the hunt for slime moulds

 

After open water swimming the next big thing is (or will be) Slime Moulds. Not the most appealing of nomenclatures but once you see a photo of these tiny, often brightly coloured beauties, you too could be on your knees in a pile of wet rotting leaves looking for gold. But what exactly are they?

Cammo

Slime mould is an informal name given to a polyphyletic assemblage of unrelated eukaryotic organisms in the Stramenopiles, Rhizaria, Discoba, Amoebozoa and Holomycota clades. Most are microscopic; those in the Myxogastria form larger plasmodial slime moulds visible to the naked eye.
So now you know! That word soup is lifted directly from wikipedia and fails entirely to let me know whether they are animal, vegetable, fungus or what.

I decided to head to Cammo Estate. So that if I had no luck in the slime mould department at least there might be some birds to photograph between digging through piles of wet leaves. And this proved to be the case. I had intended to get up early to catch 2 buses across town. At least I managed the latter. I arrived about 11.45.

Even before I finished putting out bread and seeds and peanuts the birds were gathering round in anticipation. Some places (Warriston etc.) you have to bait and then retreat and eventually word gets out and then soon enough the crows, pigeons and squirrels move in and spoil it for the smaller birds. Here the nuthatches and robins and coal tits have fallen out the sky and are getting stuck in before I have stepped back and raised the camera. It is very life affirming and there is no messing about. It's why I happily take 2 buses across town to this otherwise out-of-the-way venue. I am already considering going back later this coming week because having so many willing models is far more conducive to photo safaris than wondering if anyone will come out to play while you blow on your hands watching a birdless birdfeeder swing in the wind.

several nuthatches moved in swiftly to abscond with booty
which they salted away in nearby trees

adult buzzard overhead

I heard a buzzard family before I saw them. Their calls echoed across the skies as they wheeled in high circles, finding thermals. There appeared to be at least one adult and 2 or more youngsters. I had to get out from under the trees to get shots by which time they were nearly gone.

juv buzzard

one of the better feeding stations

I like to put seeds and nuts on the vertical tree stump (rhs, above) among the spiky shards of broken timber where nuthatches will sit and dook for seeds. It makes a photogenic plinth on which to pose for pics. Even with blue skies, the surrounding tree branches manage to obscure the light and at times I had to crank the ISO to 6400 to get the shutterspeed fast enough (1/2500) to freeze the motion of these tiny dynamos. The majority are at ISO 3200 and from 1/200 to 1/8000 of a second. All were taken with my 100~400mm lens. I was going to switch to the macro for slime moulds but failed to find any. TBH there was never a moment when there were no birds appearing and although I turned over a few leaves and examined some dead and damp logs, I was preoccupied by the joy of feathered friends and didn't even get my reading glasses out (taken specially) to examine the granular dirt and gloop.

the only photo of a chaffinch today - no masterpiece but I wanted
to record that I actually saw one - which is one more than last visit

The coal tits seemed more relaxed than I remembered. Last time I struggled to catch them as they darted in, took food and darted back out, in what often seemed one continuous swift movement. On this occasion they would stop on a perch and check me out. It gave me a few seconds to react and enough to get far more images than last time, when I was struggling to get any decent photos. I have no clue what made the difference but greatly enjoyed it as they are charming and characterful tiny birds.

I had been aware there were jays just beyond my periphery vision. One appeared at the first venue but kept its distance. I failed to get a decent photo and it merged quietly into the background branches. I did about half an hour and then was thinking about visiting the other side of the river (marked on maps as the curling pond) when I heard a raucous squawking and 2 jays flew up from over the other side. As if to say come on over here and take our photos! I acquiesced, leaving plenty bird treats at the first feeding station as the crows and squirrels hadn't yet moved in.

I wasn't delighted to notice there was someone standing in my spot(!) over the other side of the river. However they had a camera and so maybe they'd be okay. I am never sure how many folk know about this spot. I picked up on it a few years back (Feb. 2022) from a woman who had been feeding and photographing the jays here for some time and so had done the necessary groundwork to make the place more reliably jay-friendly. It is off the tourist path so there are fewer passing dogwalkers and folk scaring off the birds. These are not birds that enjoy human company and will hold back longer than most others waiting to see if there is a trap being sprung.

