Pathogenic Fungi

In the rain forest there is a fungi that has a life cycle straight out of a science fiction horror movie. It is called Cordyceps and once the minute spores are ingested by an invertebrate, such as an insect the fungi slowly begins to grow inside it.

This infection eventually kills the host, but then as the fungi continues to grow it bursts out of the body of the victim creating a macabre sculpture like growth from between the body segments, the antenna and even the eyes. This is the fruiting body of the fungi and it is from this that the spores will disperse to infect other unwitting victims.

What is also interesting about some types of fungi is that they also produce toxins that affect the brain of the animal causing the infected insect such as an ant for example to climb up a stem and attach itself there before dying. This elevated position is a perfect place for Cordyceps to spread its spores.

In a dark damp jungle on the other side of the world you could perhaps expect such a parasitic organism to be common, but in Britain surely not? Well believe it or not there are several species and the last few damp and humid weeks have created perfect conditions for them. While raking about in the undergrowth the other day I was fortunate to spot this infected fly. I think this fungi may be one of the Entomophthora species, possibly Entomophthora muscae. That said I am far from an expert and would welcome a more accurate ID if anyone can help.

The fungi is growing between the segments of the flies abdomen, the spores of which will then infect other flies. Copyright David Forster

Close up of the abdomen. The growth looks a bit like the expanding foam you get from builders merchants. Copyright David Forster


Click here to see Cordyceps in action in this short BBC video, narrated by David Attenborough.


So what is the purpose of such a fungi? Well it is all about the natural balance and as many of these fungi are actually species specific, it prevents a particular species becoming too dominant. It has to be said however, that humans are not in any danger from these fungi, in fact they are used to our benefit in drugs, food supplements and as a form of biological pest control.

Common Lizard Lacerta (Zootoca) vivipara in Upper Teesdale

It has to be said that sunshine has been hard to come by of late and half an hour after capturing this image I was forced to don my waterproofs yet again when a really heavy rain shower managed to sneak up on me while I was filming. One minute I was wearing a T shirt and the next I am soaked to the skin in the time it takes to stash the camera kit in a drybag and open the rucksac to get my waterproofs out - some summer this has turned out to be. There is lots of wildlife about though.

I spotted this Common Lizard Lacerta (Zootoca) vivipara basking on a Bilberry covered fence post in Upper Teesdale yesterday. One of the survival strategies for this species is to shed their tail when attacked by a predator. This one looks as if it has survived such an encounter and appears to be growing a new one. Frustratingly I only had landscape kit with me and was disappointed not to be able to get up close with a macro lens.

Copyright David Forster

I think? it's a female and if so will soon be ready to produce young. Interestingly in warmer climates they do lay eggs, but in the cooler northern climate rather than produce eggs these lizards actually incubate the eggs internally and then give birth to live young.


Lizard Info
· The Common Lizard is the only native species of reptile in Ireland

· Lizards are cold-blooded and hibernate, or perhaps more accurately "Brumate" during the colder months.

· They feed on invertebrates such as woodlice, spiders, insects, worms and slugs.

· Like all of our other reptiles they are under threat from habitat loss and are a protected species under the wildlife and countryside act of 1981

In the News

I don't usually highlight which images have been licensed to newspapers as the delay between publication and notification can be considerable, however as I mentioned in my previous post when the storms hit the North East of England I headed up to High Force to try a capture a few images and shoot some video.  I knew I had some good footage and perhaps a few newsworthy images and uploaded three of them to the live news feed.  While up at High Force we had no idea of the drama being played out further north and that homes schools and businesses were being inundated by floodwater.  Seeing the destruction later I had assumed that the human story would have eclipsed my images as far as news goes, however this one was picked up by the Telegraph who used it as a part of their coverage of the story. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/9364072/Hail-storms-lightning-and-torrential-rain-cause-flooding-across-northern-England.html?image=3

High Force Waterfall in Flood

We had some pretty intense thunderstorms and flash flooding yesterday so we battled our way up Teesdale to have a look at High Force Waterfall. Unfortunately the pathway down to the waterfall on the easier north side was closed so we had to walk around to the south side. The Tees rises and falls very quickly and even in the short time we were there had dropped well over a foot. One thing for certain had it still been rising we would certainly not have crossed the footbridge below High Force. We then headed back down the dale to Barnard Castle.








Three Images from the Evening.
Also notice the difference between the first pic and the last one captured 30 minutes apart. You can see by the small central waterfall that the main flood pulse has passed through and the river level is starting to recede.

High Force in Flood

High Force in Flood

Watching the Spectacle of High Force in Flood.

