Secrets of the Giant's Chair revealed

What a few weeks, with mild days, snow on high ground, culminating in a week of freezing temperatures - a real mixture leading up to Christmas. It is winter after all but thank goodness we have now past the shortest day; just a couple of months to go before I can switch the bike lights off and see a bit of the forest as I pedal back and forth to work. The garden has been busy with lots of red squirrels early in the month, I counted six one morning with a squirrel hanging from every feeder! Bird highlights of the month have been up to three hen harriers at a nearby roost, my first waxwing of the autumn in amongst a group of fieldfares and greenfinches at Rynettin just south of Forest Lodge and, perhaps the strangest bird of 2007, a Sabines gull near Ruthven Barracks at Insh Marshes. With gales at sea this gull must have been blown inland and it was making the most of the worms brought to the surface in the fields following recent floods. For a stunning picture go to Dave Pullen's website at http://www.zen107722.zen.co.uk/. If you want any help with a birding trip when on holiday, Dave's your man!


Having finished the last diary with good news regarding new sites for the green shield moss (Buxbaumia viridis), I had the most amazing weekend. A visit to a brilliant bit of woodland near Dufftown (distillery country) saw me making my first visit to the Giant's Chair, a big semi-circular rock feature created by the water flowing down the Dullan Water. A nearby waterfall could also be quite spectacular after heavy rain. Having visited the "Chair" I made my way up the steep side of the wooded valley cursing the drizzle and the slipperiness of the lush carpet of woodrush. An hour later and there, peering at me out of a large dead rowan tree was a green shield moss capsule, the first I had found away from Abernethy and a new county record to boot! Excuse the smug look in the picture but the mans just got his moss! Another couple of hours of searching however didn't find any more. Two days later and I was in Sabine's gull territory, and as I peered over the parapet of Tromie Bridge to see what the woodland was like, I heard a car go past me. Thankfully, it didn't stop because the driver, Dave Pierce, had just found the gull and was dashing back to phone Dave Pullen to let him know of his find. If Dave P had stopped, my brilliant weekend might have ended there because he would have told me about the gull and I am sure I would have dashed off to see it. But he didn't, and I hopped over the fence and started to follow the River Tromie, checking all the dead trees along the way.



And it happened again... with not one, but three moss capsules peering out at me from the base of a big dead alder tree. Brilliant, a new log and another new site! The rest of the wander was unproductive and a re-visit to the opposite side of the river a couple of days later failed to find any more. Three capsules from eight hours of searching - the moss still retains its rarity tag. Two further patches of woodland have been searched since then with nothing found.


The second visit to the glen was not without its reward though. To get to my start point I had to cut across a hill with a scattering of birch trees and a carpet of blaeberry. By a dead birch branch something orange caught my eye and a closer look revealed a single, finger-like fungus growing out of the ground. It looked similar in form to the black fungi I had seen in August, the ones that parasitise truffle fungus under-ground. A photo was taken along with a GPS reading in case it was unusual. The photo was sent to a colleague who informed me that I had found Coryceps militaria or Scarlet Caterpillar club. The English name gives a clue as to the life-cycle of the fungus - it's a parasite on caterpillar larva or pupae. It's not a species that appears on the 600 species Abernethy list so not one that I have had a chance to see before. It's not particularly rare so one for you all to keep an eye open for when you are out and about.


One of the other woods visited is on the River Findhorn as it flows east from Tomatin, close to a few houses at a place called Ruthven. With two cars, there is a classic walk along the Findhorn from Ruthven, via Shenachie to Drynachan where the second car is needed to get you back to the first! The Findhorn is a well known salmon river and I wasn't surprised when I came across a couple of "spent" male fish, washed up dead on the bank of the river. The fish pictured is just three-foot long, calculated by measuring the length of my diary and multiplying up. Rather than me trying to explain what happens to these great fish whilst in our rivers I attach a part write-up below, from the Tay Fishery folk. Interestingly, neither fish had been eaten, despite there being otter tracks nearby, and ravens overhead.

