Heta takes pictures and sometimes writes about things

[brantaleucopsis]

This is a late final post about the 100 bird species challenge for 2018. My final number of species was 82, and here are the last four species since my last post. In the pictures in this post are my first ever hazel grouses sitting in an alder tree full of yummy catkins.

#79 Willow tit (Poecile montanus) #80 Northern hawk-owl (Surnia ulula) #81 Hazel grouse (Tetrastes bonasia) #82 Black grouse (Tetrao tetrix)

[brantaleucopsis]

This autumn was crazy with penny buns. For a couple of weeks you could find tons and tons of them, and of course I couldn’t leave them in the forest. Here I’ve used them in mixed mushroom pasta among with chanterelles and probably some other mushrooms I happened to find at the time (can’t remember exactly since this was a few weeks ago).

[brantaleucopsis]

Cortinarius evernius can be identified by its purplish brown convex cap, the remnants of the membrane as seen in image 2 as the orange-ish silk or hair like fibres reaching from the edges of the cap toward the stipe, grayish purple stipe (”stem”) with zig zag pattern, which is also a remnant of the membrane. It grows in swampy coniferous forests.

[brantaleucopsis]

The many looks of Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric. It’s is commonly known for its bright red colour, white spots, white stipe and partial veil (the “skirt”), but the spots can easily be washed away by heavy rainfall and the colour often fades as the mushroom ages and can sometimes appear orange or yellow. It’s native throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere but has also been spreaded to the Southern Hemisphere by people.

[brantaleucopsis]

The 100 bird species challenge is going better than I expected at the beginning of this year, but it’s becoming quite clear I will not reach 100 species this year. The autumn migration is happening right now, but I haven’t seen many new species since summer. But during the last month or so I’ve spotted a few species, most of which have been completely new to me, which is always nice. I managed to take low quality photos of most of the new ones, which you can see here. From top to bottom they are: grey-headed woodpecker (images 1 and 2), common kestrel (image 3), spotted nutcracker (images 4-6), common treecreeper (image 7) and Eurasian woodcock (images 8 and 9). Here is the update since my last post: #72 Sand martin (Riparia riparia) #73 Grey-headed woodpecker (Picus canus) #74 Lesser spotted woodpecker (Dryobates minor; before: Dendrocopos minor) #75 Common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) #76 Spotted nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes) #77 Common treecreeper (Certhia familiaris) #78 Eurasian woodcock (Scolopax rusticola)

[brantaleucopsis]

This was an interesting plant I found in our yard. It has been growing there for years and I never knew what it was until now: horseradish (Armoracia rusticana, syn. Cochlearia armoracia). I dug up some of the root and prepared horseradish sauce using it. Worked nicely! Horseradish is probably native to southeastern Europe and western Asia, and it belongs to the same Brassicaceae family as cabbage, mustard, broccoli and wasabi.

[brantaleucopsis]

Found this foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) growing next to a lakeside trail in late June. They are not native but since they are popular in gardens, they can sometimes spread elsewhere as well, although not very commonly. The aerial parts of the plant are highly poisonous even in small doses.

[brantaleucopsis]

This is a post I am very excited about, because I got a picture of a bird I have never seen before in my life, and another one I have only seen once before. The bird in the first two pictures is a  red-backed shrike, which I had only seen in pictures before. The bird(s) in the rest of the pictures is/are wrens. I happened to bump into these species on the same walk, and there was a whole family of wrens jumping from twig to twig shouting at me for several minutes. It was a cool encounter for me, probably less so for them. #62 Icterine warbler (Hippolais icterina) #63 Lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus) #64 Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) #65 Goldcrest (Regulus regulus) #66 Common whitethroat (Sylvia communis) #67 Red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio) #68 Eurasian wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) #69 Sedge warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus) #70 Goosander (Eurasian) (Mergus merganser) #71 Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis)

[brantaleucopsis]

This is a really shitty post. It begins with a barely identifiable picture of a northern lapwing (species #14 for me), which is followed by two pictures of the unfortunate young bullfinch (dead ones don’t count, but I saw an adult live and well earlier, and it was species #21 for me) that hit our wall or window and died. I was, however interested in seeing a young one as I have only seen adults before, and the colour is very different from the adult plumage of either sex. The last picture is our back yard blackbird (species #10) who is busy brooding the next generation. Hopefully they will be more lucky than the poor bullfinch.

[brantaleucopsis]

Silver cinquefoil or Potentilla argentea is either a group of closely related species rather than one clear species, or a species with lots of subspecies. I’m not quite sure, which is true, but neither are botanists, probably. I couldn’t find much about these plants in English, which makes me think the classification differs between countries.

[brantaleucopsis]

This reminds me of a famous painting (well, it’s famous in Finland) by Ferdinand von Wright, except with a different game bird. We witnessed these pheasant cocks fighting for probably a good ten minutes until they felt too disturbed by spectators and cars. The cock fight included lots of head bobbing and a couple of attacks. Oh, and this species was number 24 for me but didn’t get a picture back then, which is why I am posting this now.

[brantaleucopsis]

I found this Veronica species growing next to my local church and beach. It was abundant and absolutely beautiful, so I had to find out what it is. Turns out it is  Veronica austriaca ssp. teucrium or large speedwell, also known as broadleaf speedwell, Austrian speedwell and saw-leaved speedwell. It is not native to Finland, but it can be found growing like this as a garden escapee.

[brantaleucopsis]

White wagtail was my bird number 32, but again I only managed to get a decent-ish picture now. This one looks a little worse for wear.

[brantaleucopsis]

I identified this plant as the dark mullein or black mullein (Verbascum nigrum). It is native to dry open areas in Europe and the Mediterranean region, and in Finland it is always found near old dwelling areas: it doesn’t grow in new neighbourhoods or in the wilderness. It probably arrived in Finland as a medicinal plant with new migrants, possibly as early as the Iron Age (about 500 CE to 1200/1300 CE, as we were always a bit behind everyone with this technology stuff before Nokia). Dark mullein often hybridises with great mullein (V. thapsus), and I suppose the plant I found could also be a hybrid.

[brantaleucopsis]

A whooper swan couple I photographed earlier this summer. It was my bird number 17 but I didn’t have a photo of them at the time I posted my then current list.

[brantaleucopsis]

This hairy-legged plant is known as backen, brake, common bracken, eagle fern and Eastern brakenfern. I was surprised to find out it is found in temperate and subtropic regions in both hemispheres. This global distribution is probably caused by its light pores that can easily float in the air and take over new areas. It was traditionally treated as single species in its genus Pteridium (as I am doing now) but scientists have recently split it into up to 11 different species.

[brantaleucopsis]

Next lot of birds! These birds are spotted flycatcher (top three) and mistle thrush (bottom). #59 Spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) #60 Mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorus)