ure is definitely getting ahead of itself. On the bogs the heads of cotton grass are forming, photos from 2006 showed this happening in early June, the blaeberry flowers as shown last week, were on the plants in mid-May and the bracken fronds unfurling currently in the woods were pictured on 22nd May last year! Keep an eye open for other ferns as they start to emerge from the ground, the stem and leaves are like a small coiled spring, and as the plants grow, the stem slowly unfurls. Very impressive if you can find a patch of male ferns - a bit like "The Day of the Triffids".Throughout Abernethy Forest, the Scots pine trees are producing the new shoots at the 
very end of their branches. As the shoots grow we will see new flowers/cones appear and on some trees male pollen catkins, I will try and get a picture of the whole lot in action over the next couple of weeks. The new shoots will grow about a foot long by the end of the summer. Come back in fifty years time and this years new growth will be huge branches, forming part of the expanding canopy of the pine tree. Next time you see a Scots pine tree, have a look at any branch, and starting at the growing tip you will be able to count the number of whorls of secondary branches and hence determine how long that particular branch has been growing.
very end of their branches. As the shoots grow we will see new flowers/cones appear and on some trees male pollen catkins, I will try and get a picture of the whole lot in action over the next couple of weeks. The new shoots will grow about a foot long by the end of the summer. Come back in fifty years time and this years new growth will be huge branches, forming part of the expanding canopy of the pine tree. Next time you see a Scots pine tree, have a look at any branch, and starting at the growing tip you will be able to count the number of whorls of secondary branches and hence determine how long that particular branch has been growing.The garden is growing at a fair old rate at the moment, with new flowers popping up all over the place. The lungwort is proving very attractive to the bumblebees, similarly the grape hyacinth, which is just going over. The golden hop is racing up the fence, tree and anything else that gets in its way. Last year it almost reached the top of the rowan tree! A big effort over last weekend, saw most of the seeds planted in the vegetable garden, I just hope we don't get a hose-pipe ban later in the year.
The week also saw the first wasp, mosquito and dragonfly appear - a large red damselfly, pictured below left. Due to huge p
ressure at two of the Abernethy dragonfly pools, staff have installed two decking viewing platforms, one where visitors look for white faced darters and at the other (left) - the emerald damselfly ( I think, Coenagrion hastulatum in old money). Both sites have seen increasing numbers of visitors looking for, and photographing, the dragonflies, and at both sites the vegetation surrounding the pools was getting badly damaged due to trampling. It really is amazing how the grapevine, books that give too much information etc. is increasing the pressure dr
amatically on sites where "rare" things can be seen. If the efforts concluded this week to try 
and ease the pressure on a local black grouse lek site is anything to go by (right), the urge to see a species will far outweigh efforts being made to safeguard it. We seem to be entering an era of "we don't give a damn" so long as we can see it! Sorry for the rant.
ressure at two of the Abernethy dragonfly pools, staff have installed two decking viewing platforms, one where visitors look for white faced darters and at the other (left) - the emerald damselfly ( I think, Coenagrion hastulatum in old money). Both sites have seen increasing numbers of visitors looking for, and photographing, the dragonflies, and at both sites the vegetation surrounding the pools was getting badly damaged due to trampling. It really is amazing how the grapevine, books that give too much information etc. is increasing the pressure dr
amatically on sites where "rare" things can be seen. If the efforts concluded this week to try 
and ease the pressure on a local black grouse lek site is anything to go by (right), the urge to see a species will far outweigh efforts being made to safeguard it. We seem to be entering an era of "we don't give a damn" so long as we can see it! Sorry for the rant.Exclusive! Scotland's rugby team have just concluded a deal to sign up Henry, the Loch Garten male osprey. Following on from last weeks diary the prediction of another egg on the 23rd or 24th came true and the female EJ, duly laid her third egg on 24th. Something unheard of then happened. Within two hours she laid another - her fourth! When Henry appeared with a fish for her she was very reluctant to stop incubating to go off to feed. When see eventually did, Henry was in and within a few minutes had booted the eggs out of the nest. So all the eggs that VS had fertilised have now been ejected - 
no fooling Henry this year! So we now wait to see whether any more eggs can be produced. During the week willow warblers and redstarts arrived in numbers (sorry Jonathan), cuckoo on Monday and whinchat on Thursday. Our guests last week, Stanley and Barbara left it late, but news of a breeding pair of crossbills close to the road to Loch Garten, helped them see parrot crossbills as they departed on Saturday. Crossbills are very scarce this year, so news of this nest spead quickly, and lost of visitors turned up to see the birds, above right.
