Quite a bit of water has flowed under the bridge since the last diary, the bird atlas work has been completed, Ruth’s challenge supported, the veg patch weeded and a trip away to the Western Isles for a fortnight – more about this trip in the next diary.
Late June and early July was notable for the unusual birds which turned up locally, singing their heads off and getting me thinking they could be breeding. The first was a wood warbler, picked up on one of my BTO Atlas tetrads, singing quite happily in an area of mature birch woodland, similar to the woodland were birds regularly breed at Rothiemurchus. Had I missed the bird on the first round of visits? A check a week later and the bird had gone. A photographing visit to the green and brown shield-moss logs by the River Nethy found a chiffchaff in full song. Visits to a nearby field full of bird’s-foot trefoil to check for Osmia bees over the next week allowed visits to the chiffchaff site to be made quite regularly, and on all visits the bird was still singing and, there seemed to be the possibility of a second bird – a breeding pair, very unusual in this area.
A week later and this bird or birds had also gone. A real bonus of re-visiting the chiffchaff and
Osmia bee sites was re-locating a few coralroot orchid flowers (left), and hearing a distant wryneck calling, in very suitable habitat to make me think of possible breeding. In the heady days of the late 1970s there were high hopes that this mini-woodpecker was starting to colonise the Scottish Highlands. A pair found breeding in 1969 returned to roughly the same area to breed over the next few years, and as we moved into the 1970s, a few more were turning up. Whilst involved in survey work and osprey nest protection work in the late 1970s I was lucky enough to become quite familiar with this bird and in one unforgettable year I found a singing bird with a mate, saw the 
pair mating, found the tree hole nest site, watched them feed their young and, to top this honour off even more, found a second site where young were also being fed. Luck, a lot of standing around listening, and walking quietly in the direction I saw the birds flying, lead to these amazing finds. A few more nests were found over the next decade but sadly, the hoped for colonisation of the Highlands never really materialised and few birds have been seen or heard over the last few years. A pity really, as the wryneck has now disappeared completely from its southern Britain strongholds. Because of my involvement, I was asked to write the species account for The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland 1988-1991, shown right.
The last diary mentioned Ruth’s mad day out – the Corrieyairick Challenge! Cleaning and overhauling my bike for the 26 mile cycle section went okay and we both went down to Kincraig on the Friday night to deliver the bike, drinks and crash helmet to the organisers so that everyone's bikes could be loaded onto wagons to take them to the change-over point at Garva Bridge. I bought Ruth a bottle of tonic water to drink as I’d heard that it could help reduce the possibility of cramp when changing from walk to bike. I ran Ruth home and said cheerio knowing the next time I would see her would be the following day, hopefully, having successfully completed the 17 mile walk. As I got out of bed on Saturday morning at 7am, Ruth was already on the move, on a bus heading for Fort Augustus – the start point. At 8am I had a date at the Loch Garten osprey site to see the chicks being ringed but more of that excursion later in
the diary. A little later I said cheerio to the chalet guests, cleaned the windows, the patio, cut the grass, topped up the bird feeders and set off for Garva Bridge. As I drove through Newtonmore, the first competitors were already passing me, heading towards the finish. These were the 'elite' folk and had only taken two and a half hours to get to that point! All the way up the single track road from Laggan, past Spey Dam to the change over point, competitors were pedalling their way down the road. These were mostly mountain bike folk who had pedalled the Corrieyairick Pass, and were sticking with the same bikes right through to the end. The elite folk had mountain-biked the Pass and were on swish road bikes for the road section. As I got to Garva Bridge the first runners were just arriving exchanging running shoes for bike shoes, snacking quickly on a banana or two, and pounding off down the road on their bikes. How was Ruth getting o
n? Ruth and her team, Sarah and Jo had been on the go now for four and a bit hours and would hopefully, be at the top of the Pass. And suddenly there they were, on the top of the bridge (left), Ruth with here arms triumphantly in the air – phew and one very relieved dad! A loo stop, drinks and they were off on their bikes, but though the sun was shinning there was a very strong headwind. I had a quick bite to eat and then set off in the car towards the finish. The group had made good time and I didn’t pass them until Laggan. I waited at Newtonmore so that I could get a few photos of the team on the 
road and then I sneaked past them all again so that I could get a few photos as they passed Ruthven Barracks near the Insh Marshes Reserve. The 'phone rang – Sarah had punctured! A quick dash back to Newtonmore found the team by the roadside with the bike upside-down wondering what to do next! Wheel out, new inner-tube installed, and the team were back on the road. The rest of the bike ride went by without mishap and the team arrived at the finish just before five-o-clock. Without the puncture they would have completed the challenge in seven hours, not bad, and actually ahead of some of the folk who rode their mountain bikes all the way. Well done the three of you.