"When salmon arrive from the sea they are strong powerful fish packed with energy gained during their marine feasting. At that point they are bright silver in colour and look in the peak of condition. However, in freshwater, the salmon do not feed. Their entire upstream migration and eventual spawning, a process which might take months, is dependent on accumulated fats in their bodies. Not surprisingly, over time the fish do change. They do gradually lose condition and reserves are converted into eggs or milt (sperm?). At the same time the appearance also changes. The silver colour disappears and they develop darker colours. Male salmon become quite red and females usually a dull brown. Males also develop a hooked lower jaw, known as a kype (see ST picture left)which is used in fighting other males over mates. After spawning has been completed the salmon are a poor shadow of the pristine fish which left the sea months earlier. They are now known as "kelts" and are emaciated and sometimes battered and infected by fungus. Unlike most of the Pacific salmon, Atlantic salmon are not all doomed to die and can potentially live to spawn again, though most do not. After spawning, female salmon quickly shy away from the spawning areas and move down river trying to conserve their energy. On the other hand males remain active, racing about the stream hoping to find other mates. There is therefore a high death rate of males in the aftermath of spawning but a much higher survival rate for females." (From article by Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board, full article at http://www.tdsfb.org/salmon-return.htm ).

At Shenachie, apart from the old settlement, there is an unusual mechanical 'device' - a rope or bucket bridge. I don't think you see too many of these devices nowadays, but on this stretch of river there are two of them, one here, and one at Drynachan. Looking at the Shenachie 'bridge' you can see it is very modern and up to date and probably has to be with the Health & Safety Executive looking over your shoulder! The last time I saw the Drynachan 'bucket' it was a wooden affair and not looking like a piece of equipment I would like to trust my life with. However, this 'bucket' looks very new and shiny with its aluminium construction, and would appear to be in working order. To get across the river however, you do need the handle or key so that you can wind yourself across. A great idea which no doubt can save the estate staff many miles of vehicle travel. The map below shows where to see this unusual method of getting across the river.

Not to be outdone the visit to the River Tromie also produced a couple of surprises. On my first visit I noticed a patch of mature aspen woodland on the opposite bank, which, on my second visit I was able to have a good look at. There are plenty of young trees appearing from the mature tree roots (suckers) but the mature trees are quite old and show all the characteristics of this age, trunks well covered with mosses and lichens and, jutting out from several of the trees, the main cause of death in aspens - a bracket fungus by the name of Phellinus tremulae. This fungus is found in nearly every mature stand of aspens that I have visited but, amazingly, it was only added to the British list about a decade ago when it was identified at Insh Marshes. Very close to the aspen stand the river is running in quite a deep gorge and it was only when I descended the bank to look at a piece of dead aspen close to the side of the river that I realised there was a huge lump of rock sitting in the middle of the river. Rocks like this perched on hillsides, are known as erratics, and have links going back to the last Ice Age. I'm not sure whether rock in rivers have the same impressive name but they are certainly impressive to look at. To read more about erratics go to:

(http://www.fettes.com/Cairngorms/glacial%20erratics.htm).



The temperature last night managed to get down to -12 deg C and all around trees, sheds, fences are all covered an a thick layer of ice crystals, so much so that it looks like we have had snow. Winter wonderland for sure with clumps of grass like the one pictured glistening as though covered with diamonds.


However, the forecast for Christmas is for milder weather and wind and rain - we shall see.


Well, that's it, something for you to read over Christmas. Enjoy.


Stewart & Janet

Have a very happy Christmas and our best wishes to you all for 2008

All photos © Stewart Taylor

Full moon encounter & Happy Birthday to Janet & Finlay

As the days have got colder and shorter a few more birds are coming into the garden. There are more than ten collared doves, plenty of coal, blue and great tits with an occasional evening visit from long-tailed tits. Blackbird numbers have increased and we have had regular visits from one or two crested tits. The first regular woodpigeons are dropping in to finish off the corn and barley that other birds don't seem to like and the sparrowhawk is a regular "flash" through the garden. The population of red squirrels also seems quite high with four or five regularly at the feeders. Wintering geese have arrived with five-hundred on the fields locally last week and blackbirds and woodcocks encountered by the road whilst cycling in to work in the half-light indicate winter arrivals. A group of waxwings were also seen in the forest between Forest Lodge and Ryvoan Bothy at the weekend - the first locally. The first round of 'timed' BTO Atlas visits have been completed but the lists of any bird, anywhere at any time are still being completed because they all count. Go to http://www.bto.org/birdatlas/ if you would like to help.

