Dundreggan pics…
So, myself and Calum have been staying in the cottage at Dundreggan, and planting the trees left over from the spring work weeks. The planting site is high up, over-looking the only coniferous plantation on the estate. The views are superb, with large Munro’s to the West and the wide rolling Glen of Moriston below and to the East.
Steve, the Dundreggan project manager, has tried to make planting as easy as possible, ensuring that there are plenty of prepared areas of ground within the fenced exclosure (to keep out deer). As a result I put in 500 to 600 trees a day, and am glad that myself and Calum have been given the opportunity to ensure that the trees get the best possible start in life, rather than the job being given to an external contractor.
On Monday I walked up to see the pigs. I can’t remember having seen them since I stayed here at the end of last year. Unfortunately, there are two less little ones than when I last saw them, due to a combination of infection and some extraordinary cold weather over the winter. But the two remaining little ones are now not so little. In fact they’ve grown so much, they all look fantastic.
After seeing the wild boar I continue up Binnilidh Bheag, before running down from the top to the cottage. This I manage in under 9 minutes. I was hoping to do it in 4 – probably not achievable without killing myself.
Evenings are spent eating with Calum, Tim (a Belgian long term volunteer) and, for a couple of days, Willie, Calum’s Dad. Tim introduces us to a very cool looking Belgian desert. It turns out to be custard. Excellent.
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- Whilst driving from Kinnordy to Dundreggan I stop at Loch of the Lowes, and see some Great Crested Grebe’s flirting
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- A Dundreggan frog, probably not too happy about all this chomping about around it’s home.
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- Calum and Willie in the afternoon sun after a day’s planting.
Goodbye Kinnordy, hello (again) Dundreggan
So, it’s time to leave the Loch of Kinnordy reserve. Today, I packed my stuff into the van, bought some food in the local Co-op, and then called into the reserve for one last time (for now). While I was there, Jim, a regular visitor to the hides arrived with his grandson. Jack has a fantastic enthusiasm for nature for one so young. He has a camera and loves taking pictures of the Osprey, Lapwing and Shoveller. Today, though, when he pointed out from the hide and shouted “What’s that?”, it turned out to be a Marsh Harrier. Woaw!
I’ve never seen a Marsh Harrier before, but it looked amazing with a strikingly pale head, flying over the reeds, before swooping down, out of sight, probably to grab some prey. Unfortunately we didn’t see it again, but not long after an Osprey cam along and pulled a fish from the reserve within site of where we were sat in the Gullery.
As if this wasn’t enough for one day, I then called by the Loch of the Lowes on my way West, where I was lucky to see a number of Great Crested Grebe performing to each other on the water.
I’m now staying at Dundreggan for a week to plant some trees, in a new area for planting on the estate, with Calum. Hopefully I’ll get time to update with another entry before the end of the week. I have no broadband reception here, so am having to pop round to the office to pick up email.
Anyway, here are some pictures from the last few days…
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- Earlier in the week I was given a guided tour of the Tay estuary reed beds by Graham, who manages the reed cutting.
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- Looking east across the reserve.
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- My RSPB transport, and the bench next to the bird feeders on the reserve, prior to me re-staining it.
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- Some Willow flower.
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- Spring is so close to bursting out, but I have to leave before I get it to see it happen…
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- My new favourite photo – a pair of Shoveller duck.
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- The Swallows are back…
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- …and performing acrobatics in front of the Gullery.
A new and exciting world?
A great story on the radio this evening. One of the sports commentators had some friends who were going on a stag do. 14 of them were due to fly out to one of the Balearic islands for the event. They were from all over the UK, and were taking a number of different flights from different airports to get over there. One of them made it.
Eyjafjallajokull is the volcano in Iceland that has closed down North European airspace. What a wonderful thing nature is. It’s such a simple way to reduce the number of flights, something anyone with an awareness of the environment, or a house near Heathrow, would like to do permanently.