In my last diary I
showed a picture of the satellite tags that were to be attached to the Garten osprey chicks at the same time as they were given their rings. So, on the morning of the 5 July, Roy Dennis, the osprey staff and a few of the regular Centre volunteers, gathered at the Centre ready to go out to the nest tree to carry out the task. At 8am the team set off across the bog (left)to the tree, ladder at the ready. As soon as the team broke cover the female osprey rose from her perch and flew overhead calling. Within minutes the team reached the tree, the ladder was up and Ross was climbing towards the nest. On the ground Roy was preparing the rings for putting on the chicks' legs and the satellite tracking devices, to be attached to the chicks backs with wee harnesses. During the previous day the female osprey had removed the dead chick from the nest so Ross knew he would be dealing with almost fully grown ospreys. At the nest one chick was put into a large rucksack and brought down to the ground. Osprey chicks are quite unusual in that they lie flat in the nest when they are threatened,
whereas most other bird of prey chicks would be standing in the nest trying to grab you with their talons! The first chick arrived at ground level and Roy and helpers went about the task of weighing and measuring the chick and attaching a metal BTO ring to one leg and a lettered plastic ring to the other. Next, came the tricky task of attaching the satellite tracker and its mini-harness. To operate correctly the device has to be fixed securely to the chick's back so that its battery can be charged by the sun and the data can be sent heavenwards towards circulating satellites. Two small straps of the mini-harness meet o
n the birds breast and are sewn together using cotton thread. Cotton thread will decay over 2-3 years and the harness will then fall off. Roy, with glasses perched towards the end of his nose, looked very much like a doctor sewing up a patient in hospital, so delicate is the sewing operation. Once the sewing was complete, the first chick was returned to the nest and the second one brought down to go through the same process. The whole operation took about half an hour and once the team had departed the nest site the female osprey was back on the nest within a few minutes and shortly after that the male osprey brought in a fish. On the way back I came upon quite a sad sight, the dead chick which the female had removed from the nest the previous day, was lying right by the track leading to the tree (right). The chick was left where it had been found. The rest of the osprey season has progressed very normally and both youngsters made their maiden flights on 20 July. The two chicks have been named after the two local primary schools Nethy and Deshar and the pupils in both schools (as can you) will be following the birds migration by going to http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/tracking/lochgartenospreys/index.asp
Late June and early July was notable for the unusual birds which turned up locally, singing their heads off and getting me thinking they could be breeding. The first was a wood warbler, picked up on one of my BTO Atlas tetrads, singing quite happily in an area of mature birch woodland, similar to the woodland were birds regularly breed at Rothiemurchus. Had I missed the bird on the first round of visits? A check a week later and the bird had gone. A photographing visit to the green and brown shield-moss logs by the River Nethy found a chiffchaff in full song. Visits to a nearby field full of bird’s-foot trefoil to check for Osmia bees over the next week allowed visits to the chiffchaff site to be made quite regularly, and on all visits the bird was still singing and, there seemed to be the possibility of a second bird – a breeding pair, very unusual in this area.
