathom and Ravensdale. I also located the Jubula hutchinsiae population in Ravensdale. I got drenched in the misty rain but it made these oceanic woodlands come alive.

That’s everything up to date.