I love flying. Unlike some people I know I find the process of taking off (and landing, although not to the same extent) a magical, exciting experience. But I haven’t flown for some time now, and having to fly to far away customer sites was one of the many reasons why I left the office. Aeroplanes produce many many times more CO2 per traveller than most other forms of transport do, as well as reducing air quality and increasing noise pollution. Furthermore, the CO2 released by planes is at least TWICE as effective at trapping the Sun’s heat due to the altitude at which it is being released at. For a comparison in CO2 levels take a look at this site comparing plane journeys with Eurostar.
Wouldn’t it be great if this event made people realise that there are alternatives to flying – video conferencing, holidaying in the country you live in, buying local produce, travelling by rail (with an improved infrastructure, if the right party gets elected).
Another story I heard on the radio was of a retired couple, living in Spain, complaining that they were finding it difficult to get back to the UK to see their family. The presenter quite rightly pointed out that they’d hardly put their family top of their list of priorities when they’d decided to move to another country.
So, maybe exciting changes are afoot. There is a chance that this election might see the formation of a government that does care for the environment. And, maybe nature is starting to get it’s own back.
Ok, here are a couple of pictures from the last couple of days. I’ll sort out more when I get time.
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- This Common Sandpiper was feeding in front of the Gullery yesterday
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- First of all I got the wagging tail, then little clicking noises. Finally it just sat there waiting for me to move on…
The Cranes are still here, and are big news
So, the Cranes have taken flight a few times in the last few days, but, when I was down at the hides earlier, they were still around. They seem to alternate between the nearby ploughed fields and spending time in amongst the reeds of the ‘Swamp’ part of the reserve.
They have attracted quite a bit of attention, perhaps too much. It would be great if they stayed here to breed. I’m not sure how likely that would be under normal circumstances, but I’m sure the attention they are receiving will move them on eventually, as they seem easily spooked. There has already been at least one incident (that myself and others watched from the hides) of them leaving the reserve because of two people, clearly looking for them, wading through the reeds nearby
But I can’t blame people for wanting to get a look at them, they are incredible looking birds, possible Britain’s biggest, although I wait to be corrected on that. I have, over the last few days, been lucky enough to spend plenty of time watching them. And this morning I managed to work out how to marry my camera to the RSPB scope, to get some half decent shots of them.
Work over the last couple of days has been great. Myself and Tom spent time wading about, up to our thighs in mud, with dry suits on, clearing out the drainage burn from the loch. The rest of the time was shared between surveying waders and manning the hide. Today was a day off, but I popped down the hides anyway to pop into see Darell, a local volunteer, and catch up with the latest Crane news.
The Cranes on the BBC, note Darell’s photo.
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- A couple of nights ago I was down at the hides at dusk setting up the moth trap
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- A male Gadwell in front of the Gullery yesterday
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- Ha, I thought I was going to have a lucky day, after the Gadwell a Little Grebe swam in front of the hide…
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- But then, along came this Redshank. Fantastic. My new favourite photo.
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- The cranes flying back onto the reserve shortly after they’d been spooked
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- Using my home made digiscope.
Cranes and surveys at Dawn
The last couple of days have been dominated by early morning breeding bird surveys. Although I’ve been getting up for 6 to 6.15 starts (not my forte), I’ve been rising with some enthusiasm, as the surveys have provided me with a great opportunity to improve my bird call identification skills.
The birds seem to have a greater enthusiasm for calling at the break of day. To my unknowing ear they appear to exude joy that another day is upon them. It’s a privilege to be able to hear the songs, of such a great variety of birds, at this time of day.
This morning myself and Hannah made a quick detour via the ploughed fields to the North of the reserve to catch up with some Cranes (Common/European) that had been seen the evening before. Luckily enough these rare visitors (from Europe?) were still there feeding and looking fantastically regal in the early morning mist.
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- These trays are the same size, tray one shows Otter prints, tray two, seemingly Mink. Unfortunately for the Mink, they aren’t welcome in this country, so they must be trapped.