Daughter Ruth entered a local Highlands and Islands Enterprise "Dragons Den" in November - and won! the competition prize money going towards getting a new local business off the ground. Here she is receiving her prize from Angela Stewart a previous winner and one of the 'Dragons'. Ruth is keeping details of her business under her hat for now, until it gets off the ground. Exciting and well done!

Also during November Ruth's wee man Finlay celebrated his first birthday, inviting us all to a lunchtime meal in a local pub. We enjoyed the meal and Finlay looked somewhat terrified when the birthday cake, complete with dazzling sparklers appeared on the table. As grandparents we can sometimes help out with typical grandparents' roles and one such day saw myself and Janet wandering into Aviemore with Finlay 'wedged' in his pram - we couldn't fathom out how to get all the restraining gear for waist, arms and chest to connect correctly! We are booking in for a course of pram Health & Safety lessons! In the centre of Aviemore we visited the recently unveiled statue (by Seb Coe no less) dedicated to the high number of local folk who have made it to the Olympics. In the picture the statue looks really impressive whilst in reality is quite small, but it's there for all to see, within its own space, next to the Cairngorm Hotel. The most high-profile Olympian locally at the present time is Craig Maclean - a cyclist of course!

Whilst at the statue it was also lunch-time so a quick butty for me and Janet and a jar of something tasty for Finlay, hopefully taking inspiration from the wee bronze folk next to him. I couldn't help but include this picture, complete with food that hasn't quite yet been consumed!

The last few weeks have seen much time spent with my head in the Latin clouds. Thirty plus years working at Abernethy has seen lots of information gathered on all things natural history. Every time I had the opportunity to get expert help I grabbed it and lists of species from bugs to beetles and mammals to moths accumulated. Over the years I gathered lots of information by myself just by being out and about, counting birds, running a moth trap, walking butterfly and dragonfly transects etc, but the really big lists of beetles and fungi came via the experts - all volunteers I might add. Over the years the lists grew, 900 beetles, 600 fungi, 100+ lichens amounting in time to over 3500 identified species. Paper lists moved to computer lists but now the computer lists need to be moved over to a one-stop-shop database so that reserve staff, Society staff, mycologists, bryologists etc can have access to what has been found on the reserve. The big list moved over last week was the fungi list, 600 species but 8100 records, each with its own location and date. Do the last two categories matter I hear you ask? Well yes they do, because if one part of the forest starts to show it is important for fungi, then this needs to be taken into account if management work is planned for that area. The importance then grows if the same bit of forest is also good for beetles and mosses. With modern software, once this information is on the database then distribution maps can be produced, again helping with management planning. The maps above show how well gathered information can be used, the top map of the two was produced from the 500 locations recorded during this summer for the tooth fungi written about in earlier diaries. Sorry this isn't easily readable but the dots show how the information can be displayed and shows the important tracks for these rare fungi.

On 24 November I nipped up to Strathpeffer for the AGM of the Highland Biological Recording Group (http://www.hbrg.org.uk/), the next resting place for the records mentioned above. Once the money and committee matters had been dealt with David Genney from SNH gave a very interesting talk on mosses, lichens and fungi - the lower plants. Try typing his name into Google where you will see a bit of what Dave is involved in. As he talked, my eye was also on my watch because this was also full moon night, with the full moon in Perigee, the closest the moon gets to the earth during its lunar orbit so it should be as big as it gets when viewed in the sky. In truth this doesn't actually make it much bigger when you see it! However, it was worth dashing down the road for and it didn't disappoint, though it is always difficult to get the moon to look round and clear and not slightly blurred because of the longer exposures required to take the picture. Anyway, a couple of pictures included for your delectation.

