Work

Old news…

So, February ended up being my last month at RSPB Abernethy.  I was offered a contract as a surveyor on the Native Woodland Survey of Scotland (NWSS), and I started training on the 28th.  I trained for 4 weeks, then had an assessment with the Forestry Commission Scotland during the last week of March.  Thankfully, that went well and I then spent 3 months walking some of Scotland’s woods.  Quite a nice way to make a living, I thought.  However, would you believe it, things then got even better as I was offered the opportunity to survey raptors, divers and waders off the North coast of Scotland.  Days spent watching hen harriers, red throated divers, greenshanks, etc – my dream job as a 12 year old, my dream job now…

For my last full weekend at Abernethy I finally got round to walking up Bynack More, and then on to Loch A’an.  I’ve already posted pictures of ptarmigan from the day – here’s another shot or two.

Almost at the top of Bynack More, Abernethy forest in the foreground, Moray firth in the background

Loch A’an (Avon)

During my last two weeks at Abernethy, I was lucky enough to be offered a contract measuring the progress of the restructuring work that has taken place in the plantations.  This involved me walking through all the plantations on a grid pattern and measuring tree density, height and canopy cover.  The data collected from this survey will be used to determine where more light could be let in to promote the ground flora favoured by the Caledonian forest’s species.  It was a great opportunity to see some of the parts of the reserve that I might not have otherwise seen during my stay.

Mondhuie woods – plantation turned good

During this time I’ve also been studying (OU degree) and having to improve my id skills.  This doesn’t leave much time for blogging.  I’ll keep adding entries when I can, but that won’t be often.

A frozen morning near Loch Mallachie

Here are some final shots from my stay at Abernethy – hopefully I’ll get round to posting some pictures from my time surveying at some point.

Ian showing off his legendary argo skills up the ‘hill track’. We had planned to get some burning in, but the bitterly cold wind sent us back down the hill

If ant hills are like the tip of the iceberg then I want to see what’s going on under this one…

 

9 September, 2012 | Categories: RSPB, Travels, Work | 1 Comment

Stirling and storms

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.

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

Last TFL week of the year, Dundreggan 5th to 12th November

Myself and Gordon were, once again, on duty for the last TFL week of 2011.  It’s always great to get back to Dundreggan at some point of the year to catch up with Steve (Morris, Dundreggan project manager) and the trees that I’ve been involved in planting.

This year, due to the nursery move from Plodda to Dundreggan, there were a lot of TFL grown trees to be planted, both in the nursery, and in two of the planting sites.  In total we planted over 2100 trees in the two planting sites, and numerous trees were transposed successfully to their new nursery setting.

From a personal perspective I was extremely pleased to see that some of the aspen and birch had almost reached my head height in the riparian planting area, where we added some hazel, elm, rose and the occasional Scots pine.

We spent three days working in the planting area on the North West of the estate.  From here we had a great view of the mountains of Glen Moriston, and were witness to colourful sunsets each evening.   Here too, some of the birch trees have already reached five foot and it will be interesting to see how the site looks in spring, when the trees start getting their leaves back.

Many thanks to Jill for guiding us through a number of the planting jobs, and for Abby’s help during the nursery day.  It was good to catch up with Bill and Donnie and to spend the week with a great bunch of creative volunteers.  I’m still amazed at how good Grieg’s pizza was.

13 November, 2011 | Categories: TFL, Work | Leave a comment

I’m also blogging elsewhere… sort of

Recent Abernethy activities include entering data to track the young ospreys from Loch Garten, and writing some blog text to go onto the osprey blog, which can be found here

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/lochgartenospreys/b/lochgartenospreys/archive/2011/11/09/bynack-on-the-move-again.aspx

In the last couple of weeks we’ve started heather burning, up on the moors, to create patches of flora regeneration.  We’ve also been doing the usual deadwood creation, dam building and removing some roadside regeneration (pine trees, especially, grow in thick patches alongside tracks because of the ground disturbance).