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- This might be my favourite photo of all time. The Ospreys discuss their plan for the day as the sun rises.
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- Two similar photos in one post is a luxury, especially given my appalling internet connection, but I like this one too
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- The Cranes
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- Looking East over the reserve this morning
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- Or maybe this is my favourite of all my photos. This Lapwing was flying and peewiting its little heart out to please the prospective Mrs Lapwing
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- A pair of Gadwall, the male is in the foreground.
Loch of Lintrathen, and beyond
For my day off today I try to take in a few of the local sites…
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- A coot on the water at Lintrathen
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- Some charismatic Tufted Duck. They are easily confused with Goldeneyes.
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- Looking South from the hide on the North East side of the loch.
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- A Willow Warbler, although I didn’t hear it call and my warbler id isn’t great
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- The Backwater reservoir. The sand bank in the picture is good for Sand Martins apparently, although I didn’t see any when I was there.
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- Reekie Linn falls
More signs of spring
The sun was out again today, although not with the same consistency as yesterday, so I took a walk in the local area.
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- Peacock butterfly – my second of the year – I couldn’t get a decent pic of the first
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- Whilst walking near the Osprey tree, on the North side of the reserve, I’m accompanied by some long tailed tits
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- Then on my way home I spot this inquisitive little fella
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- The strip of Beech wood alongside the road near the farm
Osprey photo medley
I’m not really sure why Loch Garton gets the big Osprey press, as opposed to anywhere else that has Ospreys, I suppose the reasons are historical, and it’s now just tradition. I am fairly sure that I wouldn’t see any more Ospreys there than I’m seeing here, or any more often. Every time I’ve been down to the reserve I’ve seen at least one Osprey, and today there were at least three hanging around.
In the morning I saw two fishing in front of the Gullery, one making a catch within metres of the hide. And for most of the rest of the day at least one of these superb looking birds was sat either on the large spruce, or on the favoured Osprey pole, on the other side of the reserve from the hides.
Thanks to the wonders of modern technology I’ve managed to highlight an Osprey that Mum pointed out to me in the earlier post’s Redshank picture. I’ve also put together some other Osprey pictures taken today…
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- A great start to the day – I see this fish being pulled from the loch in front of the reed beds opposite the gullery hide
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- The catch is taken away, probably to offer to some Osprey totty
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- Then, a while later a second bird flies near the hide…
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- Ok, so this is the same photo from the earlier entry today, cropped a little. Osprey 2 makes a catch just metres from the front of the hide. Fantastic stuff!
Sun, hide and frisky.
Just the one day in the hide this weekend as I have tomorrow off. But, what a day. It was great to see some of the faces from last weekend again, and meet some new faces. New to me anyway. Some of the visitors I’ve met have been coming to the reserve for a long time, and have great stories to tell. Such as… apparently the reserve used to have Black Necked Grebes nesting on it, and there was a time when there were so many Black Headed Gulls nesting on the loch that it was not possible to hear yourself speak when in the Gullery (hide).
The Sun came out and life on the reserve is getting a bit frisky – there’s a definite feeling of spring in the air. Mallards chase down each others’ girlfriends, male Shovellers swim tight circles to impress potential mates and, best of all, the Lapwings perform amazing aerobics whilst making the most mellifluous fluty noises in an attempt to hold onto to territory, and, of course, get jiggy with the local totty.
And, on top of all that, there were Ospreys. Anyway, more more about them shortly. Just to finish the day off nicely, after spotting a Toad swim up underneath the Gullery, and following the advice of Steve, a regular visitor, I decided to call by the Lily pond on my way back to the flat. At the pond there were hundreds of toads splashing and swimming about. Not all of them were in full voice, but there was a decent amount of croaking. The pair of Swans sleeping out in the middle had obviously seen it all before. I stood with the lowering sun warm on my face, listening to the action for a few minutes, before strolling back to the flat.