A week later and this bird or birds had also gone. A real bonus of re-visiting the chiffchaff and
Osmia bee sites was re-locating a few coralroot orchid flowers (left), and hearing a distant wryneck calling, in very suitable habitat to make me think of possible breeding. In the heady days of the late 1970s there were high hopes that this mini-woodpecker was starting to colonise the Scottish Highlands. A pair found breeding in 1969 returned to roughly the same area to breed over the next few years, and as we moved into the 1970s, a few more were turning up. Whilst involved in survey work and osprey nest protection work in the late 1970s I was lucky enough to become quite familiar with this bird and in one unforgettable year I found a singing bird with a mate, saw the 
pair mating, found the tree hole nest site, watched them feed their young and, to top this honour off even more, found a second site where young were also being fed. Luck, a lot of standing around listening, and walking quietly in the direction I saw the birds flying, lead to these amazing finds. A few more nests were found over the next decade but sadly, the hoped for colonisation of the Highlands never really materialised and few birds have been seen or heard over the last few years. A pity really, as the wryneck has now disappeared completely from its southern Britain strongholds. Because of my involvement, I was asked to write the species account for The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland 1988-1991, shown right.The last diary mentioned Ruth’s mad day out – the Corrieyairick Challenge! Cleaning and overhauling my bike for the 26 mile cycle section went okay and we both went down to Kincraig on the Friday night to deliver the bike, drinks and crash helmet to the organisers so that everyone's bikes could be loaded onto wagons to take them to the change-over point at Garva Bridge. I bought Ruth a bottle of tonic water to drink as I’d heard that it could help reduce the possibility of cramp when changing from walk to bike. I ran Ruth home and said cheerio knowing the next time I would see her would be the following day, hopefully, having successfully completed the 17 mile walk. As I got out of bed on Saturday morning at 7am, Ruth was already on the move, on a bus heading for Fort Augustus – the start point. At 8am I had a date at the Loch Garten osprey site to see the chicks being ringed but more of that excursion later in
the diary. A little later I said cheerio to the chalet guests, cleaned the windows, the patio, cut the grass, topped up the bird feeders and set off for Garva Bridge. As I drove through Newtonmore, the first competitors were already passing me, heading towards the finish. These were the 'elite' folk and had only taken two and a half hours to get to that point! All the way up the single track road from Laggan, past Spey Dam to the change over point, competitors were pedalling their way down the road. These were mostly mountain bike folk who had pedalled the Corrieyairick Pass, and were sticking with the same bikes right through to the end. The elite folk had mountain-biked the Pass and were on swish road bikes for the road section. As I got to Garva Bridge the first runners were just arriving exchanging running shoes for bike shoes, snacking quickly on a banana or two, and pounding off down the road on their bikes. How was Ruth getting o
n? Ruth and her team, Sarah and Jo had been on the go now for four and a bit hours and would hopefully, be at the top of the Pass. And suddenly there they were, on the top of the bridge (left), Ruth with here arms triumphantly in the air – phew and one very relieved dad! A loo stop, drinks and they were off on their bikes, but though the sun was shinning there was a very strong headwind. I had a quick bite to eat and then set off in the car towards the finish. The group had made good time and I didn’t pass them until Laggan. I waited at Newtonmore so that I could get a few photos of the team on the 
road and then I sneaked past them all again so that I could get a few photos as they passed Ruthven Barracks near the Insh Marshes Reserve. The 'phone rang – Sarah had punctured! A quick dash back to Newtonmore found the team by the roadside with the bike upside-down wondering what to do next! Wheel out, new inner-tube installed, and the team were back on the road. The rest of the bike ride went by without mishap and the team arrived at the finish just before five-o-clock. Without the puncture they would have completed the challenge in seven hours, not bad, and actually ahead of some of the folk who rode their mountain bikes all the way. Well done the three of you.In my last diary I
showed a picture of the satellite tags that were to be attached to the Garten osprey chicks at the same time as they were given their rings. So, on the morning of the 5 July, Roy Dennis, the osprey staff and a few of the regular Centre volunteers, gathered at the Centre ready to go out to the nest tree to carry out the task. At 8am the team set off across the bog (left)to the tree, ladder at the ready. As soon as the team broke cover the female osprey rose from her perch and flew overhead calling. Within minutes the team reached the tree, the ladder was up and Ross was climbing towards the nest. On the ground Roy was preparing the rings for putting on the chicks' legs and the satellite tracking devices, to be attached to the chicks backs with wee harnesses. During the previous day the female osprey had removed the dead chick from the nest so Ross knew he would be dealing with almost fully grown ospreys. At the nest one chick was put into a large rucksack and brought down to the ground. Osprey chicks are quite unusual in that they lie flat in the nest when they are threatened,