Last weekend (29th), I accompanied team pine marten (Laura and Dave) on their last visit to Mar Lodge, to pick up the hair tubes that Laura had set up there.  Here are some photos from that trip, one from one of last week’s damming days, and one from this week’s burning…

3 November, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

Another day out with Ron

I’ve been lucky enough to spend another day with Ron Summers again today.  This time Rachel and her friend CJ, both from St Andrews university, joined us.  Rachel is studying how trees on the reserve can provide a map of when and where fires took place at Abernethy for her final year degree paper.  Today they had a glorious chance to watch me cut wedges forth from Scots pines with a carefully wielded chainsaw.

26 October, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | 1 Comment

Reserve work…

Just to give you an idea of what I’m up to…  Yesterday myself, Alice, the two short-term vols (Andy and Andy), and Gregg, who’s on secondment from the RSPB Scotland office created deadwood in the morning.  This involves killing trees (generally pine) in a plantation in a variety of ways, to give space to broad leaf trees or granny pines and let light through to the forest floor.

As I have a chainsaw I ring bark trees, damage them (so they are more susceptible to being blown over), or high stump them.  The non chainsaw folk are, meanwhile, pulling trees over with a winch, or ‘totem polling’ them.  The aim is to leave the majority of the deadwood standing, as this generates invaluable woodland habitat for birds and invertebrates.  It sounds harsh, but the plantation is densely packed, and we can create a lot of deadwood by working on just a small percentage of the trees.

In the afternoon we strengthened a fence around an experimental regeneration enclosure.  I then had to rush back to the lodge to enter the Osprey satellite tracking data for the week.  The news on that front is that the two young that we’re tracking have both made a successful trip to Western Africa, and appear to be fishing and hanging around on the rivers in that part of the continent.

Today, myself, Gregg and the two Andy’s accompanied Bob (one of the wardens) to Craigmore wood, another part of the reserve, where we checked the fence and removed rogue Norway spruce from the site.  We also checked fences near Mondhuie and Lyngarrie.

From left to right, Alice, Gregg and the two Andys.

25 October, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

The dam builders

Ross has kindly given me two projects to look after while I’m here at RSPB Abernethy.  One is to manage the roadside regeneration on one of the woodland tracks (Mondhuie), and the other is to build a series of dams to block some drainage ditches.  The ditches were dug shortly after world war two when trees were in short supply and much of the land was being used to produce a timber crop.  Now the RSPB are restoring the area, near Loch Garton, to it’s original bog wood habitat, to help the many species that live there.

It just so happens that dam building is a good team sport.  One person gets to put on a large pair of waders and stand in the ditch while the others dig turf, saw up some wood for the structure, stand in the plastic lining, and generally help pack the dam with peat and turf.  It’s also great to be able to see the results as the water level rises behind the dam.

12 October, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | 1 Comment

Abernethy strikes back…

I’ve been here for almost two weeks now, and so far I’m down a mobile phone and half a camera.  Whilst out walking on my first weekend at the reserve it rained a lot and I mistakenly took my mobile from my pocket a couple of times to check the time.  Alas, on one of these inspections the screen went blank and the phone has not worked since, despite then spending 3 days on a radiator.

On Monday I was out with Ross Watson, Operations Manager and one of the wardens here, and we had to do a fair bit of walking about in rocky burns, and when I next pulled out my camera it became apparent that the LCD screen had taken a knock.  This makes photography somewhat more exciting as I’m now unable to see what the picture is like that I’m taking with the camera, and I have to wait to download it onto my laptop to view.

Last week duties included spending a day with the pupils from Grantown Grammer School carrying out non native tree removal and creating dragonfly ponds, and cutting wedges out of older scots pine with RSPB Scotland’s senior research biologist, the brilliantly knowledgeable Ron Summers.  Ron is working with a student from St Andrews to identify when fires took place across the reserve.  To do this Ron first identifies a tree with a fire scar (see picture below) and the wedges that I cut from the trees are then analysed as the rings show both the age of the tree and in which years the fires took place.

