Nethybridge a week ago seem to have disappeared and so far only one swift has been heard - very strange. One willow warbler one day and a wood full the next. The first redstart was followed ten days later by the first spotted flycatcher and now their zip-zip-zip calls can be heard in many places in the forest. A grasshopper warbler in Mondhuie Wood was unusual and a single whooper swan on the Spey on 1 May looked like it might be staying here for the summer. A single whooper summered on Lochindorb last year so, possibly, this is the same one. A walk round the tetrad (4 one kilometre squares) roughly covering Firwood and Mondhuie Wood on 1 May produced 49 bird species, not bad within a mile of the house! Sadly, 'Have I got news for you', on Radio 4 will never quite be the same with the passing of Humph Lyttleton on 25 April. Many a time I wondered what passing motorists thought as they passed a single person in a car laughing his head off as Humph flew close to the wind with one of his Samantha jokes or the team as they suggested names for the folk attending the undertakers ball! Brilliant and a great loss. For a period of time Humph was also President of the RSPB in recognition of his love of birds. Not a bad musician either.Following the sad news, a bit of good news: The Isle of Lewis windfarm planning application has been refused, safeguarding an amazing part of the island for the internationally important wildlife it supports. Lets hope the Scottish Executive is brave enough to do the same with Donald Trump's plan to convert an equally important section of the Aberdeenshire coast into a golf course, or is it the 100s of houses and the big hotel that is the real motive? It's a little sad that folk see these large tracts of unspoilt countryside as 'waste-lands' ripe for development. Perhaps the credit crunch will help here.
It's that time of year when huge amounts of effort go into recording and monitoring wildlife as we progress rapidly into the growing and breeding season. The five bird Atlas tetrads I have taken on have just had their first breeding season visits completed, just a second visit to complete during June, though we are allowed to record as late as July. The visit to each tetrad takes two hours, which is timed so that all participants are collecting data in the same way, allowing BTO staff at a later date to analyse the data to extract the maximum amount of information possible from the huge effort that is going on nationally to collect it. However, you 
will have to wait for four years for all the maps, data etc to be available, the fieldwork continues until 2011. The first of two visits was also made to my BTO 'Breeding Bird Square', a one-kilometre square located on moorland just north of Grantown on Spey. As explaind last year all through the country a series of these squares were selected at random and then an appeal went out for folk to visit them. I am the second person to cover this particular square and this is the fourth year I have visited it. Being a moorland square there are not that many birds to record, but, this is the beauty of the method of one-kilometre square selection, covering many s
quares that bird recorders would never normally visit. It is from this project that many of our national 'bird trend' statistics are obtained and, the longer the set of data, the more valuable becomes the information showing increase of declines in bird numbers at a UK scale. It's an early start and for my square, a long trek, but the views all around are well worth the effort as you can see from the photos (left, a view to the Cairngorms and right to Ben Rinnes).
will have to wait for four years for all the maps, data etc to be available, the fieldwork continues until 2011. The first of two visits was also made to my BTO 'Breeding Bird Square', a one-kilometre square located on moorland just north of Grantown on Spey. As explaind last year all through the country a series of these squares were selected at random and then an appeal went out for folk to visit them. I am the second person to cover this particular square and this is the fourth year I have visited it. Being a moorland square there are not that many birds to record, but, this is the beauty of the method of one-kilometre square selection, covering many s
quares that bird recorders would never normally visit. It is from this project that many of our national 'bird trend' statistics are obtained and, the longer the set of data, the more valuable becomes the information showing increase of declines in bird numbers at a UK scale. It's an early start and for my square, a long trek, but the views all around are well worth the effort as you can see from the photos (left, a view to the Cairngorms and right to Ben Rinnes).A bit more early morning work involves counting the black grouse leks within Abernethy Forest, one count in April (5am start) and one in first week of May (4am start). Again the effort of an early morning start is well worth it (provided it's not pouring down) and the drive out through the forest in the dark, well almost dark with the first signs of dawn on the horizon, is always full of anticipation - more birds than last year or less? The lek I have counted for the last ten years or so, is one of the more remote and involves a bit of a hike to get to the location where you can actually see the birds. The May count this year was carried out in the warmest weather I have yet encountered, more noticeable
e because of the long-johns and woolly vest being worn to supposedly keep out the cold. 10 degrees C! 10 degrees C at 4.30am is unheard of, and clothes had to be shed on the way in to the count location. Then the pink glow of dawn crept across the hillside as I sat counting the lekking birds and all was well with the world, despite the slightly damp clothes. On the April count a fox carrying food crossed the lek but didn't seem to worry the birds, and on the May count a buzzard flew over the lek scattering birds everywhere - was it trying to catch one? I don't know, but within a couple of minutes the birds were back and sparring between the males started up again as though nothing had happened. Magic. Overall, the number of lekking males was down slightly on 2007, not surprising when, due to the very wet summer, few chicks survived from the previous breeding season.