no fooling Henry this year! So we now wait to see whether any more eggs can be produced. During the week willow warblers and redstarts arrived in numbers (sorry Jonathan), cuckoo on Monday and whinchat on Thursday. Our guests last week, Stanley and Barbara left it late, but news of a breeding pair of crossbills close to the road to Loch Garten, helped them see parrot crossbills as they departed on Saturday. Crossbills are very scarce this year, so news of this nest spead quickly, and lost of visitors turned up to see the birds, above right. And the timber
man? Well, this is a special beetle, found mainly in the old pinewoods with Abernethy being one of its strongholds. This impressive beetle belongs to the family of "longhorn" beetles, all of which depend on good supplies of dead trees for breeding sites. The group of beetles come in various sizes with the timberman being similar in body size to the bigger longhorn beetles but it certainly takes the prize when you loo
k at the size of the beetles antennae, a few inches across in the female but up to six inches across in the male (see left, antennae almost to bottom left corner of picture!). And Rab? Rab (right) runs a local sawmill and the sawmill is operating within a pinewood. Beetles use their antennae to pick up the scent of females ready for mating and also to scent out dead trees as suitable breeding sites. Sawmill. Logs. Sawdust. A MacDonald's for beetles and other deadwood species of insects. A quick call to Rab last week to ask if the beetle with the "long horns" was about proved positive and a visit the following day did not disappoint. A few beetles were found running about on some of the logs in the yard, and others were paired up, the males fertilising the female before she wandered off to bore a hole in the bark of a nearby log in which she would lay her eggs. The beetle larva hatch out under the bark of the dead tree or fallen log, and live there for a year before emerging as adult beetles to start the process off all over again. 
Rab also explained how useful one of the other beetles was, in this case a pine weevil (left). You can see from the picture that this beetle has a long proboscis on the end of which the beetle has a powerful set of pincers, used for making holes in bark and wood. When cutting larch, Rab regularly gets tiny splinters in his fingers, and, holding the beetle gently by its body, he uses the beetle to grab the splinter and put it out of his finger. Remarkable! 
man? Well, this is a special beetle, found mainly in the old pinewoods with Abernethy being one of its strongholds. This impressive beetle belongs to the family of "longhorn" beetles, all of which depend on good supplies of dead trees for breeding sites. The group of beetles come in various sizes with the timberman being similar in body size to the bigger longhorn beetles but it certainly takes the prize when you loo
k at the size of the beetles antennae, a few inches across in the female but up to six inches across in the male (see left, antennae almost to bottom left corner of picture!). And Rab? Rab (right) runs a local sawmill and the sawmill is operating within a pinewood. Beetles use their antennae to pick up the scent of females ready for mating and also to scent out dead trees as suitable breeding sites. Sawmill. Logs. Sawdust. A MacDonald's for beetles and other deadwood species of insects. A quick call to Rab last week to ask if the beetle with the "long horns" was about proved positive and a visit the following day did not disappoint. A few beetles were found running about on some of the logs in the yard, and others were paired up, the males fertilising the female before she wandered off to bore a hole in the bark of a nearby log in which she would lay her eggs. The beetle larva hatch out under the bark of the dead tree or fallen log, and live there for a year before emerging as adult beetles to start the process off all over again. 
Rab also explained how useful one of the other beetles was, in this case a pine weevil (left). You can see from the picture that this beetle has a long proboscis on the end of which the beetle has a powerful set of pincers, used for making holes in bark and wood. When cutting larch, Rab regularly gets tiny splinters in his fingers, and, holding the beetle gently by its body, he uses the beetle to grab the splinter and put it out of his finger. Remarkable! 
Enjoy the heat, our cat Tibby, certainly does.
Happy reading
Stewart & Janet
All photos © Stewart Taylor