I was also lucky enough to spend two days on a 4×4 course in Aviemore.  Many thanks to Andy Burnett for his skill and patience.  Now I just need to get a 4×4 vehicle stuck on a steep slippery hill to practice some of the techniques (quickly stick it in reverse, accelerate back down the hill, it goes against everything my nerves tell me to do…).

Ok, enough waffle, time for some pictures (mostly taken while I could still see what I was taking pictures of)…

11 October, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | 1 Comment

August on Dartmoor

So, it’s now August on Dartmoor.  It’s interesting to see how the landscape has changed as the bracken has grown, and a different set of flora is in bloom.  The bird life has also changed a little since starting here in June.  The dawn chorus is now being sung by willow warblers and chiff chaffs that are probably passing through (the locals stopped singing in late June), as well as whitethroats and the ubiquitous wrens.  The blackcaps now spend their days chipping out their contacts calls, rather than singing, and we no longer hear cuckoos, garden warblers, song thrushes or even that many blackbirds, although there are still young thrushes (including mistle) about.

I am lucky enough to see numerous young and adult raptors regularly, having worked out where I can see families of sparrow hawks, kestrels, hobbys and buzzards, including a near white fronted, palest young buzzard that I’ve ever seen.  We also see a (young?) peregrine fly near the watch site a few times during the month, and on one fantastic occasion we saw this bird spend considerable time testing its moves on a buzzard and then some pidgeons.  In fact the only raptor that didn’t seem to get involved in aerial duals with the buzzards were the sparrow hawks, which were content to scythe through the scrub/trees, at high speed.  On my final watch myself and Helene were witness to one chasing a very panicked green woodpecker into some trees.  Greeny avoided capture by inches with a couple of incredible last minute changes in direction.

Massive thanks goes to Nigel, Mary and Colin for bringing along cakes & crisps for myself and Damian (my co-worker for the last month or so) and to all the day volunteers/birders for spending time watching out for the birds and keeping us from turning into some kind of eccentric recluses during the course of the project.  Or at least tolerating us after we had.  Thanks to Perry for coming back for a few days (let me know if my moth id is way off the mark), and to Helene and some of the other very nice people from the RSPB office for coming out to help and looking after us.

I’m lucky enough to have had some great deer encounters this month, especially with a (young?) roe deer – see photo below.  There’s been lots of nightjar action, presumably because the young are now old enough to be out and about.  There’s been one particular bird that flies over my van every evening, occasionally stopping to sit on the ground in front of me.  It’s amazing.  Nightjars really are lovely birds – I’m disappointed that I don’t have a camera able to take decent images in poor light.

I have a great respect for Satish Kumar, who has good things to say about Dartmoor.  Whilst I’m sure that it might not have been some people’s cup of tea, I’ve certainly felt very content to spend an extended period of time on the moor, away from the trappings of modern life.  Some areas of Dartmoor are fantastic and have a lovely feel to them, and I’ve come to really appreciate time without the communication tools that we now take granted, such as a mobile, email, internet, etc.  But, like Satish, I think that trees are an extremely important part of our environment.

It is suggested that the word Dart means oak, and the majority of Dartmoor would certainly have been covered in broadleaf woodland after the ice age.  For me the parts of Dartmoor that feel right are those parts that still feature native trees.  Although I have no data to prove it, just a short time spent in different areas is enough for it to be obvious that there are certainly at least more wild mammal and bird species in the areas with trees (all the many nightjars on Dartmoor are nesting in the plantations – which makes a mockery of claims that extended heathland is an ideal nightjar habitat, and also shows that the forestry commission are now sympathetic towards the wildlife living in their plantations), and seemingly more flying insects, arachnids, fungi, lichen and bryophytes.

