December | 2011 | Life since the office

Tracks in the snow

The snow is a great opportunity to see what animals are running about while we’re not looking…

: Red squirrel

: Fox prints

: I’m fairly sure this small track has been made by a vole

: Red deer tend to come off the hill and spend more time in the woods in the cold

: Roe deer

: In this one the dew claws are visible in the print because the roe deer has just landed after a leap

: These are grouse prints – I’m going for red (Lagopus lagopus), as opposed to black, because I found them high in the hills, away from the woodland edge.

: High up on the hills, so probably mountain hare

: Back in the woods, something from the thrush family, probably blackbird

20 December, 2011 | Categories: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

In the last couple of weeks the weather has been a bit changeable. At one point a wind speed of 165mph was recorded on the top of Cairngorm, and we have lost contact with the local radio mast a couple of times in strong winds. On occasions myself and Ross have been out doing late night and early morning tours of the local roads to clear fallen trees.

On the 10th/11th I spent the weekend in Stirling. Since then I’ve spent most of every day out on the reserve. I’ve been lucky enough to get good sightings of golden eagles, and to get reasonably close to a pine marten. There were a few days when we saw a grey heron nearly every day. With the lochs freezing over it’s got to be a tough time of year for a bird looking to find food in water. This might apply to the 14 mallard I saw on Loch a’ Chnuic a couple of days before it froze over, but not the dippers I’ve seen around, who will feed in fast flowing waters that are unlikely to freeze at current temperatures.

There seem to have been an influx of woodcock since the beginning of the month, perhaps late arrivals from Russia and Scandinavia. I’ve also seen one or two black-billed (adult) blackbirds, which are also likely to be of Scandinavian origin.

: The Wallace monument and a particularly attractive birch tree.

: Stirling, seen from the hills at Blairlogie

: Meanwhile, back at Abernethy, the colder weather sees more activity on the bird table

: I can count 143 birds in the picture, how many can you see?

: Looking South from Carn a’ Chnuic

: There are plenty of red deer on the reserve at the moment

: Looking West from the lower slopes of Carn Bheadhair

: The Hidden Loch

20 December, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Travels, Work | 2 Comments

Winter finally shows up

So, finally, we’ve had a sprinkling of snow at Abernethy. It’s not much, yet, but enough to make the place look even more fantastic. I was lucky enough to get caught in a snow storm while out walking on Sunday. In fact, whilst I’ve seen lots of great things while I’ve been here, it was probably the highlight of my stay so far.

Although the time for heather burning has passed, work has been fairly typical of previous entries, with some additional Christmas parties, deer management and fence repairs.

Anyway, these pictures are hopefully a lot more eloquent than I, in describing the snowy scenes, mostly from my walk on Sunday…