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- It was hard to get a decent shot of this pair of Shoveller, as they spent most of the time with their heads under the water
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- If you look very carefully you can see at least one pair of Redshank on the far bank
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- This toad spent most of the day swimming up to the gullery
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- This one was in the Lily pond
Fence removal, decent sized mugs and politics.
So, life is pretty good here at the moment. Although it rained all day on Tuesday. Myself, Tom and Graham were taking down a fence on the North West of the reserve, and getting pretty muddy – no pictures from Tuesday. On Wednesday, suddenly, the weather had improved. Same job, but somehow we managed to get a whole lot more done. At one point I heard some chirping above me, just as Tom and Graham were on their way over, and we all looked up to see three Ospreys circling above us. There are pictures from Wednesday, but not of Ospreys.
Yesterday there was some work to do down at the hides before Hannah showed me the way of wader surveying. Hannah promises me that there’ll be plenty of wader/other surveys to do, which is terrible news as sitting down with a scope looking for birds seems like such a chore. And the whole situation is made worse by the fact that the process is only really worthwhile on windless days with sun.
Other interesting news – I forgot to say that I’m especially happy with the size of the mugs in the kitchen. After filling them to the top, which is what you’re supposed to do, they hold enough tea for me to avoid having to get up to refill. The room I’m sleeping in is now almost warm enough for me to consider using just the one duvet on the bed. And, perhaps most importantly, the local Coop does not stock Hobnobs. How can a food emporium not stock Hobnobs? But they do stock milkchoc Hobnobs! I have, you won’t be surprised to hear, written to McVities to explain my chagrin.
Finally, an election was called this week. It’s disappointing that the environment doesn’t seem to feature highly in any of the election debates I’ve heard so far. Apparently, the public are more concerned with how many children each potential priministerial candidate has, or is going to have, or whether they are messy whilst at home. If you are one of the important few who think that the election should be about making big decisions on the way the country is run you might be interested in the RSPB’s “Letter to the future”. It’s not really a letter to the future, it’s a letter to politicians asking them to help preserve nature so that future generations can experience what we have. More information can be found here:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/applications/lettertothefuture/index.aspx
Also, it is possible to quiz your local prospective parliamentary candidates as to what their thoughts are on the environment, by email. Do it. Even if their response is not going to influence your vote, it will still get them to think that the environment is a serious issue. I find it hard to understand why the environment isn’t top of every political party’s agenda. Without an environment nothing else matters, life is impossible. This is already happening to thousands of species across the world, thanks to man’s activities. It seems logical to me that we should be tackling major environmental issues first.
Hmm, I promised myself that I wouldn’t rant on my blog. Never mind, on to some pictures…
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- Look at those colours – what a day!
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- Graham and Tom removing a fence on the Western side of the reserve
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- Venus setting over the West of the reserve
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- Not a fairy gathering in the woods – myself and Hannah set up a moth trap on Wednesday night
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- A very cool looking fly with an equally cool Common Quaker (probably-where’s Jane Bowman when I need her?)
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- Looking through the scope at one of the Kinnordy Ospreys, with fish
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- Whilst cleaning the tools this morning I had some company…
Two days in the hide.
Following my day off on Friday I was posted to hide duty over Easter weekend. This involved me spending time in one of the hides, with a telescope, talking to visitors about the birds we could see. I can remember thinking to myself a number of times over the two days, ‘hmm, is this really work?’.
The job was made even more gratifying when various people, often youngsters, exclaimed surprise at seeing a bird they’d maybe never seen before, up close through the scope. Nature is amazing, and doesn’t take much selling – hopefully a few more kids will now grow up knowing this, and one of them could end up in a position to make a serious difference to our future.
I was also regaled with stories from a number of local regulars, one of which showed me a picture that he’d taken at the reserve two weeks earlier, of a White Tailed Eagle. The Eagle had been released nearby last year, as part of a reintroduction programme, hence it had blue tags on its wings. In the picture the Eagle was flying low, maybe 2 or 3 feet over the water, wings outstretched to slow itself down, and a few feet in front of it were two Swans rearing up out of the water to face it, both also with wings outstretched.