One of the moss species Dave was enthusing about in his talk was the beautiful wee green shield moss Buxbaumia viridis a species mentioned in the last diary. I am not a Bryologist and can only name a few mosses, but this moss is very obvious when you see it though it is very rare. People have been doing some serious searching for this moss since 1999 because there were so few records, with the few records coming from just a handful of sites. A site in this case is a reasonably sized decaying log, left to decay in situ where the dying/dead tree fell. Scots pine, birch and rowan being the main trees at the known sites. More searches in 2003 found a few more logs bringing willow and alder logs into the host species list, and the number of moss capsules nationally was thought to be 20-30. The capsule itself is about half an inch high and it can usually be found where the log is in the latter stages of decay. The log needs to also be moist otherwise it becomes dominated by lichens with which the moss can't complete. The moss can also be found growing out of other mosses growing on the decaying log, so you're looking for a green capsule growing with green mosses - no problem then! A couple of logs were found with the moss within Abernethy Forest in 2004 and I managed to see my first capsule in January 2007 growing at one of the known log sites. In fact when I looked carefully, there were actually five capsules popping out from a light dusting of snow. This log is shown right, minus snow, and with gardener's labels showing roughly where the capsules are growing. You can see from the photo the large size of the log and the advanced state of decay required for the moss to grow. The damage to the log has probably been caused by deer jumping over it. At each site a photo like this is taken along with a close up of exactly where the capsules are and a GPS reading taken to give the exact map reference for anyone else needing to find the site. The real mystery about this moss is why it is so rare when each capsule is capable of producing several million spores when the capsules ripen and explode in May/June time. By February 2007 I had checked out all the known log sites and had seen about 20 capsules. I then started to look elsewhere within the same river system and was over the moon when I found my first 'new' log, where after a half hour search, found four capsules. Within the next hour and as it was starting to get dark, I found two other logs with nine more capsules. Interestingly, all of these logs were dead alder trees, and the Buxbaumia capsules were growing out of the moss covering the log and not from typically sopping wet logs which were falling apart. Hmmm. A couple of days later I was back, same river, with a days walk ahead of me to get back to where I could get picked up by Janet. Five hours later, sore back, sore knees and knuckles from crawling around looking at dead logs, and I had found five more sites - one Scots pine and four alder - and another twenty capsules. By March the total number of known sites had grown to 21 and 76 capsules had been seen, however, slugs where now on the move and at some sites were probably responsible for the capsules disappearing.

As I mentioned in the last diary, I found my first 'new' capsules a few weeks ago and this spurred my on to start looking a lot earlier this year. At one site (left) there was evidence of there having been about twenty capsules. At the time of my first visit there were fifteen capsules and eight stalks where capsules had probably been eaten. It's not the best picture but there are still ten capsules growing and they are all within the picture left. To date, eight new logs have been found and so far, 115 capsule have been seen. Watch this space. The challenge now is to find more logs and capsules away from the single river system I have been working in. Eight other sites were visited back in March and nothing was found.

Happy birthday Janet, welcome to the bus pass league, and to working a few less hours at the school. However, it won't be feet up time as Janet has now started a small eBay business putting her extensive sewing skills to good use to produce a range of hand-made products - to view go to eBay My World: janet-gardencottage and see what she is getting up to. The Christmas stocking right is just one of many beautifully made products.

Neither did she have a quiet birthday as daughter Laura was involved in a house move and we were third and fourth hands in helping with the move as well as providing one of the vans to carry the house contents. After two days of van filling, driving and van emptying we both realise we are getting too old for this sort of 'quiet weekend'. The efforts on Friday took place during heavy rain but Saturday and Sunday turned out frosty and sunny which allowed me a little time in the mornings to do a bit of roving Atlas bird recording in completely new areas. A nice coal fire, in a beautiful house with good food and a glass of celebratory champagne helped relax everyone and as we tried to keep our eyes open Blackburn Rovers popped up on Match of the Day and WON!

That's it for another diary, enjoy the read.