e because of the long-johns and woolly vest being worn to supposedly keep out the cold. 10 degrees C! 10 degrees C at 4.30am is unheard of, and clothes had to be shed on the way in to the count location. Then the pink glow of dawn crept across the hillside as I sat counting the lekking birds and all was well with the world, despite the slightly damp clothes. On the April count a fox carrying food crossed the lek but didn't seem to worry the birds, and on the May count a buzzard flew over the lek scattering birds everywhere - was it trying to catch one? I don't know, but within a couple of minutes the birds were back and sparring between the males started up again as though nothing had happened. Magic. Overall, the number of lekking males was down slightly on 2007, not surprising when, due to the very wet summer, few chicks survived from the previous breeding season. 
A funny thing happened when I was in the forest the other day, I came across someone (right) who has been in the news recently but seemed to be in trouble, up to his neck in a bog. Read on for the answer!
The mosses work continues, and with so many green shield-moss sites now available to monitor, a few interesting facts are starting to emerge. So far this growing season, 55 sites have been found with about 270 capsules recorded. Within the Abernethy area I have been able to visit all the logs more than once - the first visit when they were found (some as early as November 2007) and a re-visit of all the logs during the last week. Thirty six logs are involved and the first count total was 171 capsules. The recent visit found that 102 capsules are still growing showing a loss of about 40%. The real loss is actually very much bigger as a count of 144 stalks (mosses that have lost their capsules) shows that predation rates in the early part of winter is very high. In the last couple of months some mosses have been lost to sheep damage, the animals managing to knock off the moss and bark on which it was growing. The capsules are also changing colour, from bright green during the winter to a dull brown/green now. A few capsules have disintegrated, one looking like it has exploded, all have been photographed as we still know very little about this stage of the capsules' life-cycle. The capsules are also moving from being upright to tilting at an angle of about 45 degrees looking ever more like its close relative the brown shield-moss Buxbaumia aphylla. Now there is a story!