The Eagle is huge. It’s wings almost span the width of both swans standing together. Unfortunately I can’t remember if I asked the question as to what happened next, because I was so fascinated by the picture.
I was also lucky enough to see some birds I’ve never seen before, as well as get some great views of some amazing birds that I never tire of seeing (not that I ever tire of seeing any wild animal in its natural environment, but I must admit I have favourites), such as Widgeon, Teal and Ospreys. Of my firsts, I did just catch a glimpse of a Sand Martin, and the other is pictured below.
Today I had a day off – I get two a week, just not necessarily at the weekends – and the weather hasn’t been welcoming, so I’ve been catching up with (digital) paperwork.
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- A coot.
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- The view North from the Gullery hide. A favoured Osprey perch is sticking out of the scrub over the water just right of centre.
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- Mr Mallard looking a little ungainly, and then more dignified.
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- A Reed Bunting in the reeds below the hide
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- So, Sunday, on my way I stop by East hide, and this wee bird is feeding just out front…
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- Do you know what it is? This is my other first…
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- It’s a Water Rail. Fantastic! I sat and watched it for a good 10 minutes when I probably should have been doing something else, sorry Hannah!
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- Ooh, look at this! A pair of Goldeneye, and then a pair of Mallard behind them, and a Moorhen between the reeds behind them
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- One of the local Ospreys makes use of the aforementioned favoured post
A few pics from my day off
Yesterday I took a bit of a walk to get to know the place. Here are some pics of the things I saw.
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- Most of the reserve is on the Kinnordy estate. I stay in a flat that is part of the estate. This is not it (I’ve included a photo of it in an earlier entry). I don’t know what this is, but it looks great.
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- This is the estate house. I’m guessing it has more rooms than the flat I’m staying in.
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- I was lucky enough to see two Red Squirrels in the same tree, but I didn’t have my camera ready. I think this is probably the same one. One seemed a lot busier than the other.
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- This chap seems to spend a lot of time hanging around in a ploughed field. Here he wised up a bit and dived for the scrub
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- A Redshank feeding in front of a female Teal.
Loch of kinnordy RSPB reserve
So, I’m doing some more volunteering with the RSPB, this time in East Scotland near a town called Kirriemuir. The reserve is about 90 hectares (almost 1 square kilometre) in size, and it’s possible to see it all in a day, which is what I did on my first working day here (Monday 29th March). Since then I’ve been ducking inside avoiding snow (more snow!), out in a canoe on the loch, taking down fencing, and trying to keep warm.
On Tuesday and Wednesday it was blowing a hoolie, so not much opportunity for pictures. By Thursday (yesterday) things had calmed down a little so Hannah, the warden, took myself and Tom, a local reed cutter contracted to the RSPB, out on the loch in the canoe. Hannah collected 10 samples from the loch, which will hopefully tell someone somewhere something useful about the silt content.
Today I’ve had a day off
More information about the reserve is here
Hannah, the warden writes a blog, which is here
Oh, it’s late – I’ll write more soon.
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- Tuesday morning – the wagon parked out side the flat, my home for four weeks (not the bit without glass in the windows)
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- Looking West from East hide this evening
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- Hannah tries to fit Tom into his dry suit
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- Making our way in the good ship… Canoe, with a Ninja at the helm.
Some stitched together panoramas
I had a go at stitching together some panoramas from some of the photos I’ve taken recently (15th March). They’ve come out ok. I’m not sure they’ll be of any use to anyone, but here they are anyway.
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- An almost 180deg view from the South beach at Fort George. To the left is Ardersier with the top of the Great Glen being the opening in the hills to the right.
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- Another Kessock bridge in the setting sun picture… Both these pictures are roughly a 16th of the resolution of the originals to get them uploaded.
Life since the office 
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