Fairy Glen and a bench
I’m back at RSPB Abernethy. I’m excited. This place is fantastic. 14000 hectares of which one third is already wooded, one third is regenerating and one third is montane habitat. Not only that, they also have capercaillie, pine martens, crested tit, red squirrel and the occasional golden eagle. I’m going to be here for six months as the long term residential volunteer. If it’s going to snow this winter there won’t be more snow anywhere in the UK than here. Probably.
For my first day’s work myself and the two current short term volunteers went along with Alice and Ian to join Kate at the Fairy Glen to clear some fallen trees from over the burn/stream (please ignore as appropriate for your country of origin). Today, my second day, we helped install a rather nice bench up near the Osprey Centre, and I received an ‘induction’.
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- The Fairy Glen, with some signs of non-fairy activity
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- A quick shot of a red kite
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- Ian tries to get a better shot of the red kite
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- I think this may be Clausilia bidentata. Massive at 10mm long. Perhaps the fairies ride these.
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- This morning…
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- …with 6 people lifting. Patrick shows us his rather attractive handywork
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- I’m warmly welcomed into the team
Time to head North for the winter
So, it’s time to begin my winter placement at RSPB Abernethy. While I’m in Scotland I’ll also be doing a couple of Trees for Life weeks, but for most of the next 6 months I’ll be based at Forest Lodge, near Nethy Bridge. I have stayed here before back in February 2010, when I was lucky enough to see fantastic amounts of snow. I’m hoping for similar weather this winter.
On my way North I stopped off in Cardiff for Tim’s 70s/80s themed birthday party (unfortunately my photos from this, some of which are hilarious, are temporarily unavailable due to the weather at Abernethy getting the better of my mobile – they are now posted here), before meeting up with Lee at John’s, and then driving the rest of the way here today. It (RSPB Abernethy) is every bit as big as I remember, but, unfortunately, a lot warmer.
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- My last meal with the family before my trip North, but someone else is stealing all the attention
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- Lee, c’mon, we’ve not seen each other for years…
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- John’s bees
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- John’s butterfly
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- Lee gets up for an afternoon cycle in Delamere forest
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- Nice bit of downhill, don’t ask me to ride back up it though
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- Beautiful
Tim’s 70s and 80s night
Tim has finally hit the big 3 9 so Julie carefully arranged for him to have the birthday present he’s always wished for, a surprise birthday party. She also gave the party a 70s and 80s theme, which is why the event deserves a post all of its own on here. Check out these photos. Tim, by the way, is meant to be Jimmy Saville, not a Swedish Ozzie Osborne.
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- We grace the streets of Cardiff
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- Alison, Rama and Karn forgot to dress up
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- Whereas Mike, Ju and Manoj…
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- Manoj is clearly actually from the 70s
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- Whilst it would take many years for me to grow this amount of facial hair, it would actually be this colour naturally
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- Tim couldn’t make it, so the real Jimmy Saville came instead
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- This is Tim in his pre-Jimmy Saville days. Mike and Tim once produced a song called Ford Escort. Tim, if you ever read this it would be great if you could leave the lyrics in a comment…
Shaldon and the Teign
Today, myself and (activity) Dave carried out a recce of a walk that he’s planning for his walking club, around Shaldon and through Labrador bay. Labrador bay is RSPB managed for farmland birds (especially Cirl bunting), and I helped plant some of the hedges earlier this year. Not much progress to report on that front yet, so here are some pictures of the river Teign.
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- Looking Northeast over the Teign estuary
The day the tour came to town
There were big crowds in Exmouth today for the Devon stage of the tour of Britain cycle race, which finished on the esplanade. The stage was won by Mark Renshaw, just ahead of team-mate Mark “Cav” Cavendish. Some other cyclists also finished the race, or at least came cycling past were I was standing, some 200m from the finish line. I’ve included some cutting edge pictures below, one of which is of a spider.
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- Here they come…
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- Here I’ve cleverly ignored the leader in order to focus on Mark “Cav” Cavendish
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- The riders go by in about 2 seconds, then we get to watch cars with bikes on their roofs. Great.
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- Lars Boom has some help to apply the yellow leaders vest thing
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- The event happened to coincide with a police bikers convention
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- In other news, our gorgeous friend Araneus diadematus has turned around
A quick update on the choughs
The news is that Whitebrown and Brownblue were being seen regularly near Land’s End with their three boys (Orangered, Orangelime and Orangegreen). There are some photos of the birds on the Cornish chough blog here and here. However, recent sightings now put at least two of the new boys (Orangelime and Orangegreen) up near Newquay/Watergate bay, having travelled up there with a male and female youngster from the other Penwith brood from this year. With Whitebrown and Brownblue being young enthusiastic parents it doesn’t surprise me that the boys have quickly started to travel long distances from home. I just hope that they have a safe winter.
A day out on Aylesbeare
In order to catch up with Tom and Damian from RSPB Aylesbeare (who came out to Dartmoor to help out on the Red Backed Shrike project), I spent today with them as they went round the reserve sites feeding the stock. Putting (Galloway) cattle and local horse breeds out is an environmentally appropriate way to manage heathland. This reduces the need to remove scrub during the winter using powered machinery and burning, and therefore cuts down on emissions and the impact on the ground (contrary to some misinformed local opinions). Now, if you’re going to ask me about whether some of these areas should be heathland, well, that’s a debate for another day.
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- Tom and some cows
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- Ponies on Aylesbeare common
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- Southern hawker dragonfly (Aeshna cyanea)
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- Looking towards Sidmouth from Fire beacon hill
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- More of Devon, looking West
Garden and allotment shots
Some things I found in the family garden and allotment.
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- Wasps (and hornets, Vespidae) are great for the garden as they eat garden ‘pests’. The male doesn’t sting, so find out it’s sex before upsetting it.
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- One of the more attractive plants in the allotment, Weasel’s snout, or wild snap dragon (thanks Helene for the id)
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- The absolutely amazing looking Araneus diadematus
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- Turnip sawfly (Athalia rosae)
Life since the office 
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