Forest ranger Frans Kapteijns shares his knowledge of nature every week. Anyone can submit questions via [email protected]. This time Frans pays attention to, among other things, the lower fungi, brown thrushes and a mole that goes into the depths. Part two of this Stuifmail will be published on Sunday morning.
There is also a new episode of the Stuifmail podcast every weekend. Listen to the podcast here:
Seen cuddly white fungal fluff in the Riels Hoefke, but what is it?
Anja Hulshoff was walking in the Riels Hoefke nature reserve when she saw cuddly white fungal fluff in three places. She would like to know what it is. Anja saw a lower fungus, which is known for cleaning up higher fungi, such as various types of mushrooms and fungi.
In fact, the mushrooms and fungi are fruiting bodies, which if they are not eaten by the animal world, no longer have a function and die. That process manifests itself in the wilting of those fruiting bodies. Sometimes they even become a kind of paste. Ideal for the lower fungi, which clean it up and give it back as food to what lives in the soil. So those who cleaned up the first hour are also cleaned up again.
The lower fungi live in diverse ecosystems. If dog poop is left there, they eventually clean it up too. Unfortunately with poison, because that is plentiful in dog poop these days. Lower fungi, like higher fungi, have considerable diversity. Compared to the higher fungi, they have a less branched mycelium. A good example of a lower fungus is the bread mold, also called Mucorales. If you want to know more about higher and lower fungi, click this link.
Could it be that I have seen a brown thrush on the backyard lawn?
Emile Böinck saw a pair of thrushes in his backyard that he suspected were brown thrushes. He asked me if I had come across reports of these migratory birds. I immediately started looking at all the sites, such as Waarneming.nl. Unfortunately, nothing could be found on those sites about brown thrushes that have visited our country. It’s a pity that Emile was unable to take a photo, because then there might have been more certainty.
The brown thrush is known as a very rare vagrant in the Netherlands. You can mainly encounter them in September and October, but several wintering cases are also known. There are also four known spring sightings and there has been a slight increase in the number of brown thrushes in recent years.
Brown thrushes stand out because of the many black speckles on the chest and the relatively white head. In addition to the bright white brow stripe, the brown thrush has beautiful, bright reddish-brown wings. They breed in the taiga (forest) from Central Siberia to Kamchatka and winter in South Asia from Pakistan to southern Japan. Who knows, there may be more reports in the coming years.
Beautifully colored mushrooms on the tree, but what is it?
Ida van der Reijt saw beautifully colored mushrooms on a tree and wondered what their name was. It concerns the purple scab fungus. This fungus looks a bit like fairy benches, but the crust fungus has a thicker white edge. The rest of the hat has a purple color. Clearly visible in your photo.
The fungus is formed in the autumn at relatively high humidity and therefore with a lot of rain or fog. Of course, dew can also play a role. The ambient temperature also plays a role, because the fungus starts to develop from 10 degrees. This purple crust fungus is mainly found as a so-called saprophyte (organism) on dead wood of all kinds of deciduous trees.
The fungus is also a parasite on living trees and shrubs from the rose family. That is why this parasitic scab fungus is used to combat the American bird cherry. The spores of the fungus are then smeared on sawn-off stumps. Once the fungus reaches the roots of the stumps, the tree dies.
Who is the perpetrator of the hole on a path near the weir of the Mark stream?
Sjaak van den Berg saw a hole in the path in a path near the weir in the Mark stream and this was the third year in a row. He therefore wonders who the perpetrator could be. I suspect it is a mole. I dare not say whether it is the same every year, but I suspect not.
Sjaak also gave the diameter, 6 centimeters, and then I was completely convinced that it had to be a mole. Moles make mole holes, which are openings in their tunnel systems, of up to 4 to 10 centimeters. That fits exactly with what Sjaak had measured. The tunnels of moles are smaller and usually have a width of 5 centimeters.
The openings of the mole tunnels depend mainly on the type of soil and especially on its density. You often see such an entrance, but not immediately a molehill and this may be because the soil in that area is too loose. The mole often then disappears to another area.
In some cases it may also involve a shallow exploration, but I think that is less the case here. Perhaps the mole discovered there at the Mark that it was too wet and that the animal left again because he or she felt too much wetness under its feet.
Recognize the mole – The Common Tern
This mole was filmed remotely. The mole has a short black velvet coat. This allows him to move forwards and backwards through the corridors just as easily, thanks to the random placement of the hairs in the skin. In most mammals the hairs are placed in a certain direction, usually backwards, but in the mole the hairs can tilt in the skin attachment, so that they do not get stuck in the tunnel walls when it crawls backwards.