So, yes, I agree with Satish that Dartmoor is a special place, but I think we should move on from the damaging practices of inappropriate intensive grazing, burning, and growing crops of spruce.  I’m particularly inspired by the work of organisations such as Moor Trees, who are helping to restore native woodland on and around the moor, and I hope that the forestry commission will consider gradually reverting their plantations back to a majority of native species coverage.  Improved tree cover on the moor will lead to more areas with greater species diversity, it’ll be more aesthetically pleasing, more spiritually fulfilling and, in turn, should lead to even higher numbers of (satisfied) visitors.

17 August, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

July on the Moor

More nights on the Moor.  The weather starts hot this month, but then goes wet.  Very wet.  Before being generally mixed.  Still, it gives me a chance to try my new harsh weather clothing before my winter at Abernethy.

Highlights from the month include…

I quickly get over the stomach cramps; I see my first Willow tit (whilst just sat in my van!); on one of the night watches I watch lightning light up the sky to the South, without any thunder; Damo, from Aylesbeare, comes back to help out and regale me with stories of the East London gangsta scene; a nightjar flies over my camper pretty much every night then, suddenly, there are at least 4 nightjars around the van towards the end of the month; I watch two roe bucks rutting about 20m away from me one day in some woods – they walk side by side scraping their hooves on the ground and occasionally turn and lock horns – eventually the winner stands and bellows for a while, even though he can see me watching; we regularly see a red hind with a spritely little fawn; John and Chris, the two residential volunteers from the Exe (RSPB) come and help out; I see the bands of Jupiter and its 4 moons through the scope on a couple of clear nights, fantastic.

31 July, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | 1 Comment

June on Dartmoor

Given that I’ve been unable to update this while I’ve been up on the moor (and I have a lot of catching up to do) I thought it would be somewhat fraudulent of me to give you a blow by blow commentary of my time.  Besides, the early days on the job (with the RSPB) were mostly spent working nights, so I didn’t have the opportunity to capture too many images.  I was part of a team monitoring and protecting a pair of red backed shrike.  Further details and information on how the project fared will be released by the RSPB in due course, at which point I’ll link to it from here.

As I say, a large part of my time was spent patrolling the moor at night, on the lookout for anyone who might want to disturb the birds.  This provided me with a fantastic insight into what it must be like to be a security guard.  At least I was outside – so I had the opportunity to learn the night time habits of foxes, rutting roe deer and nightjars, as well as allowing me to experience a fabulous dawn chorus from the song thrushes, blackbirds, whitethroats, wrens, cuckoos, skylarks, to name but a few.

I met a large number of local birders through the project, some of which gave up their time to come out and help keep a round the clock watch on the birds – more about them later.  Perry from RSPB West Sedgemoor, and the three current residential volunteers from RSPB Aylesbeare, Damian, Rob and Tom, also came out to help out with the shifts.  Nice one chaps.

Highlights from June were…

seeing my first red backed shrike; seeing and hearing the nightjars; trying to work out what that crazy barking is at 3 in the morning (a roe buck); learning to sleep in hour long bursts and at any given opportunity (maybe learning isn’t the right word); seeing a pair of cuckoos getting frisky with each other; and, not having a mobile signal.  One other notable moment, whilst I had a stomach bug at the end of the month, I was on patrol and managed to keep myself from sicking up over someone who stopped me for conversation for maybe 20 minutes while I stood there, not talking, and thinking, ‘must hold it in, must hold it in…’.  How he couldn’t see this in my facial expression I’ll never know.  Thankfully I managed to hold my food down for the duration of the bug, and continue eating at least one decent meal a day.

30 June, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

TFL week on Skye 23rd April, sunshine included

So, my only TFL work week of this spring, and it felt like I must have picked the best week of the season, not least because of the sunny weather.  I was Focalising with Paul Knights, someone who I’ve met a couple of times before at the 2010 conference and Saturday changeovers.  He’s been coming on work weeks for 15 years and he’s still only half my age!  Anyway, I think we did ok.

