Photos from my day off…
During the work week we, as usual, took a day off. So, on Wednesday I took a walk up the Red Burn on Dundreggan. I then met Dundreggan project manager Steve near the Spring planting site (not far from the source of the Red Burn, where I saw plenty of fish and Dragonfly) for a walk about the site. It was fantastic, I could already see the trees I’d planted (over 2000 in amongst the 20000 plus) before entering the site, which is fenced off to keep deer out.
It was, and will be, interesting to note how the trees in the monitoring plots perform. In each group of plots there are 4 plots containing Birch, Birch and Alder, Birch with soil taken from the Birch woodland on Dundreggan, and Birch with fertiliser. My initial impression was that the Alder is doing exceptionally well in these plots. Alder is known to be a good Nitrogen fixer, so this could prove to be beneficial to the Birch.
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- A fine day for a day walk about the TFL manor
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- Have I said that I love spiders?
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- Allt Ruahd – the Red Burn
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- The Vapourer. An awesome name for an awesome caterpillar
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- Steve walking amongst ‘my’ trees. They’re gorgeous.
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- In amongst some of the young trees, is this mycorrhizal?
Life since the office 
So what do you think the markings on the spider are meant to do? What sort of ants were they? The second pic of the red burn reminds me of somewhere! That beetle is clearly out to destroy any planting you do! And finally, am afraid one puff of wind and those little trees will become part of the undergrowth!
4 October, 2010 at 11:34 am
The river, the caterpillar on the leaf, the green beetle and the spider, these four photos are outstanding. Enter them in a competition NOW! the rest are pretty impressive too. You appear to be getting the hang of this photography malarkey…goes without saying I could do better, am just too busy at the mo…ahem.
6 October, 2010 at 6:26 pm
That particular spider is the harbinger of doom, hence the markings. The ants are wood ants, probably Formica aquilonia or lugubris. I’m sure the beetle isn’t out to do that, mother, just as I’m sure that the trees will survive puffs of wind, as, indeed, they already have. We’d certainly have a hard time restoring the Caledonian forest if all the trees were blown over by puffs of wind…
17 October, 2010 at 4:42 pm