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)…