We were also lucky enough to have a fine group of volunteers, some of whom I knew, and some I was meeting for the first time.  We planted 3020 trees on a fairly steep slope over the road from the plantation in Glen Kylerhea (down towards the Kylerhea ferry).  During our three days there we heard, and occasionally saw, at least two grasshopper warblers, and twice a golden eagle, once soaring higher and higher and then twisting and feinting as it dropped into the next glen, and the next time flying low over us with a bunch of hoodies in tow.  This was in addition to a fine array of other birds, caterpillars, bugs, etc.

We also spent a day felling Spruce at Balmacara and, on our last working day, clearing smaller spruce from a beautiful spot near Leitir Fura (look it up and pay it a visit).  For my day off I walked to Gleann Meadhonach and Dalavil woods.  There is an area of planted young woodland before the Glen opens up, and the whole walk was absolutely stunning.  I’ll create another post to discuss my wildlife sightings.

As usual big thanks must go to Peter and Julie MacDonald for being great hosts at the Flora MacDonald lodge.

Also worthy of mention was the food, especially the cakes (I may, at last, get some sleep tonight after Kevin and Rob’s chocolate brownie hit!), a snipe with a strangely high pitched tail near the lodge, some fine philosophical debate with the legendary Mr Knights (mostly not serious!), and the late night conversations around the fireside.

30 April, 2011 | Categories: TFL, Travels, Work | 1 Comment

Saturn and into the night shifts.

So, for my last three days on the project (for now at least), I was down to do shifts into the night.  Once the pairs have laid eggs, the plan is to get 24 hour watches going on each of the nest sites (some mindless people still collect eggs, would you believe).  This requires a fair bit of man power, so if you’re reading this, and fancy getting involved, then please do.  Probably your best bet is to contact the Cornish Chough Project (http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/projects/details/223656-cornwall-chough-project).

Anyway, it just so happened that the last three days have been blessed with clear skies and much less wind than previous days.  In fact I’d go as far as to say it was hot during the day.  As a result, I managed to do some star gazing at night, and found Saturn through the RSPB scope I was using (16 to 20x).  Wow, I can’t believe how clear the rings are.  I’m afraid my digi-scope system just wasn’t up to getting a picture of it, but let me tell you, it’s an amazing site.

My shifts were to look after the young choughs, who are now showing all the signs of incubating.  She spends the majority of her time on the nest, coming out, mostly near the end of the day, to feed and partake in grooming sessions with him.  Usually I get to see this and it’s very sweet.  He makes some (although maybe not as much as we might consider appropriate) effort to make sure she’s fed well, and she often cuddles up to him, or grooms his back with her beak.

Meanwhile, he’s continuing to harass the local raven, although he now seems at ease with passers by.  Apparently ravens are known to take chough eggs, so I have to wonder whether his behaviour doesn’t just draw attention to the pair, or if he’s got the raven thinking that he’s not to be messed with.  We’ll see.

Tonight, as the birds were going to roost, I wished them the best of luck.  I’ve grown very fond of Brownblue and Whitebrown, and a couple of the local pairs of jackdaws (currently hauling large amounts of nesting material about, in a sometimes fairly comical way).  I’m hoping that I’ll get a chance to come down here again this spring.  In the meantime, if I hear any news about Mr Brownblue and Lady Whitebrown et al, I’ll add it to this blog.

8 April, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

Dive bombed, ravens and jackdaws

On Wednesday, during a couple of days off, I popped into Aylesbeare to pick up the chough project landrover.  Most of the winter management work has now stopped for spring, so as not to disturb birds nesting, etc.  So, most of the staff and Wednesday volunteers appeared to be working about the yard, carrying out maintenance or updates on the infrastructure.

Then on Thursday, on my way back South, I met up with Ray Piper, the Lantra trainer who had trained us during our tractor course, for a days Mule (the Kawasaki 4 by 4 version) training.  This involved driving the Mule up onto Dartmoor and then through terrain that you would ordinarily consider off limits for vehicles.  It’s all about momentum, top stuff.