 

Red Fox

I have been watching BBC's Springwatch over the last couple of weeks and was interested to see the fox family with eleven cubs living in an urban garden. It turned out they were the young of two vixens who lived together in the same earth and shared the feeding. To help the foxes the owners of the garden also put out food ensuring the cubs were well fed. With this approach it is hardly surprising that the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) have been so successful living alongside us. Nurturing this synurbic relationship (synurbian animals are animals that as a result of living closely with humans actually do better than those same animals would do in the wild) does seem to divide opinion along the lines of a love them, or hate them.

Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) a beautiful animal. Copyright David Forster

Without a doubt there are those who are affected by these animals in a negative way be it economically when animals such as chickens or pheasants are taken, or as an inconvenience when they dig up lawns, leave smelly scat just where you don't want it, or more seriously though thankfully extremely rarely harm us physically.

The debate since the well publicised (some would say near hysterical) coverage by a significant proportion of the popular media regarding the alleged mauling of two children in 2010 has meant foxes have been in the spotlight a great deal.

This attack increased calls for a major cull and has even led to calls for the fox hunting act to be repealed, although doing so would not make the slightest difference to the fox population in our urban areas. Just because the killing of foxes using dogs as a part of a horse based pursuit has been banned it does not mean foxes in the countryside are no longer killed. On the contrary nothing at all has changed here and foxes just as they were before the ban are still regularly killed using trapping and shooting. The linking therefore of the increase in urban foxes with the foxhunting ban is completely inaccurate.

This fox is eating bread discarded on the ground in a picnic area. Despite how it appears it is not showing aggression. Copyright David Forster

As well as such misinformation there are also several inaccurate myths surrounding the Fox. For example some people think that the urban fox is a bigger subspecies of the red fox. It isn't - an urban fox is simply a red fox that shares our urban habitat - or perhaps just as accurately we share their habitat?

Another relates to the countryside and is that farmers don't like foxes because they kill their chickens and take lambs. I have to be honest here and admit that at one time I had a similar perception however my experiences in dealing with farmers over a number of years has made me question this assumption.

A good example of this was when I was given permission by a landowner to carry out some photography at a badger set he had bordering his land. The area of the set was not a particularly good location for photographs as a fence ran next to it which spoiled the background of the photos. It was however a great spot to watch the badgers, one of which passed so close to us it would have been possible to reach out and touch it. On another occasion we were surprised to see a fox with a rabbit in its mouth trotting past us no more than 5 feet away. We then heard the sound of exited fox cubs at the far side of the set and realised the fox was actually living alongside the badgers.

Fast forward the better part of a year and I happened to be chatting to a neighbouring farmer and mentioned I had seen a fox in the field next door. Their reaction was not quite what I expected. Firstly there was a look or horror, followed by, "oh heck it will take our lambs we will have to get rid". It seemed completely lost on them that the fox we had seen had been living there all through the spring and summer and possibly living in the area a lot longer than that and they had not lost any animals. Fortunately I did not mention I actually knew where it had its den. Nor did I mention that I regularly see fox scat while out and about.

In the countryside the fox is mainly nocturnal and as a result is seen less often. Copyright David Forster

This discussion does perhaps suggest that for some people the fox is more of a perceived threat to their lambs rather than a real one. This notion was reinforced few weeks later when I had conversation with the farmer with land on the other side who often stops for a chat about what I have seen wildlife wise. Expecting a similar attitude I cautiously mentioned a fox sighting a while back but his opinion on foxes was the complete opposite and he was very quick to say that he has never had a problem with foxes and enjoyed the few rare sighting he had.

While I am certainly not suggesting foxes don't predate farm animals, or indeed other animals such as pheasants and grouse raised for shooting - or for that matter even the odd pet, such experience does perhaps reinforce the fact that significant domestic predation may well be perceived rather than real. There is certainly some study evidence to support this notion (see further information below).

Food for thought

· It is estimated that as many as 100,000 foxes are killed on our roads each year.

· There is no evidence to suggest that urban areas now hold more foxes than the countryside. It is estimated that only 13% of the British fox population actually lives in urban areas, although in some urban locations the density of foxes per acre is higher than the countryside.


Further Online Information

PDF Information Red Fox in Bristol

A Study of Gamebird Predation by the Red Fox

A Study of Lamb Predation by the Red Fox


Images and text Copyright David Forster

Vango Force Ten Helium 100 Tent Review

I have had this tent Vango Force Ten Helium 100 2012 Version since its release in early March and have enjoyed several overnight wild camps with it in the Pennines and Lake District.

Weight wise it is certainly not the lightest 3 season tent on the market, but it still comes in at a very respectable 1.19kg which to be fair is not a great deal heavier than the bivi bag I often use.

First impressions of the tent when it arrived were pretty good, as was the quality of the material and its construction. I won't go in to detail about the materials, as this info is readily available from the manufacturer using the above link.

The tent pitches outer first but I simply leave the inner and outer together and pitch it as one. Pitching is quick and easy and it is simply a case of sliding the alloy pre-bend poles into the flat seam of the fly and then adding the short poles to the ends as you peg out - very simple and very quick.