whereas most other bird of prey chicks would be standing in the nest trying to grab you with their talons! The first chick arrived at ground level and Roy and helpers went about the task of weighing and measuring the chick and attaching a metal BTO ring to one leg and a lettered plastic ring to the other. Next, came the tricky task of attaching the satellite tracker and its mini-harness. To operate correctly the device has to be fixed securely to the chick's back so that its battery can be charged by the sun and the data can be sent heavenwards towards circulating satellites. Two small straps of the mini-harness meet o
n the birds breast and are sewn together using cotton thread. Cotton thread will decay over 2-3 years and the harness will then fall off. Roy, with glasses perched towards the end of his nose, looked very much like a doctor sewing up a patient in hospital, so delicate is the sewing operation. Once the sewing was complete, the first chick was returned to the nest and the second one brought down to go through the same process. The whole operation took about half an hour and once the team had departed the nest site the female osprey was back on the nest within a few minutes and shortly after that the male osprey brought in a fish. On the way back I came upon quite a sad sight, the dead chick which the female had removed from the nest the previous day, was lying right by the track leading to the tree (right). The chick was left where it had been found. The rest of the osprey season has progressed very normally and both youngsters made their maiden flights on 20 July. The two chicks have been named after the two local primary schools Nethy and Deshar and the pupils in both schools (as can you) will be following the birds migration by going to http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/tracking/lochgartenospreys/index.asp and follow the osprey blog at http://blogs.rspb.org.uk/lochgartenospreys/archive/2008/08/07/A-quick-update_2E002E002E002100_.aspx
Other chicks have also been on the move. On 4 July, whilst visiting a green shield-moss site, a goosander female with six chicks following on behind zoomed down the River Nethy on their way to the River Spey. The bird will have had its nest on a hole in a tree somewhere along the river, an old Scots pine or Alder tree being the likely host. A couple of weeks earlier I was just
completing a BTO breeding bird Atlas square when a commotion on the track ahead had me guessing for a few seconds, just what was happening. Partridges? Not in the forest. Then a large brown bird appeared on the track in front of me, wings down by its side and trailing on the ground, I had stumbled into a capercaillie family, a female with about four chicks. At a young age the chicks can 'fly', that is they can get off the ground a little, and flutter off into the undergrowth, hopefully to safety. My 'partridge' had been a capercaillie chick, and the female was doing her best to try and get me to follow her, away from her brood. I quickly left the area so that mum and chicks could get back together without delay.
It was a good period for flowers, well until the frost on 24 June (mi
nus 1 to 2 degrees centigrade). Flowers in the forest were fine, protected by the woodland canopy, but flowers out in the open where very vulnerable, and in these areas lots of flowers were badly affected. At one site a whole field was affected, this particular field being one of the most important in Scotland, if not the UK, for lesser butterfly orchids. This field, by the B970 Coylumbridge to Nethy road, is visited by hundreds of folk each year just to see the amazing display of flowering spikes. Last year there were hardly 
any flowering but this year they were back with a vengeance and a rough count from the roadside on 21 June produced a minimum of 600 flowering spikes, along with a few small white and lots of Fragrant orchids. Driving past the field a few days later I told Janet to keep her eyes open to view the spectacle but was horrified to see that many seemed to have disappeared. We didn’t have time to stop so I returned the next day to find a field of brown lesser butterfly orchids, many of which were bent over double(left), the frost having caused them to collapse and die. Higher up the field quite a few had survived along with most of the fragrant orchids. Frost often ‘rolls down a sl
ope’ causing most damage in the hollow at the bottom, which is what seemed to have happened on this occasion. I asked the owners if I could carefully walk through the field to carry out a second count, and they were happy for me to do this. They were all to well aware of the damage that had occurred. Perhaps a hundred had survived along with most of the fragrant orchids, but most of the small whites had been killed. The final count showed there to be about 700 lesser butterfly, 100 small white and 3-4000 fragrant orchids, an amazing field, managed carefully by the owners to try and maintain this annual spectacle. If you do visit the site, please view from the road and don’t be tempted to climb over the fence. A bonus when carrying out the count within the field was seeing three or four six spot burnet moths, many miles from their normal coastal haunts.