Since then I’ve mostly been watching the young pair.  She (Whitebrown) is now spending as much time at base as she is away.  This is a new nest site, and it’s impossible to see where the birds go when they fly into it, but we have to assume that she’s now sitting on at least one egg.  As far as we know none of the other nest sites are at this stage.  This pair, maybe because they are so young, are doing this a little earlier than expected.

Our man, Brownblue, is still having a go at passers by, sometimes even if they are nowhere near the nest site.  As much as this is quite entertaining it means that I sometimes have to explain to people what’s going on, and ask them if they’d be kind enough to let him have his way.  Everyone seems to have an appreciation of the birds (there are information boards on the walks), and are happy to have seen them, so it’s generally a pretty nice thing to have to do.

However, Brownblue isn’t getting things all his own way.  Yesterday I’d spotted a Peregrine about on rocks a couple of times, which the choughs are usually wary of.  Seemingly with good reason, for as they both flew away from the nest site yesterday afternoon, he suddenly twisted and dived, dropping amazingly quickly down towards the sea.  As he went below the cliff line I just managed to catch a glimpse of something dropping after him.  Although I didn’t manage to identify it at the time, I can only assume that it was the Peregrine, as I know nothing else likely to do this.  Anyway, I stood there wondering if it was possible that he might have been caught, or even if he, or his assailant, had not pulled out of their dive before hitting rocks or the sea (they were already flying quite low).  Thankfully I spotted Brownblue on some rocks a few hundred metres down the coast.  He then flew slowly back to meet up with our lady, who had taken refuge on rocks up the slope from me.  They spent some time reassuring each other, and tapping beaks, and I wondered what he must be thinking as they flew off together.

3 April, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

Getting jiggy…

So the sun isn’t always shining down here.  On Sunday I spent my shift peering into the fog for a glimpse of our mature pair, redred (see pictures from last entry) and blueorange.  This pair have a good history of getting away broods (http://www.cornwall-birding.co.uk/category/choughs/), so the fact that I barely saw them all day is not too much of a concern.

Yesterday I spent time watching the young pair, who were mostly out feeding all day, but are spending a bit of time around the suspected nest site.  Back at the Vean, I did see what I’m fairly sure is a female black restart, so that was cool.

Today, the weather was pretty bleak to start with – 100% cloud, visibility maybe 5-10Km.  Again, watching the young choughs, they are spending more time nearer their base, and our man, brownblue, is getting quite fiesty with anyone that comes near.  This involves him landing within maybe 20 feet of them and calling whilst occasionally pecking the ground.  Invariably this leads to people stopping, pointing at him, and then standing there taking pictures.  He’s a bit of a character, I have a bit of a soft spot for the little fella, but he doesn’t do himself any favours.

Still, he must be doing something right, because our lady, whitebrown, made it quite clear, with a fair bit of stooping and wing fluttering, that he was the man for her.  Jiggyness ensued, although I must admit, I didn’t have to look away for too long.

I’d been watching it come over the sea for some time and at half one there was a break in the weather and the sun came out.  Visibility was excellent, maybe the best it’s been while I’ve been down here. All the lighthouses, etc, in the distance were clearly visible, the sea became a deep azure blue, to mirror the sky.  All the local birds, gulls, jackdaws, the choughs, pidgeons, took to the air and were all whirling up and up, and we were all suddenly very happy.

The choughs seemed especially upbeat, circling higher than I’ve seen them go before, and then flying sensationally together, before she went back to base.  He came over and checked me out, still rising up and diving and spinning in the air, before heading back.  I said hello and suggested that he calm down around people, but, he probably wasn’t listening…

29 March, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

Choughs and kestrels

So, we’ve been concentrating our monitoring efforts on the non-paired choughs for the last few days, to see if there were any likely pairings appearing.  But, alas, it seems not.  Our boys still seem very close, and the lone female doesn’t seem to be able to attract their attentions for long enough.

This looks like it might be quite frustrating for her, as she, today, took to flying about with large bits of nesting material in her mouth, whilst performing aerial acrobatics.  Quite spectacular acrobatics.  At one point she stole up to a kestrel, that was just minding her (I’m fairly sure it was a female) own business, bumped her from above, then dived down below and around her.  It was spectacular stuff, but neither the kestrel, nor the boys seemed particularly interested.