In practice the tent performs well but there are a few niggles worth a mention and yet again we have a mountain tent manufacturer who has skimped on an important element of the tent - the pegs. Frustratingly the short alloy 10cm pegs like many of those supplied by lightweight tent manufacturers are not really up to the job. To be honest they are certainly no worse than their competitors pegs. For example the toothpicks supplied with the Terra Nova Competition, but it really does annoy me that tents such as these are supplied with rubbish pegs. Yes manufacturers such as Vango and Terra Nova for example clearly state that the supplied pegs are for solid ground, but lets face it these tents are portrayed as hill tents and from my own experience it is pretty rare to find the sort of ground these short pegs work well in. It seems to me that in order to satisfy the gram counters, some lightweight tent manufacturers supply pegs that are barely adequate for real life use.  Like a lot of people I tried them and then swapped them for longer pegs. (from one of my old vango tents) before venturing into the mountains. With this in mind if you are considering buying a lightweight tent from this and to be fair some other manufacturers, it is worth taking into consideration the added weight, hassle and expense of having to obtain pegs that are fit for purpose.

Low level woodland camp

The living space is quite roomy and at 5'9" I can sit up with my head just touching the inner. Lengthwise there is plenty of space to lie down with plenty of room at the head and foot ends for my rucksack and other kit such as boots, spare clothes or whatever. The porch area is a little on the small side though. At around 35-40cm or so at the widest point it is fine for leaving muddy boots, water and general cooking paraphernalia in, but it is certainly not big enough to store my 35ltr backpack or to cook in safely. There is a simple work around as the inner itself is quite roomy and all you have to do is unclip the inner floor and roll it back. This then creates adequate space for cooking in foul weather and leaves just enough space for the rucksack if it is wet - otherwise I keep the empty rucksack inside and use it as a pillow.

As far as coping with the weather the tent has performed well even in relatively strong winds (strong enough to blow me around while walking) and pitched side on to the wind with an additional guy line to the windward direction it coped pretty well. Like all tents of the single hoop design it was difficult to get a super taught pitch and flapping fabric did make things fairly noisy. That said this issue is pretty much the norm for most tents with a single hoop design and I was well aware of this before purchase.

A relatively sheltered pitch near Dale Head Tarn with the mountain of High Spy behind. Lake District Cumbria UK.

One area I still have slight reservations about is the inner, which seems to be very loose even when the outer is well tensioned. One issue I did note was that during strong winds as the poles flexed and sprung back, the inner would also flap around and then touch the fly. This meant that even when it was not raining any condensation that has built up on the fly is transferred to the inner and then as a fine spray on me. It has to be said at this point that condensation is not a major issue and all tents experience a little depending on the conditions. To overcome this I shortened the elasticated inner guys to ensure the tension of the inner was greater. On subsequent trips while an improvement and no condensation got to me, I still noticed the fabric was a little saggy. With this in mind I may tighten the elasticated loops at the top a little more.

To help add greater stability in windy conditions the patented Tension Band System(TBS) seems to work very well and adds to the overall stability significantly. It can be a bit of a fiddle as it runs through the living space and inner door and can get in the way at times, however the advantages of the system in strong winds overrides this very minor point. When not required it can be unclipped and coiled out of the way. When in use it does make a handy airing line for socks though.

Verdict - All in all I am pretty happy with this tent so far but the jury is still out as far as the inner tension goes and it will take a few more trips before I can say for sure that it will not affect performance during very wet weather.

Pros
· At £170.00 (RRP £220.00) it is certainly an affordable tent and will I am sure hold its own against many of the other more expensive makes of tent.

· The angled poles and the very snug pole sleeve do appear to provide a stable pitch in strongish winds (tested in 25-30mph approx with the odd gust much higher)

· The TBS works well and does help stabilise the tent when it is windy.

· At 1.19kg it will be lightweight enough for most solo outdoor users.

· Has a decent interior living space,

· Has adequate ventilation


Cons (based upon personal preferences as opposed to major design flaws)
· Porch could be bigger to enable a rucksack to be stored in it or for cooking in bad weather.

· The inner is a little too baggy and can flap against the fly in gusty winds.

· The pegs like most other lightweight tents are not really up to the job on the hill.

· The TBS can get in the way and is a bit of a fiddle to remove out of the way when not needed. That said it is handy for hanging stuff on during the night

· Can be noisy in strong winds but then so are most single hoop tents of this design.

· The inner lacks a pocket to place things such as glasses, torch etc.


Finally - it is time for us to replace our two person mountain tent which is an aging Terra Nova Explorer four season mountain tent. We will be going to the Pyrenees over the summer and if anyone has any experience or info that will help us make an informed decision on its replacement it would be great to hear from you.

Video - North Pennines AONB

This is our latest video produced in association with www.greentraveller.com and the North Pennines AONB Partnership www.northpennines.org