All the best

Stewart & Janet

The removal team - Stewart, Janet, Douglas and Laura... Pickfords eat your heart out

All photos © Stewart Taylor

A blog from the bogs amongst autumn colours

A week ago, the overnight temperature here was 13 degrees centigrade, fields locally are still very green and the bracken in the forest hasn't had enough frost to really kill it off. I photographed a marsh thistle in full flower today! Some days have felt like spring with robins singing everywhere. However, change is on its way and our chalet guests, Zoe and Ren had snow yesterday (right). A few less robins singing today. The first day of November saw the start of the British Trust for Ornithology winter birds Atlas where wintering birds in Britain, whether resident or visitors, will be recorded by masses of volunteers each taking on a two kilometre by two kilometre OS map square. I made a start last week and have so far surveyed four of my five selected squares. The minimum visit is for one hour but to cover most of the survey area two hours is needed and this is what I have been aiming for. The Atlas squares have to be visited once before new year and again before end of February. The Atlas will then change to a breeding bird Atlas, and the same squares will be visited again between April and July. Outside the "timed" visits additional birds can be recorded as seen to provide as full a species list of birds using the habitats within the squares. The survey goes on for four years by which time I really will have retired! The woodland squares being covered are fairly quiet for birds at this time of year the bonus birds so far have been capercaillie and crossbill - twenty-four together on Friday, but which crossbill? The birds were feeding on Scots pine cones which at this time of year are 'green' and difficult to open, so they had to be Scottish or parrot crossbills, but without a telescope and a bit of guess-work, they had to go down as just "crossbill unidentified". On my first survey day I was in the land of 'the green shield moss' Buxbaumia viridis, and couldn't walk past one of the logs on which I found it growing last year and, to my great surprise, there it was popping out from the logs covering of other mosses. I thought it grew from January onwards, so, another bit to add to its life history. There will be a bit more on how the 2007/08 survey is progressing in the next diary but for a bit of background visit:

http://www.jncc.gov.uk/ProtectedSites/SACSelection/species.asp?FeatureIntCode=S1386. The two dots on the map, right, show how rare this moss is in the UK, particularly as it has now disappeared from the northern location.

Did you see 'The Great Climb', a solo ascent of an unclimbed crag above Shelter-stone rock by Loch Avon in the Cairngorms. The crag in question is actually on the RSPB's Abernethy Forest Reserve and caused a bit of head-scratching when the request was made to carry out the televised climb. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6944130.stm Not sure it is the right use of a nature reserve but the climb went ahead and was an amazing feat of strength and skill by Dave Macleod. The potential for death wasn't hyped to attract an audience, it really was true, and amazing that the Beeb was willing to go ahead with the venture. Dave made it, but not without some real drama along the way. To see what else Dave Macleod gets up to in his spare time visit: http://www.davemacleod.com/home.htm.

Whilst walking back from Grantown on Spey along the Speyside Way a couple of weeks ago I managed to count thirty-one species of birds, this would be around sixty during the breeding season. Along the way I found what looked to me to be the natural equivalent to the "B of the Bang" sculpture in Manchester, a brilliant wee lichen attached to a birch twig. What do you think?

One of the BTO Atlas survey squares takes me across the great peat bog area by the Loch Garten osprey nest site. It is a while since I was in this area and was pleasantly surprised by how well the bog restoration work, carried out in the late 1990s, was progressing. If the ospreys hadn't decided to nest where they did in 1959, who knows what would have happened to the peatland. In the mid-1960s large drains were dug into the peat bog to lower the water-table prior to forestry plantings taking place. Not only were drains dug by the osprey site but the level of Loch Garten was lowered slightly to aid the draining work by digging a deep channel between this loch and Loch Mallachie. Thankfully, the trees were never planted and, apart from the major drains across the site, the bog remained untouched. Via the EU Wet Woods Restoration Project the major drains were dammed along their lengths and the water-table raised close to what it used to be (picture right).

It is in this sort of habitat that one of our rarest forms of natural forests occurs, and Abernethy is home to the best of them - bog woodland. In this water-logged habitat trees do grow, but very, very slowly. The tree pictured with my legs left, is probably sixty or seventy years old but is less than a metre high. Somehow, these trees grow in completely water-logged conditions, even during the drier summer months, so how they survive I'm not sure. Perhaps genetically they are different to the Scots pines growing on drier ground. Whatever it is they are amazing, miniature bonsai trees right here in Abernethy. Just how old the tree is on the right I hate to guess - probably as old as the 'granny' pines elsewhere in the forest. Certainly a lot older than the old guy giving it a hug!