The bloke turned out to be Mike. He had messaged me through facebook a while ago enquiring how he might photo jays and I had advised him about this venue. It felt like we were already pals although this was our first face-to-face encounter. Since his profile photo is of a fritillary butterfly (another mutual interest) I had no heads-up as to his appearance. However it didn't take long to establish that we were already acquaintances. And as you can imagine there was no shortage of chat. He had already got some jay photos but I think had maybe run out of birdfeed bribes. I got out the freezer bags and baited the half dozen horizontal branches around the area with bread, nuts and sunflower seeds. 

choosing a seed over a heart

Now this is notable: I didn't realise until after I saw the close up photos that the nuthatches regularly chose the dark husked sunflower seeds over the white coloured sunflower hearts. (I had a bag of each and mixed them togather never thinking anyone would actually prefer the seeds over the hearts.) You'd think they would opt for the ready-to-eat unwrapped version. Less work and they can swallow them down without the fuss of removing the edible kernal from the dark coloured husk. Then I thought that if they are stashing the seeds in tree bark and branch ends, then the wrapped versions might last in better condition for longer. Have they really assessed the situation this astutely? It is always difficult to know whether an animal is responding instinctively to a situation or whether they have an intelligence that can process the likely outcome of actions and reactions. That thousands of years of whittling down the ones that did a random action which proved advantageous (or not) and helped to strengthen the species by happy accident. Or whether there is an intelligence that can determine the advantage as the result of making a better choice. I suspect there is overlap

This singular stock dove seemed very keen to have its photo taken and kept returning to the log right where we were standing, lured by the birdfood. We were standing on the side of the logs that made more sense, with the light behind us. Although I usually stand on the other side, giving more chance for the shy jays to approach said logs. Although that means shooting into the sun which can be problematic. I didn't want to bully Mike or tell him what to do so just went with it. The jays adapted to the situation and a couple eventually landed on the high horizontal branch which I had baited for the nuthatches.

2 jays at the far branches I had baited

then at the nuthatch branch

The food balanced on the horizontal branches had a tendency to fall off when a bird hopped on to it. The jays noticed this and spent a while in the leaves below collecting the spilled peanuts and bread. I had a thought about bringing a jar of peanut butter to use as glue to adhere snacks to branches but am always wary of involving sticky foodstuff and camera fingers.

great tit

There were a couple of moss covered branch stumps poking out the fallen tree trunks. The smaller birds would land on these before approaching the food and I failed time and again to get the photo of them sat there. My success rate was about 1 in 10 as they never lingered long enough to allow a shot before hopping down to the food. I was also distracted watching out for the jays who were lurking 180' in the opposite direction. I'd turn around to see them both sitting on a branch 30 yards away and then turn back around and the coal tit or robin would be perfectly perched on the mossy stump but fly off before I could get the shot. No wonder the slime moulds never stood a chance.

great tit

doing a good job of not letting anything go to waste in the leaf litter

And that was about that. The sunlight had been moving the whole time we were there, and was now no longer lighting up the baited spots. Mike asked was there anywhere else worth a look, so we wandered round to the walled garden, which is recovering nicely from the wall refurb, which had churned the paths into a mudbath. The walled garden was also a carpet of snowdrops which is pretty, but not easy to photo with the long lens. I checked out the beehives which were showing signs of early activity but not full gas just yet. There were a group of gardener volunteers helping prune the apple and pear trees and we chatted to them. One woman had her elderly dog along who was patiently waiting and not much interested in my attentions.

drone fly?

old darling

Cammo Tower

It seemed almost wrong to be heading out the place and catching a bus home when the sun was still in the sky, although the best of the day was behind us. I decided rather than walk down the Almond looking for dippers and goosanders that it would be better to head home and begin processing the photos. I had around a thousand images to work through. The count was a little higher than usual and hit rate and resultant photos posted here fewer than the usual one in ten, as I am shooting more in burst mode to accommodate fast moving rare glimpses of jays etc. And (believe it or not) trying to limit the amount I post here,  keeping the quality higher and editing more harshly. I realise I tend to post more shots than I should - if I posted just the very best results it would reflect a higher quality and give people less dross to wade through. But old habits die hard.

< 3miles in 3hrs

I shot a couple of clips of the jays while there. I finally remembered to try the slo-mo settings which I have been meaning to play with for ages. (Last section of video.) I was impressed with the results which are rather lovely and do a great job of smoothing out the rather jittery movements of these wary birds. However the downside is lack of audio. I think they were shot in 4K 60p but I'd have to check my settings which I made a long time ago and then forgot about. I must utilise this feature more as it works well. And record some music to play over the top.