to do with the hot, dry weather? And it is not just the trees which are freely flowering, in the woodlands wood sorrel appeared this week (clover-like leaves below left) and the blaeberry (bilberry, whinberry) is already in leaf and the flowers have started to appear, something which normally happens in May (right). 
All the flowers are good news for the bumblebees and many more have been on the wing this last week. One bee that has been seen a lot is the blaeberry bumblebee - Bombus monticola. It had a mention a couple of weeks ago as one of the first bees visiting the garden (the queen bees are still visiting on grape hyacinth this week), but its real habitat is the blaeberry in the forest. In one area on Sunday I saw a couple of dozen feeding on the pinkish flowers of the blaeberry.This weeks sees us at the peak, almost, of the capercaillie lekking season, and down at the Osprey Centre up to three males and two females have been putting in an appearance, the males over the last few days really getting quite aggressive with the dominant males defending their "patch" so that they have they get the chance to mate with more of the females. At one lek on Wednesday I was up at 3am, in the forest at 4 and hearing the first males popping away at quarter to five. Brilliant. There is nothing better than being out in the forest at first light waiting for the sun to rise. First there were the tawny owls calling, then the first robin started to sing, a woodcock passed overhead roding around its territory and gradually all the other birds start to join in. By half past seven it was time to pull out from the forest and join up with the rest of the team to compare notes and agree on how many male capercaillie have been at the lek - six in total and not one of the count team of three had seen a male! At this time of year it is essential that lekking birds are not disturbed, in fact now, it is illegal, so great care goes in to getting close to the lek to enable the count to be made but without disturbing any of the birds. A count of six at this lek was an increase of one since 2006 so perhaps the birds in Abernethy are on the increase. Watch this space.
The bus pass was again in use this week with a lift to Glenmore and a walk back to Nethybridge
via Ryvoan Pass and Abernethy Forest. Thirty-two species of birds were seen the highlight being a pair of merlins. A small tortoiseshell butterfly and a very tatty emperor moth added to the variety but a frog at 560 metres was the oddest sighting. Rain, sun and wind ensured that the camera was kept busy as the views were constantly changing.In the forest a morning was spent with Iain and Graham checking out artificial breeding sites for
hoverflies - a bit like nest boxes for birds the major difference being that these breeding sites involve holes cut into tree stumps and filled with wood-chips and sawdust and topped up with natural rainwater. This is to try to mimic the natural breeding sites that occur in trees that have died, some of which have died of heart-rot, allowing the inside of the tree to decay into a mush whilst rainwater and sap getting into the hole add to the rich-smelling "soup" developing within the decay within the tree. A few hoverflies home in on these "rot-holes" and lay their eggs within the water-filled hole. When the eggs hatch the larvae 
live within the "soup" feeding on the bacteria developing on the wet, rotting wood. The larvae are equipped with extendable breathing tubes ("tails" see right) so that they can live & feed deep within the water-filled hole & still breath. Weird! The rot-holes are quite rare and some of the hoverflies breeding within them are even rarer. Top of the rarity list is the pinewood hoverfly, Blera fallax, a hoverfly recorded quite a few times within the pine woodland close to Loch Garten in the early 1980's, but not since. The artificial breeding sites have been created in other woodlands within Strathspey, and at two sites the hoverfly has bred successfully. However, to date, it hasn't been re-found at Loch Garten so the work goes on. In addition to the artificial sites within stumps, plastic pots have been installed, again filled with woodchips, sawdust and natural rainwater.The birds. The first redstart was seen on 16th and a house martin on 22nd. A pair of slavonian grebes have taken up residence on the flooded field pools at Boat of Garten. Mallard chicks were seen on 22nd. At the osprey site the season progressed well with the first egg laid on 18th and the second egg on 21st. However, readers of this diary will remember
my mention of the regular Loch Garten female having paired up with an old flame and not with Henry, her regular partner of four years. On Sunday 22nd, with the Osprey Centre full and EJ the female osprey incubating her eggs, good old Henry put in his first appearance of the year, eighteen days after his partner! Four-o-clock Henry lands on nest, old flame nowhere to be seen. Four-thirty pm Henry kicks the two eggs out of the nest! 2005 all over again! What next? The female is due to lay a third egg 23 - 24 April, will Henry accept it? Again, watch this space or the Loch Garten webcams http://www.rspb.org.uk/webcams/birdsofprey/lochgartenospreynest.asp . The outlook currently, doesn't look too good, but this pair are full of surprises so we will see what the next few days brings.Happy reading
Stewart & Janet
sunset over Ryvoan Pass
All photos © Stewart Taylor