October is the month for super sunrises and sunsets. A visit to Loch Mallachie at the end of a day following a mad pedal down the road from work at Forest Lodge, a leap into the car and then zoom to Loch Garten to then run/walk to Loch Mallachie, and you might just be in time. You can see why full-time photographers get all the best pictures. As I approached the loch my heart sank when I realised that it was Speyside Wildlife's photography week and there were folk everywhere snapping away. The sun was just sinking below the horizon. "Did you get it?" was the question that greeted me as a reddish glow was developing in the west, "what a place for a sunset". With that the folk started to pack up their bags and head back towards the mini-buses. Grateful at being left on my own I could only think that the photographers would be cursing as they headed back towards Glenfeshie only to see the sky ahead of them developing into a deeper and deeper red glow. What a place to be but I didn't leave until it was dark and a tawny owl was watching me from the nearest island!

The following day I had a meeting in Perth and was greeted by a fiery sky as I drove past Insh Marches and Ruthven Barracks. The weather forecast that night was for the settled spell to end and wind and rain to move in from about mid-day the next day. Perfect, a decent sunrise looked likely and by 7am I was by Loch Garten. The next two pictures speak for themselves. No enhancement was necessary.

It's a couple of years since we had a sunrise as good as this and one well worth getting up early for.

What a contrast. Today I was out recording birds. There were occasional sleet showers and it was cold. With this sort of weather every bit of heather, grass, rush and every young pine tree is hanging heavy with water. My boots were doing well and my feet were dry but the water was getting in around my gaiters and my knees were wet. I hadn't seen many birds but it was good to be out. At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month I was in the midst of an ancient forest and all was quiet. Difficult to know what it was like in Iraq and Afghanistan at that same moment.

That's it, enjoy the read.

Best wishes

Stewart & Janet

Cotton-grass tussock in winter with first snow fall

All photos © Stewart Taylor

Black pudding heaven but not much luck for England

Lots of driving since I wrote the last diary with a holiday in Lancashire to visit family and catching up with autumn events back at home.

Planners are out of control in the Cairngorms National Park! Eight-hundred houses on the outskirts of Aviemore - no problem, but try to get plans passed for a single house, for a family working and living in the local community and it can take you nine months to jump through all the hoops. On Abernethy we carry out deer control to keep red and roe deer numbers low so that tree seedlings get a chance to grow. The reserve has a deer larder for preparing the deer carcases for the game dealer but, with new legislation coming into play this year, the deer larder needed upgrading so that it remained legal (carcases have to be chilled within a few hours of the deer coming off the hill for instance). It took four months for the lady in charge of planning within the park to decide whether upgrading the existing soak-away would damage tree roots! A work colleague will have to pay out several extra thousand pounds to have his electricity cable laid to his house renovation so that he avoids crossing a small burn because of the "salmon interest". The burn in question is no more than two foot wide, the person involved is a mad-keen fisherman and is responsible for counting the spawning salmon and sea trout each November in the River Nethy and wouldn't do anything to harm them. In fact the temporary disturbance to the stream bed could even benefit spawning fish by providing a wee patch of gravel as a spawning site! Whatever, the next spate would alter the bed of the burn so much that you would never be able to tell a track had crossed it. Rule are rules!

Would the park planners be able to save an ancient Scots pine tree close to a new house site in Tulloch? If chalet guests have been to the black grouse lek at Tulloch they are probably familiar with it - or should I say were familiar with it. In their wisdom, the planners stipulated that the house entrance, onto a minor, single track road, would have to have clear vision for seventy (yes 70) metres in both directions. The old pine tree would have to go, a landmark and a tree with one-hundred and twenty years of history would be felled so that folk living in the new house for a few weeks each year, could have clear sight-lines when driving onto the road! Madness, but then, rules are rules! Whew, glad I got that one off my chest!

