We welcomed Linda & Graham to the chalet after a long journey from the south bringing with them the first flurries of snow. With snow & frost forecast we lifted the last of our parsnips from 2006 as they had started to grow again! We were pleasantly surprised by the many shapes and sizes but at the end of the day, they all tasted the same - delicious. A check later on on the Saturday to see how the breeding toads w
ere getting on (not well - too cold) produced a few fresh capercaillie droppings and a brilliant rainbow over the forest. As I wandered along the track my diary of last week came back to haunt me as the first thing I found was a large clump of frog spawn - high and dry, but with some well developed tadpoles within the spawn. So, the firs
t rescue of the year was undertaken, and the spawn was lifted and carried to the nearest permanent water. Despite the many clumps of frog spawn, not a frog was to be seen, mating and egg laying over for another year. Another sign of spring was also seen in the nearby peat-bog, the "moss crop" as it is known locally had started to grow. The "moss crop" is really the flowering spikes of cotton grass, fairly uninteresting at this stage of its life cycle but much more spectacular in June 
when the flowers have turned to seed and the bogs turn white as the "cotton" heads of the plants start to blow off across the bogs. The flower heads at this time of year are a valuable source of food for many animals (deer, sheep, cattle etc) but also for black grouse and capercaillie, which also feed heavily on the flower heads. At this time of year the male birds are preparing for the rigours of the lekking season (males fighting to be the dominant bird on the traditional lekking stances where females come to be mated) and also a food supply for the females as they prepare for egg laying.Sunday - the snow arrived, one inch at day break and regular showers during the day. Brrr! On Monday even more arrived and a couple of inches were lying during the day and despite a bit of thawing regular showers during the day kept the level at two to four inches. More food went out for the birds in the garden and the birds responded by appearing in good numbers, we estimated that there were over a hundred birds at the Firwood feeders during Tuesday. A rough count produced the following:
5 rooks, 4+ jackdaws, 2 goldfinches, 2 dunnocks, 4 blackbirds, 50-60 chaffinches,
10 blue tits, 5 great tits, 10 coat tits, 3 long-tailed tits, 4 yellowhammers, 5+ greenfinches, 2 starling (nesting in one of our boxes), 3 robins, 5 collard doves, 2 woodpigeons 4 siskins, 2 great-spotted woodpeckers, 1 fast flying sparrowhawk, 1 crested tit and a male pheasant. Well, that's what was counted but we know from a bird ringing session in the garden a few years ago, that the 10 blue tits turned into 20+ when individuals could be identified by their rings. So who knows just how many birds we were helping during the cold snap. I think the picture right has 30 birds in it of four species.So, with fresh snow on the hills, the landscape has looked great, particularly when taking the picture (le
ft) at Loch Mallachie, there was a fly past by a brown hen harrier, mobbed by a couple of carrion crows. The roosting gulls have also re-appeared, with a few greater black-backs and herring gulls along with six black-headed gulls on Loch Garten. A male hen harrier was also seen hunting over the farm fields on the edge of Nethybridge. A walk between Aviemore and Boat of Garten following the River Spey on Thursday produced 45 different bird species. Nothing really out of the norm, but a couple of stonechats looking for food on the banks of the Spey was unusual and probably a result of the snow cover locally. Thursdays outing was Stewarts first test in using his new "bus pass" (free bus travel throughout Scotland for the over 60's!) the whole outing completed without resorting to the car. By today, most of the low-ground snow had melted and we had a real "spring-like" day but a frost at night.
A check back to the toad pool today, with the su
n beating down, produced lots of activity and lots of strings of toad spawn to be seen. I also managed to see a toad "ball" (right) where a female toad had attracted the attention of at least 10 males, just look at the number of legs visible in the picture!And to finish, a few pictures of the snow - snow clearing and a before and after of the crocuses in the flower box, amazing how resilient these "fragile" flowers are.
Happy reading & best wishesStewart & Janet
All photos © Stewart Taylor