A few weeks ago I receive information from Sandy, a real moss (bryophyte) expert, saying that B
uxbaumia aphylla had been found on Deeside, close to Crathie Church. Now Crathie Church is next door to Balmoral Castle and is the church that members of the Royal Family attend when in residence at Balmoral. So, one Sunday in late April I decided to set off early one morning to go to Deeside, but spend a bit of time on the wonderful moors between Tomintoul and Deeside to see if I could get a few pictures of red grouse or anything else that came close enough to photograph. After many stops (using the car as a photo hide) I managed to find one red grouse that didn't want to fly away as soon as I got the camera in position and got a nice picture. Eventually I arrived on Deeside about 10am, parking my car in the car park next to Crathie Church. As I parked I thought it a bit odd that there seemed to be police everywhere and then the penny dropped! I had decided to go and see the moss on a day when there had to be a member of the Royal Family in residence at Balmoral. So let me set the scene. There's this bloke, on a car park, on Deeside, by a church where Prince Charles and Camilla are just about to attend a service. He is loading a large rucksa
c with gear and on the outside he straps a tripod. He also has binoculars round his neck! As I leave the car park I explain to the police woman what I am up to, she says that the police up by the church might want to speak to me, which of course they do. I showed them my driving licence, and am asked to empty my rucksac, but can I remember the registration of my car? Not quite. I tell them I have met Charles a couple of times and that I'd been driven round Balmoral estate by his dad but decide it is time to stop digging! Eventually everything is sorted and they are happy to let me go on my way. I get the feeling that many eyes are watching me but from where I know not, especially when I need to stop for a pee and I need to get my GPS handset out to help me find the right stump! I do find the stump, I find five not four capsules as reported and with brilliant sunshine overhead, I get some very nice photographs of the moss. On my way back to the car the police stop me again - but this time because Prince Charles and Camilla are just departing (so no photo for the diary) and it would be best if I just waited for a few minutes. I show the two policemen my photos and it turns out that one of them was involved in a visit to the estate where I had found the poisoned buzzard back in January. Small world. So sorry, with all the stops I don't have a nice picture of the church and I thought better of asking one of the policemen to take my picture whilst talking to his colleague!
I was involved in a very interesting day at Abernethy in late April organised by Plantlife (http://www.plantlife.org.uk/), a deadwood and green shield-moss (Buxbaumia viridis) training day. An indoor session in the morning was followed by lunch at one of the log sites close to Forest Lodge where we could show them the moss. We then visited another site and let the delegates know that we knew of two
logs with capsules in this bit of wood, and asked if they could find them? Well, they did much better than that and Liz and Alison actually found two additional sites with a total of four more capsules. Claire also managed to find one of the original logs and then went one better by visiting her own patch on Deeside a few days later and found another log with a capsule there. Brilliant, and worthy of their picture being included in the diary. Normally it would be illegal to do what Joe is doing (right) because it is illegal to pick or remove green shield-moss capsules, 
but this "bark divot" with capsule is the result of sheep damage. Amazingly, the bark was put back on the log and the capsule continues to grow. The day after the course I came across a wood ant nest that had been damaged and went to investigate. Guess what, the ant nest had been long deserted by the ants but there, growing out of the side of the nest where five green shield-moss capsules (left), something that hadn't been recorded in the UK before. Where should we look next! And that wasn't the end of the story. I checked another two deserted ant nests close by and both had capsules growing on them. A wood ant nest is made up of thousands of twigs, pine needles and bits of grit so isn't that different from a lump of deadwood. Not only that, but large nests like the ones that had the capsules are very ancient structures, the nest in the picture is over a metre high and a metre and a half across its base and must be decades old. It will be interesting to see if new capsules appear in November.A work colleague came across a sad sight last week. He noticed s
omething pale by the side of the track to Forest Lodge and when he went to investigate he found a dead pine marten, probably hit by a vehicle. It is only when you get close to a predator like this that you realise what a powerful animal the pine marten is, the close up of the dead animals head (right) show a very impressive set of teeth. Ross was also involved in the first round of goldeneye nest box checks last week and in one box he found a sleeping marten, which, on closer inspection turned out to be a young animal. We loose several clutches of goldeneye eggs to martens every year but whether they alone are responsible for the decline in our breeding goldeneye population we just don't know. It was a good job he looked before putting his hand in the box!
No, this isn't the answer to the question posed earlier but shows the diary writer using a natural bridge to cross the River Nethy. Quite handy really as the melting snow in the Cairngorms had pushed up the height of the river to above wellie height and saved having to get wet feet! Just before crossing the 'bridge' I saw my first painted lady butterfly of the year and round about there were several green hairstreak butterflies along with green-veined whites, orange tips and small tortoiseshells. The first damselflies - large reds - have also been on the wing.
Of course, it's the new Mayor of London pretending to be a tussock of cotton grass! A week later and I would have had to include a cycle helmet.
That's it for another couple of weeks, enjoy the read.
Best wishes
Stewart & Janet
The one & only The Famous GrouseAll photos © Stewart Taylor