A few weeks ago I showed a picture of a group of puff-balls growing by a road verge, all fresh and gleaming white (left). At this stage it is possible to eat some of the edible puff-balls because when they are young, they are solid lumps of mushroom, and are very similar to field mushrooms when cooked. Let a few weeks pass though, and they are hell bent on reproduction. The outer 'skin' turns brown and the inner part of the puff-ball turns to 'dust' - millions of tiny spores, ready to disperse to be the new puff-balls of next year. However, they are very different to the normal umbrella shaped mushrooms which just allow their spores to fall from the gills underneath their umbrella caps. Puff-balls, as their name implies, need a little help. As the puff-ball matures a small 'spout' starts to develop centrally, on the top of the 'ball'. The picture right, shows the same group of puff-balls as pictured above but exactly a month later. At this stage they are fully mature and the spores are keen to get out and disperse. A windy day might dislodge a few spores but what the fungus needs is a heavy rain shower, the impact of the rain droplets on the 'ball' providing the right sort of impact to allow the spores to 'puff' out. The same thing would happen if a bird or animal or human walked on the 'balls', so next time you see one, give it a gentle prod and watch the spores shoot out of the tiny hole. Some very good, high speed photography pictures have been taken of the spores puffing out, no doubt set up in a studio. I didn't quite have the right facilities but I did set up my camera and tripod on the puff-balls and, from a little height above them I dropped a tiny stone and the picture above tries to show what happened!

What an effort! Who would have thought all those weeks ago when South Africa thumped England in the first rugby world cup match that England would get to the final. Amazingly, as they progressed match by match it began to look like they might be the first team to retain the world cup. It didn't quite work out but a great effort and thanks for keeping a UK interest in the competition right through to the end. Poor Lewis, not sure how McLaren managed to get tyres wrong one week and refueling the next, but it was entertaining until the end. I must just nip off and check how Blackburn are getting on in their match with Spurs. A 2-1 win!

It's been a week of collisions - of the bird kind that is. Coming back from the village shop yesterday I noticed something lying inside the bus-stop. As I was on the football pitch side of the bus-stop I had to re-trace my steps, back through the wee gate to get back onto the road and to the inside of the bus-stop. Inside was a freshly dead female sparrowhawk. She had crossed the road and, thinking she could just fly through the bus-stop had come to a crashing halt as she hit the back window. A sad end but her body will go off to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology at Monks Wood so that she can be checked for levels of pesticide. CEH continue to check a sample of birds of prey each year just to keep abreast of what the background level of toxic chemicals is, and checking birds that are at the top of the food chain is a simple way of doing it. For general information about Monks Wood go to: http://www.cambridgebiologists.org/inst/monkswood.htm

The other collisions involved woodland grouse and forest fences, something that I have had a long association with and something a lot of land managers denied was happening. To paint the true picture just let me re-wind a little and take you back to the 1970s. At that time red deer populations were at an all time high and rising, native Scots pinewoods were still being felled and a lot of work had gone into visiting the scattered remnants of the old Caledonian pinewood and conservation organisations were pushing to do something to protect them. Deer, young trees, the easiest solution was to fence off the remnants and, in areas were native pinewoods were still being felled, well, fence them off as well until the planted trees or natural seedlings had grown tall enough to be out of deer browsing height. Through the 1970s and 80s the capercaillie and black grouse populations in Scotland (and black grouse throughout the UK) were falling and research was starting into the reasons for the decline with Drs Robert Moss and Nick Picozzi from CEH Banchory, leading the way. Within that period 20-30,000 metres of deer height fencing was installed (not by RSPB) in Abernethy Forest alone for tree protection purposes. The bombshell fell in 1990. The capercaillie population was at an all time low and a series of wet summers was causing high chick mortality so little natural recruitment into the population was taking place. Capercaillie chicks and adults that had been fitted with radios for tracking purposes, were found dead having flown into deer fences! The researchers suggested that so many birds were flying into fences that in a wet summer, there would be no recruitment into the population. See: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2656.2001.00473.x . By 1990, RSPB had bought two major chunks of Abernethy bringing most of the forest into conservation ownership. The last purchase had brought with it a fenced plantation area. The fence was walked each month for ten months and twenty-four capercaillie or black grouse collisions were recorded. The fence was removed immediately. At the same time I started walking fences, at weekends, on two nearby estates but without asking the estate owners permission and marking collision locations with numbered tags (above). By the mid-1990s some of the worst known fences were marked using orange barrier netting, this was a temporary measure with a 'need to do something' objective. However, the sun soon made the plastic brittle and the wind soon tore it from the fence so a longer lasting solution was needed. Wooden markers might work? In 1997 the Forestry Commission gave RSPB a grant to trial six different methods of wooden markers that I had considered practical, on a boundary fence that couldn't be taken down. The most expensive was a completely wooden deer fence, the cheapest adding one inch by three foot wooden 'droppers' to the top half of the fence. The number of woodland grouse collisions was reduced dramatically but, amazingly, some capercaillie and black grouse still collided with the fence! Eventually, by 1999/2000 a pre-formed, chestnut paling fence, added to the top half of the fence became the accepted method (above), and land owners were given grants to install this addition to their fences. In the last couple of years orange barrier netting has re-appeared, a lot more UV brittle resistant, and high enough to cover two-thirds of the deer fence. Again, despite it's obvious visibility, bird are still colliding with it, sometimes thinking that they can fly underneath the netting as this picture from a colleague shows. This is not a staged photograph and yes, the bird has hit the fence with such force that the wires have been badly bent and the bird was de-decapitated. The best system is no fence at all and encouragement to remove fences as soon as practicably possible from around young woodlands. The EU funded Capercaillie Life Project also supported this work helping to fund removal of miles of redundant fencing and paying for marking those that couldn't. http://www.capercaillie-life.info/htm/capercaillie_bap_group.php.