Also, the unringed chough, that appeared to be hanging around with these three, hasn’t been seen for a few days.  So, it looks like that story might not break, which is a shame.  However, I could be misreading all these signs, and it might all mean something entirely different…

I’ve managed to get some quite interesting shots of the kestrel by, in some cases, combining my camera with the RSPB scope.  Later today, I saw two of them fly up to a roost site, possibly a pair, although it was getting a bit dark to tell.  They really are incredible to watch whilst hunting.  Once I’ve trained my binoculars on them, it’s possible to see that they hover in exactly the same spot, by judging it against the background.  How do they now how to do this?!  Amazing.

26 March, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB, Work | 2 Comments

Young choughs

I spent today watching the young choughs affectionately known as brownblue and whitebrown.  Catchy names, I know you’ll agree, but I don’t have the job of naming the choughs yet.  As I mentioned in my last post, all of the choughs that grew up in Cornwall have been ringed.  Coincidentally, the rings on these choughs match their names.  Brownblue is the male in this pair.

These guys are young, just two years old.  So this is the first time they’ve looked like they might nest.  They seem to be very close.  After even short spells apart they’ll spend time reassuring each other by being close and occasionally tapping beaks (possibly food is passed between them, but I haven’t been able to see this for sure).  While they’re foraging they’ll occasionally run towards each other and tap their beaks in a fashion that looks very much like they’re kissing.

By the end of today, our lady was spending a little time on her own in the area where we think the nest might be.  At this point our man spent his time calling and generally looking a bit restless.

23 March, 2011 | Categories: National Trust, RSPB, Work | 2 Comments

My last days at Aylesbeare

So, it’s time to say goodbye to RSPB Aylesbeare.  It’s been 5 months of proper physical work, some lengthy debate and a little self questioning.  I’m now confident in the use of a chainsaw, and have used tractors with trailers, winches, mowers, front loaders, blah blah blah.  The truth is that I’ve really enjoyed using all this machinery.  I set out thinking it would be good to have the experience, and that it was a little bit boys toys, but maybe I’m just a boy at heart (ha, I already knew this).

I’ve also learnt a lot from the guys I’ve been working with, who have a fantastic grasp of the environment they’re working in.  They work hard, eat cake, and share biscuits and knowledge.  On Friday we all went in to Exeter for a few drinks and I was presented with a copy of “East Devon pebblebed heaths, 240 years in the making” by Andrew Cooper, signed by my colleagues from the reserve.  I realised (again) that I’m pretty lucky to be doing what I’m doing.  I hope to stay in touch with both the reserve and the people.

Other highlights in my last week were…   Finding an “eyed” ladybird, anatis ocellata (see photos).  This wee fella is apparently only found in pine wood habitats, and was indeed found amongst some Scots Pine we were thinning out.  And driving the Ford 4000 around.  Although this tractor seemed pretty heavy going when I first started driving it, as soon as I got used to its little idiosyncrasies (like third being opposite first, then fourth bring at the other end of the box), it turned out to be my favourite.  The one at the reserve is k registration, which, it turns out, makes it a couple of years older than me.  My parents also enthuse about their experiences in Ford 4000s.  Ok, that’s enough, before I start sounding like a tractor geek.

20 March, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

Labrador Bay

Today, with some of the Wednesday vols, we planted a hedge at the RSPB reserve at Labrador bay.  The weather was again delightfully bright and sunny.  Despite the extraordinarily steep slopes no one fell off the hill into the sea.

9 March, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | 1 Comment

Spring at Marazion

The RSPB Aylesbeare warden, Toby Taylor, very kindly offered out the services of myself and Tia to RPSB Cornwall reserves.  As a result we’ve been removing willow stumps at a place called Marazion for the last couple of days.  The weather has been glorious, the reserve is beautiful, and we’ve been eating lunch on the beach looking out at St Michaels Mount.  If Dave, the warden down there, offered residential placements I’d be jolly well signing up.