A second visit to one of the twinflower sites allowed me to get a couple of nice photographs (left) but only when the wind stopped b
lowing very briefly, and on the way a nice patch of serrated wintergreen, right, (Orthilia secunda) was also in flower.
Other chicks have also been on the move. On 4 July, whilst visiting a green shield-moss site, a goosander female with six chicks following on behind zoomed down the River Nethy on their way to the River Spey. The bird will have had its nest on a hole in a tree somewhere along the river, an old Scots pine or Alder tree being the likely host. A couple of weeks earlier I was just
completing a BTO breeding bird Atlas square when a commotion on the track ahead had me guessing for a few seconds, just what was happening. Partridges? Not in the forest. Then a large brown bird appeared on the track in front of me, wings down by its side and trailing on the ground, I had stumbled into a capercaillie family, a female with about four chicks. At a young age the chicks can 'fly', that is they can get off the ground a little, and flutter off into the undergrowth, hopefully to safety. My 'partridge' had been a capercaillie chick, and the female was doing her best to try and get me to follow her, away from her brood. I quickly left the area so that mum and chicks could get back together without delay.It was a good period for flowers, well until the frost on 24 June (mi
nus 1 to 2 degrees centigrade). Flowers in the forest were fine, protected by the woodland canopy, but flowers out in the open where very vulnerable, and in these areas lots of flowers were badly affected. At one site a whole field was affected, this particular field being one of the most important in Scotland, if not the UK, for lesser butterfly orchids. This field, by the B970 Coylumbridge to Nethy road, is visited by hundreds of folk each year just to see the amazing display of flowering spikes. Last year there were hardly 
any flowering but this year they were back with a vengeance and a rough count from the roadside on 21 June produced a minimum of 600 flowering spikes, along with a few small white and lots of Fragrant orchids. Driving past the field a few days later I told Janet to keep her eyes open to view the spectacle but was horrified to see that many seemed to have disappeared. We didn’t have time to stop so I returned the next day to find a field of brown lesser butterfly orchids, many of which were bent over double(left), the frost having caused them to collapse and die. Higher up the field quite a few had survived along with most of the fragrant orchids. Frost often ‘rolls down a sl
ope’ causing most damage in the hollow at the bottom, which is what seemed to have happened on this occasion. I asked the owners if I could carefully walk through the field to carry out a second count, and they were happy for me to do this. They were all to well aware of the damage that had occurred. Perhaps a hundred had survived along with most of the fragrant orchids, but most of the small whites had been killed. The final count showed there to be about 700 lesser butterfly, 100 small white and 3-4000 fragrant orchids, an amazing field, managed carefully by the owners to try and maintain this annual spectacle. If you do visit the site, please view from the road and don’t be tempted to climb over the fence. A bonus when carrying out the count within the field was seeing three or four six spot burnet moths, many miles from their normal coastal haunts.
A second visit to one of the twinflower sites allowed me to get a couple of nice photographs (left) but only when the wind stopped b
lowing very briefly, and on the way a nice patch of serrated wintergreen, right, (Orthilia secunda) was also in flower. And then it was off to the Uists, but a bit about that in the next diary.
That’s it
All the best
Stewart & Janet
That’s it
All the best
Stewart & Janet
Firwood garden in full bloom
Our cottage on South Uist
All photos © Stewart Taylor