The marked fence I walked this week had evidence of two capercaillie collisions on it, a male and a female. And my weekend fence walking? Having presented my evidence to one estate manager (anger/embarrassment) the fence was removed. I passed on what I was finding to the Forestry Commission (who usually funded the fencing costs) and this I feel, hastened the marking programme. The worst fences I encountered though marked, are still in place and still killing woodland grouse.

Whilst in Lancashire we just had to go to the heart of black pudding production and we spent half a day at Bury Market.

It really still is L. S. Lowry country with people dashing about hither and thither, smoking fags, drinking and eating, but mostly just people everywhere.






Just a couple of pictures to try and show what I mean. And yes, we did have a black pudding between us. Delicious.

We also spent a few half days out wandering the Ribble Valley, collecting sloes for sloe gin at Christmas, and crab apples for making apple jelly. Downham is a real gem of a village and is in the shadow of Lancashires 'nearly' mountain - Pendle Hill. Try the virtual tour at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/virtual_tours/downham/downhamtour01.htm. Mark Robinson writes: "Lord Clitheroe owns the village, and is able to exert his control over developments that may ruin the chocolate-box appearance. The houses and cottages are stone-built, and there are no road markings on the streets, no overhead cables, and no TV arials or satellite dishes to spoil the view. The village has been used as a location for many films, the most famous being 'Whistle Down the Wind' starring Alan Bates and Hayley Mills, also, according to adamant locals, the surrounding area was the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings saga. The BBC chose it to film the series 'Born and Bred' It is also associated with Old Mother Demdike, Alice Nutter and other infamous Lancashire witches".

With the leaves falling from the trees and the days getting shorter (bike lights needed last week) it has been good to catch up with birds local to Firwood. A few greylag geese have started roosting at Loch Garten and generally there are now a few hundred in the fields round about. A walk round the village, Mondhuie Wood and along a bit of the Speyside Way last weekend produced 38 species of birds, including the first brambling of the autumn, a high count of 12+ reed buntings, 140 lapwings still with us, a few whooper swans and small groups of redwings and fieldfares. Woodcock on the roads as it gets dark and 10 blackbirds feeding amongst the pine needles on the same roads on Thursday, show we have just have an arrival of continental birds. A kingfisher on the River Dulnain at Carrbridge was unusual.

Come the end of the month and the biggest surveys in the UK bird world gets underway the British Trust for Ornithology's atlas of winter birds followed in the spring by the breeding atlas. I took a sabbatical during the last breeding atlas survey in 1990 and spent a month surveying the Morvern peninsula and the Isle of Coll. The current two atlases will run from 2007 to 2011 and in this first year of survey work I have signed up for five 'tetrads' local to Nethybridge. No doubt there will be requests for surveys further afield as the years go by and some of the less populated areas need special effort to get the data. If you would like to get involved go to: http://www.bto.org/birdatlas/taking_part/index.htm, you will enjoy it and perhaps get to places you would never normally visit.

That's it, enjoy the read

best wishes

Stewart & Janet

A few of the last factory chimneys in Accrington, Lancashire

All photos © Stewart Taylor