What’s more, whilst there, I saw my first bittern, flying for a good few hundred metres across the marshes this morning, fantastic!  No, more than fantastic.  Both myself and Tia became very excited and probably embarrassed poor Dave by gushing thank yous to him, when he isn’t, after all, able to control what the birds get up to.  There are also Cetti’s warblers on the marshes, and chiff chaffs that hang around all year round.  With chiff chaffs joining in the plentiful bird song there was a proper feel of spring in the air, probably something that part of the world feels before most places in the country.  Oh, and it’s hard to describe how loud the Cetti’s are – they manage to make their call sound like it’s being produced in an amphitheatre.  Incredible.

8 March, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Travels, Work | Leave a comment

Fire Beacon Hill

The overcast mornings are clearing to bright sunny days.  And our current view while working, from Fire Beacon Hill (FBH), near Sidmouth, is pretty fine.  We are carrying out annual winter management of ‘our’ part of the hill, which includes removing birch scrub and coppicing some of the more leggy gorse.

On Wednesday, we are joined by the Wednesday volunteers, a great bunch of people, all giving some of their time to help out and pass round cake.  Shortly after arriving at FBH on Wednesday, I received a call to say that the Ford 4000 (with trailer) had broken down on the way over.  I hurried back, with the battery pack, to where Richard had managed to pull over on the A3052.  Ed had also turned up in Zetor (another tractor), but their attempts to get Fordy started were all in vain.  In the end myself and Ed had to leave – Richard took a hit for the team and stood bravely on the road side, hand to his to his head, saluting us off.  Would we ever see him again…

As it happened Johnny came out in the Valtra and towed Fordy, the trailer and Richard down the road and across the reserve back to the workshop, while we had to get on with some real work.  Oh, meant to say, saw my first butterfly of the year last week – a Brimstone!  I’ve never seen one before, it was moving about too quickly for pics unfortunately, but still, fantastic.

2 March, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

Rain and odd jobs

It’s been raining a lot recently.  25mm last weekend, 35mm the week before, and a little more early this week.  But as the week has gone on there seems to have been a change in the air.   It feels a bit like spring is on the way.

Jobs this week include: clearing paths on the reserve, which basically involves chainsawing gorse & creating habitat piles; clearing ‘dangerous’ roadside trees near Lympstone common; clearing a fence line on parts of the reserve; and clearing brash on Lympstone common.  I also managed to create some unneeded air conditioning in my chainsaw trousers whilst bending (my knees, not my back) down yesterday.  Tia has very kindly made them public friendly again.

I tried to get a few shots of the visitors to the workshop bird feeders.  None of them turned out that well, but I’ve added the Siskin one.

25 February, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

CS chainsaw assessments

Today I made a small trip over to Salcombe Hill to take a look at the Axewoods Co-operative woodlands project (http://axewoods.org/), a project that aims to promote working and communities in East Devon woodlands.  The project offers the opportunity to learn wood work skills, and free wood to those who want to get involved.

Afterwards I took a walk around some of the National Trust paths on the hill, which offer great views of Sidmouth.  It was a beautiful evening (it’s stopped raining!), and I was treated to a fantastic vista of the sun setting over Devon.

On Monday I had my CS30 and CS31 chainsaw assessments at Bicton college.  Frantic revision over the weekend, and a few tips from Johnny on the reserve the Friday before (thanks Johnny!), helped me through both assessments.  It was a long day with the maintenance part of the assessment at Bicton college in the morning, and the felling taking place on Harcombe hill in the afternoon, but I’m now free to fell trees unsupervised.  Nice.

19 February, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

Some recent photos…

Nothing too unusual to report.  Lots of rain, the usual work out at Stockland, and a  bit of a look around the Venn Ottery parts of the reserve.

27 January, 2011 | Categories: RSPB, Work | Leave a comment

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